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native speakerism

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Definition:

The established belief (or bias) that native speakers of a language (with or without teaching credentials) are better qualified to teach that language than non-native speakers.

See also:

Examples and Observations:

  • "The discourse of native speakerism is made of the following assumptions: that 'native' speakers are the authorities of the language and enjoy superior competence; that those who use it as an additional language have to treat 'native' speaker competence as the target; and that 'native' speakers are the best qualified to teach that language. Among those who justify the inherent superiority of 'native' speakers, one can mention Prator (1968) and Quirk (1990). They treat the varieties spoken by multilingual speakers as interlanguages attempting to approximate the 'native' speaker norm. However, other scholars argue against native speakerism (see Valdes 1986; Kachru 1991; Braine 1991; Canagharajah 1999a). They point out that the superiority of the 'native' speaker is linguistically anachronistic as it goes against the relativistic tradition in linguistics that postulates that there are no status differences between languages in purely linguistic terms (though there are extra-linguistic reasons for such inequality). Furthermore, languages in situations of contact will always undergo modes of appropriation and, eventually, localization."
    (Suresh Canagarajah and Selim Ben Said, "Linguistic Imperialism." The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics, ed. by James Simpson. Routledge, 2011)


  • "The impact of native-speakerism can be seen in many aspects of professional life, from employment policy to the presentation of language. An underlying theme is the ‘othering’ of students and colleagues from outside the English-speaking West according to essentialist regional or religious cultural stereotypes, especially when they have difficulty with the specific types of active, collaborative, and self-directed ‘learner-centred’ teaching–learning techniques that have frequently been constructed and packaged as superior within the English speaking West. Such a perspective is native-speakerist because it negatively and confiningly labels what are in effect ‘non-native speaker’ ‘cultures’ as ‘dependent,’ ‘hierarchical,' ‘collectivist,’ ‘reticent,’ ‘indirect,’ ‘passive,’ ‘docile,’ ‘lacking in self esteem,’ ‘reluctant to challenge authority,’ ‘easily dominated,’ ‘undemocratic,’ or ‘traditional’ and, in effect, uncritical and unthinking (Holliday 2005: 19, Pennycook 2002, Kubota 2001)."
    (Adrian Holliday, "Native-Speakerism." ELT Journal, 2006)


  • "The artificial construct of the separation between native speakers and non-native speakers in language teaching . . . has been recently dealt with by several researchers who have used two major arguments to eliminate such a discrimination: (a) minimizing any perceived differences between the two groups; and (b) vindicating the role of the non-native speaker as a rightful language teacher."
    (Enric Llurda, "The Decline and Fall of the Native Speaker." Contemporary Applied Linguistics: Language Teaching and Learning, ed. by Li Wei and Vivian Cook. Continuum, 2009)
  • "In the early 90s, in his book Linguistic Imperialism, Robert Phillipson . . . questioned the native speaker's superiority as a teacher. He wasn't convinced that English was best taught by a native speaker.

    "More recently, research by sociolinguist Jennifer Jenkins has added to a native-speaker 'demise' by suggesting that any international form of English would not be the product of the mother-tongue countries. Instead, she lists a 'core' English, based on the Englishes of non-native speakers. She says that 'non-core' items that are irrelevant to the intelligibility of the language can be omitted from the classroom.

    "If non-native speakers are shaping the future of English, it follows that they will be better equipped to teach it. And this means that native-speaker teachers' days are numbered. In countries with developed English programmes, it is often the non-native speaker (the person who actually 'learned' rather than 'grew up with' the language) who gets the job."
    (John Hughes, "Fall of the Native Speaker." The Guardian, Dec. 5, 2007)
  • "[S]adly, below the radar of awareness, native-speakerism continues unabated among well-meaning TESOL professionals. On an annual basis, I meet experienced, well-travelled ESOL teachers at the beginning of an MA programme for whom the genetic superiority of the native speaker has never been questioned."
    (Julian Edge, The Reflexive Teacher Educator in Tesol: Roots and Wings. Routledge, 2011)

Also Known As: native-speaker fallacy
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