Moreover, it was unclear to my how this history exemplified the “native speaker fallacy,” i. e. that native speakers are better teachers, as, in the end, it was the non-native speakers (the Britons) who considered themselves the knowers, although they lacked linguistic competence.

As a history of language teaching in early nineteenth century India, it was quite nice.

I agree with everything you said. I did study other languages and draw on that experience when I teach sometimes. It does help to put yourself in your students’ place.

I remember working with a teacher who was a native speaker some years back. She had spent some time in a particular country where it seemed to me that they boosted her ego. She was a great teacher, but she also seemed to get caught up in this fantasy that her being a native speaker somehow gave her special powers. So I believe that sometimes non-native speakers put native speakers on a pedestal without necessarily realizing their own worth and therefore contributing to the problem.

I also remember one of my former colleagues from India who didn’t seem to realize her worth even though the few native speakers that were there often sought out her advice and knowledge.

Actually, I believe that one way to do this is to teach our students some of these ideas. When I was teaching phonetics, I would point out that it was important to be clear and that it was not expected of them to sound like me or any other native speaker. We want them to understand how the sounds are made and to be clear enough in their speech to be understood.

Also, nowadays, it’s more important than ever to expose students to different varieties of English or any language being taught because it represents the real world. And it’s even true of native speakers because we all know that no two native speakers are alike nor do they speak exactly the same even when they’re from the same country. I also believe that attitudes need to change from all sides. This means the attitudes of those who believe they are superior because they were born into the language as well as those who have been told and convinced of the very same idea.

That’s my humble opinion.

Thanks!

Thanks, Richard! The key point of the case study is that the native vs non-native teacher debate is not about language. Whatever one may think of the case-study, the British were effective in displacing one group of privileged knowers of a language with another group … is there a “practical lesson or techniques that we can use to fight the problem of native-speakerism today” in the post? That’s for readers to decide 🙂 … phenomena like Chinese superstar cram school English teachers certainly seem to indicate that transformations are underway …

So sorry to hear that! Keep up the good work and best wishes! And we always welcome guest bloggers with novel perspectives on language learning, intercultural communication and multilingualism … 🙂

I read the blog post you mentioned, and it’s a shame. I can honestly say that no matter how “American” I sound, often people cannot seem to see past my scarf or the color of my skin. It’s so bad at times that I am even unable to convince people that I do not have any other origins. It wasn’t so long ago that I applied for a job and got an email back saying they only hired native speakers which made me laugh. In any case, thank you for the interesting posts and topics.

Thanks, Amal Ibrahim, for your comment! That native speaker status is very much embodied is further evidence that discussions about who makes the better teacher are not about language at all … have you seen this blog post about English language teaching and race?