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“Late dividends of the British Empire”: Language ideologies and the native/non-native question in online newspaper comments

  • Andrew Sewell

    Andrew Sewell is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His research covers various topics relating to English in the world, including metalinguistic discourse, language attitudes and ideologies, language and globalization, and pronunciation teaching and testing. Recent publications include English Pronunciation Models in a Globalized World: Accent, Acceptability and Hong Kong English (Routledge, 2016).

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Published/Copyright: June 11, 2019

Abstract

As the use of English as a lingua franca increases in a range of contexts, one question that has received recent media attention is that of whether native or non-native speakers are more effective communicators in these contexts. The native/non-native question resists a straightforward answer, but taking account of the views of people in the business world is a necessary step towards understanding the underlying issues. This article investigates the nature and origin of these views by analysing online newspaper comments written in response to a column in the Financial Times. It first identifies several topics related to the native/non-native question, including perceived differences between and within the two categories. It then discusses these topics from a language-ideological perspective, aiming to identify the patterns of beliefs and assumptions that inform the comments. Although this perspective involves a critical evaluation of the binary “native/non-native” opposition, the article identifies several important effects of the native speaker concept, ranging from outright discrimination to feelings of frustration and inhibition. It portrays the comments as both reflecting and questioning the ideological premises of the native speaker concept, and it considers the implications of the approach for ELF research and for the wider study of international communication.

Résumé

L’utilisation de l’anglais comme lingua franca ayant augmenté dans une multiplicité de contextes, une question qui a reçu l’attention récente des médias est celle de savoir desquels des locuteurs natifs ou non natifs sont les communicateurs les plus efficaces dans ces contextes. La question ne prête pas à une réponse mais tenir compte des points de vue et des expériences des personnes dans le monde des affaires simple constitue une étape nécessaire pour comprendre les problèmes qui se posent. Cet article étudie ces points de vue en analysant des commentaires de journaux écrits en ligne en réponse à une colonne dans le Financial Times. En adoptant l’approche des idéologies linguistiques comme concept central, l’article identifie et discute plusieurs sujets liés à la question natif / non-natif, tels que les différences perçues entre et dans les deux categories. Bien que cette perspective adopte une évaluation critique de l’opposition binaire «natif/non-natif», l’article identifie plusieurs effets importants du concept, allant de la discrimination absolue aux sentiments de frustration et d’inhibition. En outre, il décrit les commentaires comme reflétant et remettant en question les prémisses idéologiques du concept de locuteur natif, et il considère les implications de l’approche pour la recherche ELF et pour une étude élargie de la communication internationale.

About the author

Andrew Sewell

Andrew Sewell is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His research covers various topics relating to English in the world, including metalinguistic discourse, language attitudes and ideologies, language and globalization, and pronunciation teaching and testing. Recent publications include English Pronunciation Models in a Globalized World: Accent, Acceptability and Hong Kong English (Routledge, 2016).

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Published Online: 2019-06-11
Published in Print: 2019-06-26

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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