Language learners, and English language learners in particular, always want to achieve language proficiency as good as native speakers. There are many videos on YouTube and articles on Medium with titles like “How to speak English as a native speaker” or “how to achieve native speaker proficiency levels”. You’ve probably clicked on this article for the same reason. However, we need to talk about this native speaker thing.
Native-speakerism: discriminating within the field of ELT?
There is a notion in the field of English language teaching (ELT) called ‘native-speakerism’, which is the idea that “native-speaker teachers represent a ‘Western culture’ from which spring the ideals both of the English language and of English language teaching methodology” (Holliday, 2006).
The idea that non-native-speaker teachers are poorer teachers compared to native-speaker teachers is posited by those who feel native speakers have a somewhat divine right to teach “their” language.
As such, native-speakerism seeps through everything ELT related: from the teachers to the variety of English that is taught. Some believe the latter is a reminiscence of colonialism and the idea that inner-circle countries such as the US, the UK, and Australia own English.
Holliday (2017) goes even further and labels native-speakerism as a racist practice, albeit based on critical sociology, and some research shows that in the world of ELT, being perceived as a native-speaker teacher is linked to being white and Western-looking (Kiczkowiak & Lowe, 2021).
The fact remains, however, that native-speakerism paves the way for discrimination towards non-native-speaker teachers, who might be rejected because they are non-native speakers.
