“I Have to Teach The ‘English’ English”: Native-speakerism Ideology among the English Teachers

Abstract

Native-speakerism is a crucial issue to discuss in ELT, especially related to the different ideological views on World Englishes and ‘standard’ English. Differences in ideology about English and its variations have an impact on the English teaching implementation. Many studies have examined discrimination practices driven by native-speakerism ideology in educational contexts such as in the preference of English teacher recruitment which prefers teachers who are considered as native speakers. Although studies have discussed native-speakerism ideology, not many studies have discussed native-speakerism ideology from the perspective of English teachers in Indonesia. This study, therefore, aims to find out how widespread this ideology is among English teachers of a private school in metropolitan Jakarta. It seeks to explore the dimensions of native-speakerism in the various aspects of the English teaching profession. This study is interview-based research with seven participants. Data collection was done by conducting individual interviews for 30-40 minutes which then were analyzed descriptively to identify the recurring themes. The results showed that there were traces of native speakerism ideology among the English teachers in Permata schools that views English from a purist perspective towards the language and its culture. This purist perspective is reflected from how they defined native-speakers of English and depicted the ownership of English, language learning and teaching beliefs, and their teaching practices.

"Hello, I'm a Native Speaker": Nonnative Tutors' Perspectives on Native-Speakerism Ideology

“…This condition allows the emergence of various variants of English that develop along with the acculturation of English with other cultures and languages. It also emphasizes the contradiction of monocentric and pluricentric ideas in English, which has implications for the emergence of the terms (standard) English and (world) Englishes (Harsanti & Manara, 2021;Kachru, 2019;Kubota, 2015;Silalahi, 2021).…”

“…Several experts argue that English should be taught according to English standards and follow the assessment model. The existence of variations of English will only weaken the English language itself (Harsanti & Manara, 2021). Meanwhile, as a lingua franca, English is declared to be multi-interpretations and functions (Al-Mutairi, 2019) English is not only owned by native English speakers (America, England, and Australia) but is also used by other speakers as a first, second, and third language.…”

“…The dichotomy of native-speakers and non-native speakers encourages a debate about the quality of foreign language learning (Harsanti & Manara, 2021;Silalahi, 2020Silalahi, , 2019Silalahi, , 2021. In the end, it leads to the emergence of the term native-speakerism.…”

“…In the end, it leads to the emergence of the term native-speakerism. It reflects the ideology of learning English, which believes that the ideal English language learning is carried out by native speakers or Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) (Harsanti & Manara, 2021;Holliday, 2018;Silalahi, 2020Silalahi, , 2019Silalahi, , 2021 because they can present an English-speaking West culture.…”

“…The view of the superiority of NESTs over NNESTs, especially in the context of language teaching, reflects the imperialism behind the ideology of native-speakerism (Silalahi, 2019). NESTs' meaning as the ideal English teachers is wrong because cultural knowledge cannot be the only parameter to measure teacher quality (Harsanti & Manara, 2021). On the other hand, this has implications for the belief that Non-Native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) do not have better cultural skills and understanding than NESTs (Harsanti & Manara, 2021;Silalahi, 2019).…”