POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The native speaker problem
Traditionally, native speakers of English
have been regarded as providing the
authoritative standard and the best
teachers. Now, they may be seen as
presenting an obstacle to the free
development of global English.
N ative speakers of English have enthusi-
astically promoted the learning of their
language abroad. By the end of the 20th
century, less effort seemed to be required,
as learning English became seen no longer
as an option but as an urgent economic
need. Native speakers were regarded as
the gold standard; as final arbiters of quality
and authority.
In the new, rapidly emerging climate,
native speakers may increasingly be identi-
fied as part of the problem rather than the
source of a solution. They may be seen as
bringing with them cultural baggage in which
114 ENGLISH NEXT • PART THREE • CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
3.6 ASEAN leaders link hands at
the 11th ASEAN summit in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, 13 December
2005. (From left to right) Laos’s
Prime Minister Boungnang
Vorachith, India’s Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, Malaysia’s Prime
Minister Adbullah Ahmad Badawi,
Philippines’s President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo. ASEAN leaders
welcomed India’s proposal to
establish regional English Language
Centres. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
learners wanting to use English primarily as
an international language are not interested;
or as ‘gold plating’ the teaching process,
making it more expensive and difficult to
train teachers and equip classrooms. Native
speaker accents may seem too remote
from the people that learners expect to
communicate with; and as teachers, native
speakers may not possess some the skills
required by bilingual speakers, such as
those of translation and interpreting.
NATIVE-SPEAKER MODELS ARE LESS USEFUL
The advent of new technology has helped
applied linguists understand much better
the complexity – and grammatical untidi-
ness – of authentic native-speaker usage.
The myth of a pedagogically tidy model
is much more difficult to sustain now
that many dictionaries and grammars are
based on corpus research. Native-speaker
 Native speakers may in future be seen as part of
the problem rather than the solution
reference books may be developing as
better guides to native-speaker usage, but
are less useful as models for learners.
At the height of modernity, many social
mechanisms helped produce a standard
language. Only people of the right social
class had access to the public domains
of publication and, later, broadcasting.
Hidden armies of copy editors ensured only
standard forms reached print. Those days
are over. As the English-speaking world
becomes less formal, and more democratic,
the myth of a standard language becomes
more difficult to maintain.
NATIVE SPEAKERS MAY BE A HINDRANCE
Global English is often compared to Latin,
a rare historical parallel to English in the
way that it flourished as an international
language after the decline of the empire
which introduced it. The use of Latin was
helped by the demise of its native speakers
when it became a shared international
resource. In organisations where English
has become the corporate language, meet-
ings sometimes go more smoothly when no
native speakers are present. Globally, the
same kind of thing may be happening, on
a larger scale.
This is not just because non-native
speakers are intimidated by the pres-
ence of a native speaker. Increasingly, the
problem may be that few native speakers
belong to the community of practice which
is developing amongst lingua franca users.
Their presence hinders communication.
ENGLISH NEXT
ALTERNATIVES ARE BECOMING AVAILABLE
As English proficiency becomes more wide-
spread, so do potential sources of teachers.
The teaching of English is becoming a
service which is no more specialised than
that of, say, chip design or legal research.
Not surprisingly, Asia, the largest market
for English, is already looking for regional
sources of supply.
In the 1990s, China used Belgian teacher-
trainers of English who were valued
because of their experience in bilingual
education. In several Asian countries, the
definition of ‘native-speaker teacher’ has
been relaxed to include teachers from India
and Singapore. This is not just because of
difficulty in obtaining sufficient numbers
of native speakers but represents a re-
evaluation of the needs and aspirations
of learners. In December 2005, the trend
was dramatically highlighted at the 11th
meeting of ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur, when
the Indian Prime Minister proposed setting
up ‘Centres for English Language Training’
in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam
‘to equip students, civil servants, profes-
sionals and businessmen with adequate
English language and communication skills’.
A report by IANS news agency quoted offi-
cials as saying:
The tools and idiom in India are what this region
would be comfortable with compared to more
sophisticated teaching aids, not to speak of
difficult to understand accents that would come
from core English-speaking nations.
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