key concepts in elt

Native-speakerism
Adrian Holliday

Native-speakerism is a pervasive ideology within E LT, characterized by the

belief 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 2005). Use of the concept follows
a now established concern about political inequalities within ELT (for

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example, Canagarajah 1999, Kubota 2001, Pennycook 1994). However,
other attempts to capture this inequality, for example ‘Centre’ vs. ‘Periphery’
(Phillipson 1992) and ‘B A NA’ vs. ‘T E S E P’ (Holliday 1994), have suffered
from binary regional or cultural overgeneralization. Native-speakerism is
seen instead as a divisive force which originates within particular
educational cultures within the English-speaking West. While the adoption
of and resistance to the ideology take place to a greater or lesser degree
throughout the E LT world, the ‘native speaker’ ideal plays a widespread and
complex iconic role outside as well as inside the English-speaking West.
Although some regard the terms ‘native-’ and ‘non-native speaker’ as
unviable on linguistic grounds (for example, Jenkins 2000: 8–9) and
constructed for the preservation of a privileged in-group (for example,
Braine 1999: xv, citing Kramsch), they have a very real currency within the
popular discourse of E LT. What is important is that their everyday use
reveals how the profession thinks about itself. That there is often a lack of
awareness of their deeper political significance is indicative of the way in
which ideologies typically operate (Fairclough 1995: 36). As a result, native-
speakerist prejudice is often obscured by the apparent liberalism of ‘a nice
field like TESOL’ (Kubota 2001, 2002). Throughout this article, thus, ‘native
speaker’ and ‘non-native speaker’ have been placed in inverted commas
in recognition of their ideological construction.
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’,

E LT Journal Volume 60/4 October 2006; doi:10.1093/elt/ccl030 385

ª The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
 ‘reluctant to challenge authority’, ‘easily dominated’, ‘undemocratic’, or
‘traditional’ and, in effect, uncritical and unthinking (Holliday 2005: 19,
Pennycook 2002, Kubota 2001). Although such descriptions are claimed to
be the result of professional observation, their ideological, prejudicial nature
becomes apparent when they recur almost indiscriminately in much E LT
professional talk, literature, and training, regardless of the specific ‘culture’
being described (Kubota 2001, Holliday 2005: 19). Such descriptions thus
represent an imagined, problematic generalized Other to the unproblematic
Self of the ‘native speaker’.
This cultural reduction, or culturism, falls within the broader chauvinistic
narrative of Orientalism (Said 1978). The colonialist myth of the
‘autonomous’, ‘organized’, ‘inventive’ Robinson Crusoe ‘civilizing’ Man
Friday (Pennycook 1998: 10–16) is implicit in the native-speakerist ‘moral
mission’ to bring a ‘superior’ culture of teaching and learning to students
and colleagues who are perceived not to be able to succeed on their own
terms. The apparent liberalism of learner-centredness conceals the

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manipulative attempt to improve learner behaviour. The emphasis on close
monitoring, ‘learner training’ and precise methodological staging in
current practice can be seen as hiding a subtle agenda aimed at ‘correcting’
‘non-native speaker’ culture (Anderson 2005), one which can be traced back
to the behaviourist lockstep of the structural or audiolingual approach
(Holliday 2005: 39).
The undoing of native-speakerism requires a type of thinking that promotes
new relationships. This is already evident in discussions concerning the
ownership of English and the reassessment of who we are after 9/11.1 It is
argued in the conclusion to Holliday (2005) that native-speakerism needs to
be addressed at the level of the prejudices embedded in everyday practice,
and that dominant professional discourses must be put aside if the
meanings and realities of students and colleagues from outside the
English-speaking West are to be understood.

Note Fairclough, N. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis:

1 I refer here to a range of papers delivered at The Critical Study of Language. London: Addison
the 2002 American Association of Applied Wesley Longman.
Linguistics and T E S O L conventions by such as Holliday, A. R. 1994. Appropriate Methodology and
Kachru, Widdowson, Carey, Shuck, Norton, Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Lopriore and Smallwood, Gray, Luk, Sharkey, Press.
Hartford et al., Vandrick, and Kubota (Holliday Holliday, A. R. 2005. The Struggle to Teach English
2005: 15). as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
References Jenkins, J. 2000. The Phonology of English as an
Anderson, A. 2005. Problematizing ‘Learner- International Language: New Models, New Norms,
Centredness’ in T ES O L Professional Discourse and New Goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Practice. Unpublished paper, Department of Kubota, R. 2001. ‘Discursive construction of the
Language Studies, Canterbury Christ Church images of US classrooms’. T E S O L Quarterly 35/1:
University. 9–37.
Braine, G. 1999. Non-native Educators in English Kubota, R. 2002. ‘(Un)ravelling racism in a nice
Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. field like T ES O L’. T E S O L Quarterly 36/1: 84–92.
Canagarajah, S. 1999. Resisting Linguistic Pennycook, A. 1994. The Cultural Politics of English
Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. as an International Language. London: Longman.

386 Adrian Holliday

Pennycook, A. 1998. English and the Discourses of The author
Colonialism. London: Routledge. Adrian Holliday is Professor of Applied Linguistics
Pennycook, A. 2000. ‘Development, culture and at Canterbury Christ Church University. He
language: ethical concerns in a postcolonial supervises doctoral research in the critical
world’. Proceedings of the 4th International sociology of E LT and has published in the areas of
Conference on Language and Development. intercultural communication and qualitative
Retrieved 29 December 2005 from: http:// research methodology. He was a British Council
www.languages.ait.ac.th/hanoi/pennycook.htm teacher in Iran in the 1970s and a university
Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: curriculum developer in Egypt and Syria in the
Oxford University Press. 1980s.
Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.

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Key concept: Native-speakerism 387