特集 多言語多文化共生社会に向けた挑戦［招待論文］

Moving Past Native-Speakerism inEnglish Language Teaching (ELT) inJapan
日本の英語教育（ELT）における過去のネイティブスピーカー中心主義の変革
Matikainen Tiina

Visiting Lecturer, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University

マティカイネン ティーナ
慶應義塾大学環境情報学部訪問講師（招聘）Abstract:

This paper discusses the need for diversifying English Language Teaching(ELT) in Japan both by providing and empowering more realistic language
user models for students as well as using materials that more closely reflect
the current status of English in the world. Japanese ELT field continues tooperate under the native speaker fallacy principle which in turn creates anative speaker learner fallacy for students which hinders students’ language
learning progress. This paper also suggests practical and pedagogical ways tomove past native-speakerism in Japanese higher education English classrooms.
この論文では、学生向けのより現実的な言語ユーザーモデルの提供と強化、および世界の英語の現状をより厳密に反映する資料の使用の両方を通して、日本における英語教育 (ELT) の多様化の必要性について説明します。日本のELT 分野は、ネイティブスピーカーについての誤った原則に基づいて運営され続けています。これは、学生にとってネイティブスピーカー学習者への誤解を生み、学生の言語学習の進歩を妨げます。この論文ではまた、日本の高等教
育の英語授業における過去のネイティブスピーカー中心主義を変革するための、実用的で教育的な方法を提案します。

Keywords: English language teaching, Japan, native speaker fallacy, English as lingua franca
英語教育、日本での英語教育、共通言語としての英語

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Moving Past Native-Speakerism in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japan

1

Introduction
In addition to compulsory English education prior to entering university, most

university students in Japan continue studying English, either because it is arequirement or because they choose to do so. At the same time, the role of English is
rapidly changing in the world as the spread of English continues. English is
everywhere, spoken almost by everyone. English used to be viewed as belonging to
the countries where it is spoken as the oﬃcial language, mainly USA, Great Britain,
Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. However, today, it has become the oﬃcial or
unoﬃcial language in many more countries, and it is spoken as the unoﬃcial lingua
franca all over the world.
With English everywhere, it is hardly surprising that the Japanese university
students also feel the need to continue improving their English skills. While thelandscape of English is changing, the English classrooms in Japan continue to look
the same. Most of the university English classes in Japan are still mainly taught bynative speakers of English because the misconception that native speakers make thebest English teachers is still prominent in Japan, despite the ﬁeld of Teaching English
to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) making strides to move away from thisoutdated belief. Most of the job advertisements for Japanese university English
teaching positions still outline the requirement of being a native speaker of English,
or near-native speaker of the language. The Japanese university English classrooms
do not reﬂect the reality of English in the world considering that about 80% of the
English teachers in the world are non-native English-speaker teachers (NNESTs)(Canagarajah, 2005).
The changing landscape of English should be reflected in Japanese English
Language Teaching (ELT) as well. There is a need to diversify the English usermodels Japanese students are exposed to. Also, equally importantly, more has to bedone to empower the Japanese English teachers who are considered inferior to thenative speaker teacher. Both the teachers and the materials used in classrooms need toreflect the current reality of English use more accurately. This paper will firstly
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which has resulted in what the author calls a native speaker learner fallacy. It willthen discuss non-native English teachers in Japan, both the challenges they face andthe strengths they bring into the classroom. The paper will then examine the current
situation of English in the world by discussing English as Lingua Franca. The paper
will conclude with a brief discussion on how to move past the native-speaker
idealism in the language classroom.

2

 ative-speakerism in English language teaching (ELT) in
N
Japan

2.1

The Native Speaker Fallacy
There is still a strong prevalence of native speaker ideology in Japanese ELT

even though the ﬁeld of TESOL is moving towards post-native-speakerist ideology.
Robert Phillipson (1992) famously coined the concept of “native speaker fallacy” todescribe the misconception that native speakers of English make the best English
teachers. Holliday (2006) argues that the native speaker ideology asserts that native
speakers of English are the only legitimate speakers of English embodying “Westernculture from which spring the ideals of both of the English language and of English
language teaching methodology” (p. 385).
Considering the characteristics of many English teachers in Japan, most ofwhom come from a country where English is spoken as the mother tongue, it isevident that the native speaker fallacy is alive and well in Japan. Rivers (2011) has
theorized that the ideal native English speaker teacher (NEST) in Japan embodies
four crucial traits: linguistic, racial, behavioural, and cultural. Linguistically, they aremonolingual in English and possess innate knowledge of the language they own.
Racially, they are Caucasian and come from one of the countries where English
originated from. Behaviourally, they are fun teachers; they are friendly and open
entertainers, and culturally, they embody the stereotypes Japanese have about people
from that country.
Takaesu and Sudo (2018), both of whom are Japanese English teachers in a
Japanese university, hypothesize that Japanese students’ preference for native speaker

