Language Ideologies Through a Global Englishes Lens: Perspectives from Discipline-Specific Lecturers at a Regional Thai University

Abstract

This study explores English language ideologies among discipline-specific lecturers at a regional campus of a public university in central Thailand. Through semi-structured interviews with 24 lecturers from various fields, including science and technology, engineering, agricultural sciences, business, and social sciences, this research examines how these lecturers perceive English in their teaching and professional practices. The findings reveal that lecturers engage in patterned but uneven negotiation of English use across different contexts. In high-stakes situations shaped by institutional constraints—proficiency requirements, graduation benchmarks, and employment demands—they adhere to native-speaker standards, reflecting both neoliberal commodification of English as measurable human capital and native-speakerism ideologies. Conversely, in professional communication among colleagues, they adopt flexible practices of English as a lingua franca where mutual understanding is prioritized and institutional native-speaker ideologies are irrelevant. This study also demonstrates that awareness of English diversity is more likely to emerge from real-life exposure to multilingual communication than formal training. However, this awareness is insufficient to challenge institutional constraints that privilege native-speaker standards. This research sheds light on how lecturers negotiate between institutional constraints and communicative realities in uneven ways, offering implications for Global Englishes implementation within and beyond English language classrooms.