Blame the Message Senders Not the Messenger: The Defence Case of the English “Native Speaker” Teacher

Abstract

This article investigates how “native speaker” teachers define who a “native speaker” is and how they view themselves in relation to the concept. It further explores how they feel about discriminatory practices in employability and the pay gap that are systemically carried out against their “nonnative speaker” counterparts by recruiters. Data were gathered from 10 English language teachers: five males and five females from the UK, Canada, Ireland, and South Africa, who were hired by a state university in Saudi Arabia on the basis that they are “native speakers.” The findings show that although the place of birth and the official status of English in a given country were the main defining criteria for hiring a “native speaker,” the interviewees did not view the concept of the “native speaker” in the same ways as their recruiters did, who they believed used those criteria in an overly simplistic and reductive way rooted in native-speakerism. The findings also show that the participants did not enjoy the unjustified privileges given to them by their recruiters at the expense of their “non-native speaker” colleagues. Instead, in some cases, they attempted to confront their recruiters over such discriminatory practices, and in some others, they attempted to bridge the gap and ease the tension between themselves and their “nonnative speaker” counterparts, although these efforts were hindered by the system’s unfair and unjust practices.

Decoding the Myths of the Native and Non-Native English Teachers on the Language Acquisition of Turkish Post-Secondary Students

“…Wang and Fang (2021) have reported that stakeholders do not perceive a substantial distinction between the two groups of English instructors, despite the deeply rooted native-speakerism in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) that favors Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) as the ideal English educators while Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) are often marginalized. Alqahtani (2022) conducted a study that examined the criteria used for hiring "native speakers" in relation to their place of birth and the official status of English in a given country. The study found that while these criteria were considered the main defining factors by recruiters, non-native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) did not share the same perspective.…”