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Moving Past Native-Speakerism in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japan

English teachers is rooted in the fact that in junior high and high school, they havebeen taught the basics of English by Japanese teachers and now they expect to learn
from “real teachers who have correct pronunciation and native understanding of thelanguage” (p. 168). This desire results in students viewing Japanese teachers ofEnglish to be less qualiﬁed than native speaker teachers, even if their qualiﬁcations
surpass those of native speaker colleagues.
2.2

Native speaker learner fallacy
I have written elsewhere about the native speaker learner fallacy which resultsfrom the unrealistic learning model that English learners in Japan have, the native
speaker (Matikainen, 2018). I have argued that Japanese English learners have a
deeply rooted belief that in order to be competent language users, they should soundlike a native speaker of English. Obviously, this is unattainable. Because of thisfallacy, students are hesitant to learn and to use English because they know they will
never achieve this unrealistic goal.
Focus of English language teaching in Japan should shift to developing students
communicative working knowledge of the language, including interculturalawareness. The fallacy that the native speaker is the only appropriate language usermodel for Japanese learners needs to be abandoned, but in order for this to happen, achange in thinking needs to take place amongst administrators, educators, and thestudents themselves. In addition, as suggested by Romney (2010), this should have avital role in teacher education. This is crucial in Japan especially, where many
Japanese English teachers do not have confidence in themselves as competent
language users, possibly because they have also experienced the native speakerlearner fallacy when learning English. Bouchard (2018) found that the JapaneseEnglish teachers in his study consider native English speaking teachers as the idealreferences for students for language and culture, based on them viewing themselvesand native speakers as monolingual individuals.

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2.3

Non-native English teachers
Teachers who do not fit the ideal mold of a NEST face challenges in theireveryday life despite having unique strengths as English language teachers. Bothteachers who are foreign but considered non-native speakers and Japanese teachers ofEnglish may experience their professional legitimacy questioned. Ng (2018) carefully
details his experience of having his professional identity challenged as a Singaporean
EFL professional at a Japanese university. Despite his qualifications of having adoctorate in education and long teaching career around the world, in Japan, hisstudents at first did not embrace his Singaporean English accent but instead,complained about it to the administration. Because of this, he felt under enormouspressure to perform well, better than his ʻnative speaker’ colleagues who he felt were
not scrutinized as much. Eventually, through much reﬂection, he identiﬁed that his
strength lies in his own language learning experience and in students being able toidentify with that. He realized that: “Despite my non-native status, my students
viewed me as a successful language learner with complex language awareness and a
conﬁdent speaker of English” (Ng, 2018, p. 9).
Perceived weaknesses of non-native English teachers include inferior
pronunciation and knowledge of the target language, unfamiliarity with the native
English culture, unpopularity amongst students, and weaker professional credibility(Matikainen, 2018).
On the other hand, some of their strengths include being a role model, being
able to share personally used language learning strategies rooted in theory withstudents, having a high sense of empathy and sensitivity to student needs, and a deep
explicit knowledge of the target language (Matikainen, 2018). Similarly, Lipovsky
and Mahboob (2010) found that “NNESTs attracted positive evaluations for theirteaching of literacy skills and knowledge and teaching of grammar, highlighting thefact that these skills are independent of linguistic skills, as they can be learned” (p.
172). They also found that NNESTs were highly valued for their “teaching
methodology, stemming from their own experience and skills acquired as language
learners” (p. 172). They also found that students appreciate the empathy NNESTs had

