580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Key research themes
1. How do socio-political constructs and historical trajectories shape the legitimacy of 'native speaker' status and its implications for English language teaching?
This research theme focuses on critically analyzing the historical, colonial, and ideological roots of the 'native speaker' construct, exploring how it has been socially and politically constructed to privilege certain groups in language teaching and learning contexts. It foregrounds native-speakerism as an ideology underpinned by nationalist and colonialist discourses that naturalize inequities among teachers and learners by privileging 'native' norms and marginalizing 'non-native' speakers and teachers. The theme is important because it reveals how entrenched discourses affect hiring practices, teacher identity, and language pedagogy, perpetuating neocolonial and discriminatory dynamics worldwide.
Key finding: The paper introduces 'speakerness' to conceptualize how social actors are defined through language practices, arguing that debates around 'non-native' English speakers and 'new speakers' of European minority languages are... Read more
Key finding: Using duoethnography, the study reveals how native-speakerism constitutes a 'hidden curriculum' within ELT teacher training that perpetuates Western 'native speaker' norms and values uncritically. Authors found that despite... Read more
Key finding: Through a critical literature review, this work identifies the (non)native speaker/teacherhood construct as an epistemologically hegemonic, historically colonial, and contextually enacted phenomenon intersecting with... Read more
Key finding: This paper critically interrogates the native speaker concept within foreign language teaching, framing it as a politically and ideologically loaded category that often manifests as native-speakerism — privileging native... Read more
2. What evidence challenges the dichotomy of 'native' versus 'non-native' speaker in language competence and teaching efficacy?
This theme investigates empirical and theoretical challenges to the traditional binary division between native and non-native speakers, highlighting the linguistic diversity within these categories and their inadequacy in capturing variation, such as that exhibited by heritage speakers and bilinguals. It explores alternative conceptualizations like L1 versus LX users and reveals how simplistic categorization can misrepresent linguistic competence and effectiveness in teaching. The theme exposes the limitations of native-speakerism by showing variation in language use and acquisition that transcends the binary, with implications for fair treatment and evaluation of language professionals and learners.
Key finding: Focusing on heritage speakers (HSs) of German in the USA, the study provides empirical evidence demonstrating that the native speaker category fails to capture the gradient linguistic variation between HSs and... Read more
Key finding: This paper critiques the native/non-native binary as ideologically biased and proposes replacing it with a more neutral dichotomy of L1 user versus LX user ('any language acquired after age 3'). The author argues that LX... Read more
Key finding: The paper critiques the non-native/native speaker dichotomy in psycholinguistic research, showing that this binary oversimplifies diverse speaker populations and often introduces researcher bias favoring native speakers. It... Read more
3. How do perceptions of nativeness influence listener bias, discrimination, and identity construction in language use and teaching contexts?
This area examines the social perception of nativeness and its consequences for linguistic credibility, discrimination in professional and social settings, and identity formation. It explores how listener biases toward perceived native or non-native accents can affect judgments of trustworthiness, competence, and teaching effectiveness among both native and non-native listeners. The research highlights that these perceptions are socially constructed, often linked to accent, pronunciation, and stereotype, and they can override objective linguistic ability or appearance, influencing employment and social status. Understanding these dynamics is critical for addressing inequities and fostering more equitable language education and communication.
Key finding: This cross-country study found that listeners predominantly base judgments of native-speaker status on pronunciation rather than physical appearance or geographical origin. While some listeners changed judgments when exposed... Read more
Key finding: This empirical study replicated Lev-Ari and Keysar’s (2010) findings by demonstrating that non-native English listeners also display subconscious negative bias against foreign-accented speech in judging truthfulness of... Read more
Key finding: This preregistered study failed to replicate earlier findings that native speakers could be experimentally biased positively or negatively toward non-native speech, suggesting that factors like diverse participants’... Read more
Key finding: Through a critical review of Davies’ work, this paper conceptualizes 'native speaker' as a socially constructed identity grounded in a dichotomous definition that privileges native speakers by negating others as non-native,... Read more