Native-Speakerism and the Betrayal of the Native Speaker Teaching Professional

Abstract

Within this chapter evidence of the rather paradoxical intersectionality of two -isms is shown whereby the ideology of native-speakerism, originally conceived to describe and diagnose a plethora of language-related prejudices, fails, and in doing so actively contributes to the perpetuation of another -ism, in this case linguicism, defined as “ideologies, structures and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, regulate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources between groups which are defined on the basis of language” (Skutnabb-Kangas, 1988: 13).