Three Language Schools, Same Mission, One NNEST: Native-Speakerism in the Discourses of Three Private Language Schools

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how private language schools reproduce or resist native-speakerism through public-facing discourses of three language schools where I also worked: British Town (Turkey), Canadian College (Colombia), and Approach International Student Center (Boston). Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, I analyzed websites and job advertisements through an integrated framework: Selvi’s job-ad coding of discriminatory language, Fairclough’s three-dimensional CDA, and Kress & van Leeuwen’s visual grammar. Data consisted of public facing school discourses and screenshots of institutional pages and recruitment posts; analysis combined deductive codes (e.g., nativeness requirements, citizenship/passport filters, credential talk) with inductive themes in text-image pairings. The findings indicate that Turkey and Colombia explicitly and implicitly convey preference for native or foreign speakers by implementing British, US, and Canadian symbols; images of international (white) teachers; and different tiers of language course packages that indicate access to native or bicultural educators is superior and more valuable. By contrast, the Boston site centers qualifications, mentoring, and mission fit; job language avoids “native” requirements, and the staff page displays significant diversity. The patterns across cases hint at how market branding, rules, and school goals all work together. This research introduces a single, integrated coding model for websites and ads. Limitations include three cases and public texts only; future work should connect discourse to HR records and pay scales across sites and over time.