#10 Challenging 'native speakerism'

In the latest Earn Learn Thrive LinkedIn Live, ‘Is being a non native speaker teacher really a problem in 2023?’ I talked to Meri Maroutian , otherwise known as ‘The Non Native Speaker’, about the issue of native speakerism, a persistent ideology withing ELT, which holds that native speakers are somehow the ideal or perfect teacher, and/or that they are the model to which all others should aspire.

Thirty minutes was, of course, nowhere near long enough to discuss this, but rather than paraphrase some of the excellent points Meri made, I recommend watching the interview (link at the end) and reading the comments.

As someone for whom English is my first language, I am well aware that I have been in a privileged position within ELT simply because I learnt English unconsciously as a very small child, rather than by studying it. Put like that the ridiculousness of the bias against those in the latter group becomes very clear.

I like to think that these days, with a lot of experience and qualifications under my belt, and a speaker of several other languages, I am as good as a well qualified L2 teacher of English, but this was certainly not always the case. I’m quite sure that I was principally hired for my first teaching job in a small private language school in Portugal, 30 years ago, simply because I was a native speaker.

I was 22, had done a 4 week training course, didn’t really understand my own language very well, and didn’t speak any Portuguese. So, why did the school want to hire me, rather than a local teacher?

Here are my guesses:

1. They felt that it would help their marketing to say they had all native speaker teachers (It wasn’t illegal then). Why would they think this?

For many years potential students and their parents were told that native speakers were the ideal, because they could learn more idiomatic and up to date English from them, and pick up their accents.

Now, it has to be said that at that time, pre-internet, it might in fact have been the case that local teachers’ language was not quite as up to date. I had a colleague in Brazil (a year or two later) whose English was amazing, but, having mainly learnt it from listening to the World Service, it was also very plummy and a little old-fashioned for his age. Nowadays though, there is constant and unlimited access to a wide variety of English language pretty much everywhere, which means that native speakers are no longer like missionaries bringing the ‘word’.

There has also been a huge shift in how English is perceived, and a realisation that those from the ‘inner circle' English speaking countries do not own the language, and don’t get to say how it should develop or how it should be pronounced.

So, neither of those reasons really hold water any more.

2. Secondly, the myth of the native speaker was also quite a handy business model for many small language schools, because they could take on young teachers who were grateful for the opportunity to travel, and be allowed to earn money, and would therefore accept low wages, lack of healthcare, social security, pensions and all the other inconvenient things that local teachers might expect. And if they weren’t any good, then you could just hire new ones the following year. (Of course a ‘non native speaker teacher’ doesn’t have to be local, but you get my point).

So, it isn’t actually in anyone’s interest, whether English is the first language or not, for this to be the hiring model. It de-professionalises the whole industry.

Things have changed and are changing, but I do believe that we all need to be addressing and challenging these assumptions and beliefs, and focusing firmly on what makes a competent English language teacher, who deserves to be treated and paid well, for doing a professional job. We’re not on different sides in this, and a ‘divide’ only makes us weaker as a profession.

- So, if you’re a language school owner who is telling themselves that ‘this is what the parents want’, then ask yourself how you are contributing to making this what they want, and how you could start to shift these perceptions, and help them to see what a good teacher REALLY consists of.

- If you’re an L1 speaker of English, don’t use that fact to get students, because you’re just encouraging prejudice. I get that it’s tempting, when so many students tell you that’s what they want, but I imagine you wouldn’t advertise yourself as white (if you are) because some people would prefer that, right?!

- If you’re an L2 speaker of English teacher, check to what extent you have internalised the narratives around native and non-native speakers. It wouldn’t be surprising, given that it’s everywhere. If you ever experience imposter syndrome, remember that one of the main causes of this is not some inherent character flaw, but a reaction to what society is telling you- that you aren’t quite as good, or don’t quite belong. It’s no co-incidence that more marginalised groups experience imposter syndrome more frequently.

Let’s all educate ourselves. And a great place to start would be listening to Meri Maroutian in the live I referred to earlier, and elsewhere.

Here’s the link to the live:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:7033727787563642880/

And here’s the link to her website:

https://thenonnativespeaker.com/

The next Earn Learn Thrive LinkedIn Live will be on Wednesday 15th March at 2.00-2.30pm UK time. I’ll be talking to Nicola Prentis ?? of The Chilled Investor, about her experience of setting up a group programme. If that’s something you’re doing or have considered doing, you’ll want to be there.