106Moving Past Native-Speakerism in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japanfor them and value them as language user role models.
As a non-native English teacher, “I help my students see and experience how
English can enrich one’s life journey. For many students, this stirs their deepest
motivations for learning English: the possibilities of new relationships, the acquisitionof new knowledge, the adventures of foreign cultures, the dream of new worlds”(Matikainen, 2018, p. 176).
Takaesu and Sudo (2018) also point out some of the strengths of non-native
speaker teachers, such as themselves. Some of these include the personal experienceand knowledge of the linguistic challenges of learning English and the ability toserve as direct role models to students which can in turn help motivate them in waysthat native speaker teachers are unable to do. Ahmar Mahbood (2010) insightfully
declared, “The [Non-Native English-Speaker Teacher’s] lens...is a lens ofmultilingualism, multinationalism, and multiculturalism. It takes diversity as astarting point in TESOL and applied linguistics practice and research and questions
the monolingual bias in the ﬁeld,” (p. 1).
2.4

Moving past native-speakerism ideology
Placing English teachers on the native/non-native dichotomy is becoming

obsolete today. Kunschak (2018) observes that, “Japan still seems to follow themonolingual model albeit with some modification as evidenced by the ministry’s
directive of developing English with Japanese characteristics that hints at openness
toward lingua franca philosophy,” (p. 162). She also points out that Japanese students
tend to be hesitant to use their English due to their belief that they are deficientlanguage users; they tend to focus on what they cannot do rather than what they areable to do.
Moving forward, there is a need for an updated ideology. Derivry-Plard (2018)
stresses the importance of a “multilingual paradigm for plurilingual/pluricultural
language teachers” (p. 144). The categorization of language teachers as native or nonnative speakers is obsolete today, which is what the current monolingual paradigm
does. She argues that this is especially true for English because of the growing need
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特集 多言語多文化共生社会に向けた挑戦of recognizing World Englishes and ELF which has led to the decline and invalidityof the ʻnative speaker’ model. This paradigm, according to Derivry-Plard, is“comprehensive and inclusive and accounts for broader perspective and better
understanding of the linguistic ﬁeld and the linguistic markets” (p. 143).

3

English as Lingua Franca (ELF)
Coupled with the changing landscape of English speakers, there has arisen aneed to develop a theory to comprise of its role in the world as it relates to teaching
English. Several theories and concepts have become central in this discussion,
including World Englishes, English as Lingua Franca (ELF), and English as an
International Language (EIL). ELF has become extremely popular in the field of
TESOL and in language teaching in general. For example, in Japan, Tamagawa
University has established the English for Lingua Franca (ELF) center that provides
the compulsory English education campus-wide. They also actively recruit English
teachers whose native language is not necessarily English, teachers who come frommultilingual backgrounds.
Several deﬁnitions of ELF has emerged; for example, Firth (1996) deﬁned it as,“a contact language between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor
a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language ofcommunication” (p. 240) while Jenkins (2014) has deﬁned it as “English when it isused as a contact language between people from diﬀerent ﬁrst languages (including
native English speakers)” (p. 2). Seidlhofer (2011) deﬁnes ELF as “any use of English
among speakers of diﬀerent ﬁrst languages for whom English is the communicative
medium of choice, and often the only option” (p. 7).
Simply put, ELF primarily distinguishes itself from the traditional field ofEnglish as a Foreign Language (EFL) in that EFL learners mainly learn the language
to communicate successfully with native speakers of English while ELF learners
learn the language to successfully communicate with diverse language users forintercultural communication (Jenkins, 2014). On the other hand, ELF and World
Englishes have more in common. As Jenkins (2014) points out, “both paradigms

108Moving Past Native-Speakerism in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japan

share an ideological perspective that sees the kinds of English resulting from theglobal spread of the language as existing in their own right and as means ofexpressing their speakers’ identities, rather than as failed attempts to emulate ENL[English as a Native Language] and acquire NES [Native English Speaker] identities”(p. 27). She does point out the diﬀerence between World Englishes and ELF; whereas
World Englishes is concerned with post-colonial nations, ELF is not concerned withnational boundaries.
One important consideration for English teaching within the ELF sphere is thatmuch variation and hybridity is to be expected which leads to the question as to what
constitutes an error. (Jenkins, 2014). Due to the assumption that “ELF represents a
more inclusive communication-focused approach to language than traditional
exclusive bounded-variety approaches, errors can no longer be deﬁned in terms ofdepartures from one particular set of norms” (Jenkins, 2014, p. 38). This is why thenext crucial step for envisioning post-native speakerism in English language teachingis to consider the teaching pedagogy and materials used in the classroom.

