Native-speakerism: Taking the Concept Forward and Achieving Cultural Belief

Abstract

This chapter maintains that native-speakerism damages the entire ELT profession as well as popular perceptions of English and culture. It represents a widespread cultural disbelief— a disbelief in the cultural contribution of teachers who have been labelled ‘non-native speakers’. This label not only describes a relationship with English but also implies a cultural deficiency derived from non-Western stereotypes. Native-speakerism also demeans ‘native speaker’ teachers who themselves become commodities to serve an industry which is hungry for the ‘native speaker’ ideal. While the ‘non-native speaker’ label may have more neutral connotations with other languages, with respect to English it relates to a global politics which gives it neo-racist meaning. Although the native-non-native speaker division is well-established as a problem, as an ideology, native-speakerism has almost disappeared between the lines of our everyday professional lives. This is particularly damaging because issues may appear to have been solved when in fact they have not. Kumaravadivelu (in press) therefore argues that native-speakerism represents an unresponsive ‘native speaker’ hegemony, against which the ‘non-native speaker’ subaltern must take action. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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