Chapter 12 Unsilencing “Not Native Enough” Experiences via a Duoethnography between South Asian International Students

In: Autoethnographies of Border-Crossing and In-Betweenness of International Doctoral Students’ Voices in the United States
Authors:
Saurabh Anand
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Lakmini Grant Siriwardana
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Abstract

We, as two international doctoral students and language educators from South Asia in the United States (U.S.), have encountered situations where we had been told in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that we were not ‘native enough’ for the U.S. academia because of our Englishes. This chapter, which mushroomed from our cursory conversation, shares our experiences related to studying in the U.S., where our Englishes were often exoticized. We collected data via emails and weekly zoom meetings, by exchanging our experiences of broader U.S. institutional rules and social restraints related to our Englishes. While analyzing our stories inductively, we observed how we employed our agencies to emerge as more resilient, nourished, and confident in our Englishes. In that light, we chose Tran and Vu’s (2018) Agency in Mobility as our theoretical framework and duoethnography as our methodology to retell and interpret those experiences. We hope our journeys help other international students to reflect on their struggles as they attempt to acknowledge their Englishes, leading to rebuilding their agencies.

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