The Case for Non-native English Speakers in the ESL Classroom

English is one of the world's fastest growing languages. What's interesting is that this increasing number is comprised of non-native speakers. Simply put, a non-native speaker of English is one whose first language is not English. It's no surprise then that that there are more non-native speakers than native speakers of English seeking employment in the TESOL field. However, in looking at job postings for ESL teacher positions most (about 80%) of these positions require that the candidate be a native speaker of English (“Dave’s ESL Café”- various job postings). Why is so much emphasis placed on "native speaker?"

Cognitive linguists placed the native speaker construct into an idealized position and assumed that a native speaker is the only reliable source of linguistic data (in a linguistically homogenous population). The goal of second language acquisition, according to notable linguists such as Chomsky, is to speak like a native speaker (Mahboob 76). This means that one should speak with no accent, make grammatical errors, etc. The only feasible way to do this is by learning the language during the critical period. Most NNESTs (non-native speaking English teachers) learn English after this period (most of the ones I know learn English and are trained teachers as adults), thus creating a linguistic bias against them. So by this very definition, this group of linguists don't feel that NNESTs "know" English and are therefore not qualified to teach it. This created a sort of trickle-down effect and spread through the TESOL community (creating the current biases against NNESTs). This brings up some questions: what does it mean to speak like a "native speaker?" And if one doesn't speak like a "native speaker," does that mean that ...

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...ge, i.e. speaking without an accent. NNESTs may not sound like native speakers, but they have spent many years studying and training to be successful as ESL teachers. NNESTs are valuable resources in the ESL classroom. They can empathize with their students, as they had to go through the same learning process as them. They serve as role models for their ESL students - it shows the students that if the teacher can learn the language, so can they.

Works Cited

Fathelbab, H. (2011). NESTs (Native English Speaking Teachers) & NNESTs (Non-Native

English Speaking Teachers): Competence or Nativeness?. AUC TESOL Journal

Maum, R. (2002). Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers in the English Teaching Profession.

Center for Applied Linguistics Digest.

Mahboob, A. (unknown). Beyond the Native Speaker in TESOL. University of Sydney,

Australia.