ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a doctoral study that explored the complex positionality of native English-speaking academics in Japan. It focuses on the early Japan-based career trajectories of 19 participants, who worked in non-university English language teaching environments before obtaining university-based positions. The chapter explores how English-speaking academics “traded on” their positionality in order to gain initial employment as migrant workers in English language teaching contexts outside the university sector. In Japan, government internationalisation policy conceptualises the English language as the international language necessary for interaction with people around the world, including with people whose first languages are not Japanese. The chapter discusses participants’ motivations for working as English language teachers outside the university sector. English linguistic imperialism and native speaker fallacy seemed to enable the initial career pathways of these participants. For most of the participants in our study, employment as English language teachers at private English language institutes and schools offered a first step to academic work in Japan.
