“We are cheaper, so they hire us” : discounted nativeness in online English teaching

Abstract

This article considers the rapidly expanding online market for English teaching. Drawing on interviews with 11 Filipino online English teachers and the first author's own experiences teaching English online, we examine how teachers feel under the conditions of precarity they experience in the gig economy for language teaching. In addressing the experiences of Filipino teachers, we introduce the notion of “discounted nativeness.” Discounted nativeness describes Filipino teachers’ ambivalent position within the online English teaching industry: platforms take advantage of Filipino teachers' high levels of English proficiency—up to and including passing them off as American teachers—while the teachers experience discrimination from students and maltreatment by the platforms. The article concludes by discussing the need for sustained research into the burgeoning market for online language teaching.