91ÊÓƵ

The Color of Fluency

How do race and ideas about "nativeness" affect who gets to teach English—and how they’re treated when they do? MA candidate John Odudele tackles this question in his thesis defense, Exploring the Intersection of Race and Native Speakerism in English Language Teaching: Experiences of Black African Teachers in Turkey, which he will present on April 17, 2025, from 9 AM to 12 PM in Gruening 503H and via Zoom. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Odudele’s research fills a critical gap in applied linguistics: the experiences of Black African English teachers (BAETs) working abroad, specifically in Turkey. Drawing on twelve in-depth interviews, his findings reveal that racial discrimination often outweighs language-based prejudice. While all participants were fluent and professionally qualified, they reported being paid less, subjected to racial slurs, and viewed as less authoritative than their White colleagues—even when their credentials surpassed them.

By applying frameworks from Foucault, Bourdieu, and raciolinguistic theory, Odudele examines how power, race, and language ideologies intersect to systematically devalue the expertise of Black teachers. His work challenges prevailing assumptions about who gets to count as a "native speaker" and why that matters in classrooms across the globe.

John Odudele is completing his MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of 91ÊÓƵ Fairbanks, a program that combines linguistic theory with real-world application across multiple educational and cross-cultural settings. The program emphasizes fieldwork, critical inquiry, and social justice in language education—exemplified by work like Odudele’s.