Abstract

*Bayazit O. Avci, Nabi Ayse YeÅ?ilçay and Gökhan N. AkdoÄ?an

Despite the realization that the majority uses of English occur in contexts where English serves as a lingua franca, the “native speaker” authority is still prevalent in the field of English language teaching, especially in EFL contexts. The present case study was conducted with three Turkish teachers of English and investigated their opinions on the native speaker/non-native speaker dichotomy over an eighteen month period. Data collected by means of interviews revealed that there is still a lot of work to be done to empower novice English teachers, encourage them to rethink their roles in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and help them overcome the deficit model of their own professional competence.