4

Pedagogy for post-native-speakerism

4.1

The need for ELF Teaching Pedagogy
Hino (2018) has rightfully pointed out that one of the problems moving pastnative-speakerism is the lack of pedagogy and materials available to English teachers
because most of English language teaching in Japan has been rooted in American
English. The teaching materials reflect this as well. He points out that as long as“models, materials, and methodologies simply remain Anglo-American, teachers
have no choice but to end up with enhancing the same old aspiration among learners
toward the English of native speakers” (p. 217). Hino also explains that teaching
about World Englishes, EIL or ELF is not enough; we need to ﬁnd a way to teach
ELF. This is the challenge that we are facing as we attempt to move past nativespeakerism in ELT. He outlines four methods for post native-speakerism pedagogy:
using simulated role-plays which involve English as an international language,
exposure to English as Lingua Franca or international language, a content-based
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approach to teaching English as a world language, and participation in the communityof English users around the world. Hino (2018) also provides three practical examples
from his own teaching for achieving the aforementioned principles: firstly, a talkshow involving Japanese students and speakers of non-native varieties of English;
secondly, using all four skills in examining news from various news media aroundthe world; and thirdly, interaction between Japanese students and international
students. With all these activities, the pedagogy behind them was an attempt to move
past native-speakerist teaching materials in English teaching. These activities allow
the Japanese students experience English outside of the Anglo-American framework
they are accustomed to. Hino (2018) stresses the importance of such concrete
pedagogy if we are to move past native-speakerism in the English language
classroom.
4.2

English courses at SFC
Here at SFC, we are making strides towards the post native-speakerism

methodology but we still have a long way to go. We do have some English teachers
who do not ﬁt the mold of the native speaker, such as teachers from Africa, Asia, orEurope teaching English courses. However, only having such teachers is not enough.
In addition to having a range of teachers representing variety of Englishes, theteaching materials should correspond to the language students will be exposed to in
today’s world.
Personally, in my Project English classes, I aim to expose the students to World
Englishes and to non-native varieties of English. For instance, in my listening classes,
which use TED talks, I purposefully choose TED talks from non-native speakers ofEnglish. The main aim of doing this is to change the students’ mindsets. For example,
when I show the TED talk of Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish girl, in myclass, many students comment on her strange accent because it sounds diﬀerent fromwhat they are used to. She is clearly understandable but students get confused anddiscouraged because it is not what they are used to. This is the aim of ELF pedagogy,
making students aware of different varieties of English beside native varieties of110Moving Past Native-Speakerism in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japan

English. In addition, in my reading classes, for example, I expose my students tonews reports from media around the world, discussing and pointing out the linguistic
diﬀerences, yet the message stays the same and understandable to the students.

5

Conclusion
In Japanese EFL classrooms, we need to move past native-speakerism. Rivers(2018, p. xiii) points out that:“The concept of native-speakerism continues to impact the lives of manyteachers regardless of variables such as supposed language status, country of origin
and race or any other deployment that divides rather than unites individuals within
and across educational domains.”
He argues that this ﬁeld needs to focus on three speciﬁc issues to move forward;
firstly, the faulty concept of native-speakerism negatively affects many teachers
professionally, and as a consequence, personally; secondly, the concept of nativespeakerism has been prominent in ELT but needs to be reexamined in a wider context
compassing other academic fields as well; thirdly, that the concept of nativespeakerism does not have a sensible place and in fact, will be inaccurate, in themodern globalized world (Rivers, 2018, p. xiii).
Clearly, the arbitrary native/non-native dichotomy that has become especiallyoutdated in today’s world used in TESOL is part of the problem. Therefore, I havesuggested replacing it with a diﬀerent concept, such as an expert language user of alanguage that could apply to both native and non-native speakers. These expert
language user teachers have the necessary experience and qualifications to help
students reach their language learning goals, whether they are native or non-native
speakers of English. Moving past these arbitrary labels is crucial.
In conclusion, Seidlhofer (2011, p.6) observes:T he phenomenon of English as the ﬁrst truly global language, and globalization
with its consequences for how we now live and communicate, is bound to leadto such a shake-up of our traditional ideas of what constitutes ʻa language’ andʻlegitimate speakers’ that the terms themselves will simply become obsolete. so
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my own feeling is that, after so much agonizing about the terms ʻnative’ andʻnon-native’, the problem will actually resolve itself in that new and appropriate
words will emerge. It may well be that in the not too distant future we will bewondering why we ever thought that we needed these terms.
It is time for Japanese ELT to move forward, in order to prepare Japanese students
for the reality of English outside of the classroom and outside of Japan.
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