Am I an English native?
A reflexivity on the paradox of ‘native-ness’
By: Marvin Mansueto
The Philippines is currently earning its place as among the global education hubs for English language teaching (ELT).
With the majority of the population being fluent English speakers, notwithstanding its official bilingual status[1], the country has become a top destination for ELT learners.
To name a few, Filipino teachers serve clientele most notably from countries in East Asia like Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan, and also from other regions like the North Africa, South America, and the Middle East (ICEF, 2016). Given such an advantage, I was eventually convinced to pursue a college degree in English education - such a degree offering a secure future: practically, academically and financially.
Native or Not-Native?
However, looking for a job after college was not as easy as I thought.
We used to think that having college diplomas would ensure a stable job, desirably high paying – a Filipino academic attitude falsely equating college diplomas with economic prosperity (Maca & Morris, 2018).
Like most neophytes in the job market, I first looked on the internet being an easy way to find a job within the comfort of our home.
My search list was flooded with openings from diverse occupational environments. It also includes openings from different regions in the world, remarkably in Asian countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and so on. It was very overwhelming.
The elation suddenly turned into melancholy, however, as most jobs specified their core job criteria to be ‘native English speakers’ (NES).
They even provide a list of NES countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
There are jobs which are lenient to the NES requirement, but the salary and other remunerations were beyond compare. For NES jobs, schools may offer as much as $1,000 to $10,000 USD, including separate perks for housing, uniform and food allowance, car subsidy, etc. Meanwhile, non-NES jobs were merely provided a third or perhaps even less than a quarter of what was provided for NES.
Even more frustrating, there was a notation that states:
‘Non-NES from European or other white countries may also apply if they can provide TESOL/TEFL/TESL Certification.[2]’
On my mind, I asked: what constitutes one’s English native-ness.
Following the arguments of Alan Davies (2004, p. 435), there are six criteria whereby we can judge a person as a native language speaker:
a) childhood acquisition;
b) institutions about idiolectal grammar;
c) institutions about standard language grammar;
d) discourse and pragmatic control;
e) creative performance; and
f) interpreting and translating.
Davies (2004) argued that, with all other characteristics being ‘contingent’ except the first criteria, a person may find it difficult to fully become a ‘native speaker’ to a certain language they did not learn since childhood. Although Davies (2004) upholds such rationality, he is also quite partial in saying that L2 learners may eventually develop a native-like proficiency, although it remains to be seen if they actually develop the sociolinguistic competence.
The latter refers to the ability to use a language in a culturally and contextually appropriate manner. Other authors, however, maintain that childhood acquisition is an irreconcilable trait when ascertaining whether a person is a native speaker or otherwise (e.g., Cook, 1999).
Invoking the ‘If-so’ test, I am then technically a native English speaker, aren’t I?
Definitely, I learned English since ‘childhood,’ that is if we have a common understanding of the term. However, if we try to follow the temporal divisions set by legal instruments recognized globally, childhood encompasses the infant years until an individual reaches the age of eighteen (United Nations, 1989). Such makes it inclusive of the years of my basic education from kindergarten to high school, where I learned English as a compulsory subject.
Erstwhile, I may have also developed the other characteristics identified by Davies (2004) by recursive language use through practice learning inside the formal education system and incidental learning when I watch Hollywood movies, read American newsletters and lifestyle magazines.
In addition, the English language is practically ubiquitous in the Philippines from all sectors of society like in the official and legal transactions such as in the government and even in our religious worship where we read the English Bible and other English-based biblical texts.
More so, I even enhanced my English communication skills when I majored it in college. Throughout my tertiary education, I have developed a sense of mastery in grammaticality, and I am more than capable of translating and interpreting, although I admit that I may need necessary training to undertake such capacity professionally fully.
Call me by another label
Unfortunately, however, I am not considered a NES plainly because my country is not listed in the NES countries, or possibly because I am not from a Caucasian or western ethnicity.
Such an attribution was explained thoroughly by Canagarajah (1999) when he expounded Phillipson’s (1992, cited from Canagarajah, 1999) concept of ‘native speaker fallacy.’ For Suresh Canagarajah (1999), the idea of ‘native-ness’ towards a language is a paradox that furthers the economic and cultural hegemony of Center nations[3] or the developed Western countries towards their domination of the less developed nations.
Following Canagarajah’s (1999) arguments, English native-ness is a paradox in the international education hardly relevant in the postcolonial world and therefore perpetrates new forms of global hegemony, though invisible in the naked eye.
