ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that non-native speaker (NNS) college teachers of Arabic value their group membership as NNS practitioners despite the challenges of juggling the teaching loads within institutional contexts where they are subject to anxiety because of lack of support and mentorship. Implications for research point to the need for Arabic language programs to revisit the language-culture dichotomy and provide preservice teachers with strategies to cope with the challenges of their classrooms and the realities of their institutional settings. The chapter examines the perceptions of two NNS teachers of Arabic and their understanding of culture in the language classroom. It reviews the literature on language and culture in the world language classroom, NNS teachers' characteristics, and NNS teacher identity. The communicative approach to language teaching emphasized teaching linguistic skills in the world language classroom. Language teacher identity construction in second language acquisition (SLA) has gained prominence in the last decade.