Indeed, English native-ness is more just a categorical misappropriation of lingual traits contributing in the modern form of economic and cultural exploitation of the ‘others.’ Moreover, the paradox of the English native-ness bears frightening implications in the international education system where one’s linguistic abilities are measured not based on linguistic competence or academic merits but on misplaced categories of racial color that benefit only a certain few.
By default, such notions privilege the Center nations and make them enjoy the monopoly as being the righteous language authorities when in fact, NES and Non-NES language professionals may not necessarily differ in terms of linguistic competence as both groups may enjoy different sets and levels of proficiencies in many aspects (Lewier & Bilmona; 2010; Walkinshaw & Oahn, 2014).
Fortunately for me, I expanded my search to South American schools that are more rational in their hiring requirements.
Perhaps skin color was not much of an issue in South America, unlike in Asia, where white teachers are strangely perceived as ‘more effective’ English language teachers (Leahy, 2016; NBC News, 2012).
As I have previously mentioned, some Asian schools would even reconsider non-NES professionals as long as they are ‘European’ or of Caucasian descent. Similarly, my good friend, an ESL teacher in Thailand, shared that there seems to be partiality towards ESL professionals of Caucasian descent, just like in terms of educational attainment. According to him, some Caucasian ESL teachers would even be given a tenured position even if they do not have a college degree, and in lieu thereof is a TESOL/TEFL/TESL certificate which they finished for 50 to 100 hours.
Unlike their Asian counterparts like him, a college degree would be the first thing schools look for despite other impressive credentials.
For now, I can only think of minuscule solutions to such overbearing issues confronting international education. The paradox of English native-ness is becoming a systemic problem that also deserves a systematic action involving stakeholders, including policymakers, school administrators, and ESL professionals.
Marvin Mansueto is a passionate international school educator who currently works in Chile. He also worked in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Colombia.
He took his Graduate Diploma in Anaheim University and his Master's Degree in Unibersidad de La Sabana. He is finishing his PhD Degree in English Language and Literature in the Philippines. His research interests include Reading Comprehension, Teaching and Learning and English Language Acquisition.
linkedin.com/in/marvin-mansueto-b8ab8b8b/
References
Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). Interrogating the “native speaker fallacy”: non-linguistic roots, non-pedagogical results. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 77-92). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cook, V. (1999), Going Beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33: 185-209. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587717.
Davies, A. (2004). The Native Speaker in Applied Linguistics. In The Handbook of Applied Linguistics (Eds. A. Davies and C. Elder). https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470757000.ch17.
de Guzman, A.B. (2003). The dynamics of educational reforms in the Philippine basic and higher education sectors. Asia Pacific Education Review, 4(1), 39-50. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ776349.pdf.
Department of Education (DepEd). (2019). Policy guidelines on the K to 12 Basic Education Program. DepEd Order 29, s. 2019. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DO_s2019_021.pdf.
ICEF. (2016). ELT enrolment in the Philippines on the rise. ICEF Monitor. https://monitor.icef.com/2016/03/elt-enrolment-in-the-philippines-on-the-rise/.
Leahy, I. (2016). White English teachers are often preferred in Asia. ESLInsider. https://www.eslinsider.com/blog/whitey-the-english-teacher-is-often-the-preferred-teacher.
Lewier, C.A., & Bilmona H. (2010). Native English speaker teachers or non-native English speaker teachers: Implications for EFL learning and teaching. Tahuri, 7(1)
Maca, M., & Morris, P. (2012). The Philippines, the East Asian ‘developmental states’ and education: a comparative analysis of why the Philippines failed to develop. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42(3), 461-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2011.652814.
NBC News. (2012). In China, English teaching is a whites-only club. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-english-teaching-whites-only-club-flna773956.
Senate Economic Planning Office (SEPO). (2011). K to 12: The key to quality education? SEPO Policy Brief 11-02. http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/publications.
United Nations. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx.
Walkinshaw, I., & Oanh, D. H. (2014). Native and non-native English language teachers: Student Perceptions in Vietnam and Japan. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014534451
[1] Sec. 7, Art. XIV, 1987 Philippine Constitution: ‘Section 7. For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English.’
[2] Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL); Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL); Teaching English as a second language (TESL)
[3] ‘Center nations’ is a term adopted from political economy which refer to the ‘industrially or commercially advanced communities of the West’ which is in contrast to ‘Periphery nations’ (Canagarajah, 1999, p. 79; See also World Systems Theory).
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