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Critical Inquiry in Language

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CHALLENGING THE NATIVE

AND NONNATIVE ENGLISH
SPEAKER HIERARCHY IN ELT:
NEW DIRECTIONS FROM RACE
THEORY
a
Todd Ruecker
a
The University of Texas at El Paso
Published online: 07 Dec 2011.

To cite this article: Todd Ruecker (2011) CHALLENGING THE NATIVE AND NONNATIVE
ENGLISH SPEAKER HIERARCHY IN ELT: NEW DIRECTIONS FROM RACE THEORY, Critical
Inquiry in Language Studies, 8:4, 400-422, DOI: 10.1080/15427587.2011.615709

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 Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 8(4):400–422, 2011
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1542-7587 print/1542-7595 online
DOI: 10.1080/15427587.2011.615709

CHALLENGING THE NATIVE AND NONNATIVE

ENGLISH SPEAKER HIERARCHY IN ELT:
NEW DIRECTIONS FROM RACE THEORY

TODD RUECKER
The University of Texas at El Paso
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Over the past decade, English Language Teaching (ELT) scholars have shown
an increased interest in exploring the intersections of racism and native speak-
erism, leading to more articles, special journal issues, and edited collections
dealing with this topic. While this work has been valuable, it has largely been
limited to considering one’s appearance, nonnative speaking status, and the
connection between the two. In this article, the author argues that we can draw
more extensively on theories of difference developed by race theorists to better
analyze and deconstruct the hierarchy between native and nonnative speaking
professionals in ELT. Drawing on work by ELT and race theorists, the author
applies Harris’ (1993) theory of ‘‘whiteness as property’’ to make the argument
that ELT scholars need to draw more extensively on race theory in order to
challenge the inequalities present in ELT.

This article offers a new direction for studying native speak-

erism by arguing that English Language Teaching (ELT) scholars
should draw more broadly on theories of difference developed
by race theorists. In advocating this new approach, I utilize Har-
ris’ (1993) concept of ‘‘whiteness as property’’ to provide an
example of how drawing more extensively from race theory can
help ELT scholars understand how native speakerism has been
socially constructed through legal and everyday discourses and
what implications this has for ELT professionals.
The prevalence of native speakerism in the ELT profession
has been extensively explored over the past few decades. This
increased scrutiny has been connected to Kachru’s (1986, 1990,
1996, 2005, 2008) vital work in raising awareness of World
Englishes (WEs) and challenging their marginalized status, which

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Todd Ruecker,

Department of English, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Avenue,
El Paso, TX 79968. E-mail: [email protected]

400
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 401

largely stems from the fact that they are often spoken by so-called
nonnative speakers of English. The journal Kachru founded,
World Englishes, has consistently advocated for the importance
of WEs. For instance, Sridhar and Sridhar’s (1986) early piece
challenged the use of native speaker models and assumptions of
English learners always being immersed in environments where
English is the dominant language. More recently, Kachru (2005)
labeled the beliefs surrounding native speaker superiority as
‘‘myths’’ which may be compared to ‘‘loaded weapons’’ (pp. 16–
18).
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In his seminal Linguistic Imperialism and more recent article,

‘‘The Linguistic Imperialism of Neoliberal Empire,’’ Phillipson
(1992, 2008) has argued that the spread of English has been con-
nected with U.S. and British imperialist interests and that these
countries fight to maintain ownership over English in the ELT
field. In challenging various ‘‘tenets’’ of ELT teaching, Phillipson
questioned the commonly held belief that the native speaker is
the best English teacher.
Since Phillipson’s Linguistic Imperialism, a number of scholars
have worked to challenge ELT’s dependency on native speaker
models, critiquing the very division between native and nonnative
speakers as well as attempts to categorize this divide, such as
Kachru’s (1986, 1990) circular model of English, which divided
countries into inner, outer, and expanding circles depending on
their relationship to English.1 Cook (1999) and Kramsch (1998)
argued that the native English speakers/nonnative English speak-
ers (NES/NNES) divide is not clear and that a multilingual

1 Kachru (1996) developed the widely utilized yet criticized notion of inner, outer,
and expanding circles when describing the spread of English. Inner circle nations,
which are home to ‘‘native user[s] for whom English is the first language in almost
all functions,’’ include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand. Outer circle nations, which are home to ‘‘nonnative user[s] who use an
institutionalized second-language variety of English,’’ include India, Singapore, South
Africa, Jamaica, and Pakistan. The expanding circle refers to countries where English
is used mainly by nonnative users ‘‘who considered English as a foreign language and
uses it in highly restricted domains’’ and includes countries such as China, Japan, Saudi
Arabia, Israel, and Nepal (Kachru, 1986, p. 19; 1990, p. 4). While finding the concept
useful in discussing different users of English, scholars have critiqued Kachru’s circles
for being limiting and inaccurate. For instance, Motha (2006b) has argued that they are
racialized because they ‘‘other’’ countries like Jamaica and South Africa by placing them
in the outer circle even though English has been institutionalized in these countries and
most of their citizens speak some form of English as their first language (p. 509).
 402 T. Ruecker

speaker is different from a monolingual native speaker and thus

should not be compared. Others (Higgins, 2003; Kramsch & Sulli-
van, 1996) have explored how different speakers claim ownership
over English and what may affect outer circle speakers from
claiming ownership. McKay (2002) discussed some of the ways
scholars have struggled to define the native speaker, subsequently
challenging the dependence on native speaker models in both
research and teaching.
In Braine’s (1999b) important collection Nonnative Educators
in English Language Teaching, teacher-scholars such as Thomas
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(1999), Braine (1999), and Canagarajah (1999) explored native

speakerism from educators’ perspectives, discussing how they had
been victims of native speakerism in hiring practices and stu-
dent evaluations. Other scholars (Kramsch & Lam, 1999; Matsuda
& Matsuda, 2001; Thomas, 1999) have argued that nonnative
English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) possess assets that mono-
lingual NES counterparts do not. Golombek and Jordan (2005)
examined how two teachers valued Cook’s (1999) concept of
multicompetence and acknowledged they did not want to simply
be ‘‘parrots’’ and imitate native speakers. They added that they
still faced real-world difficulties in fighting for credibility. DePew
(2006) referenced the prejudice that NNEST teaching assistants
face in the United States.
Other studies have focused on native speakerism from the
student perspective. Rubin (1992) and Lindemann (2002) showed
how accent and ethnicity affect the ways students comprehend
their teacher. Timmis (2002) surveyed more than 600 students
and teachers about native speaker preference, finding that stu-
dents had a stronger desire to sound like a native speaker than
did teachers. More recently, Motha (2006a) showed how the
‘‘discursive shaping of ESOL within schools serves the interests
of NESs, magnifies inequalities between NESs and NNESs, and
marginalizes ESOL while reinscribing white and English-speaking
privilege’’ (p. 78). Butler (2007) revealed how sixth grade Korean
students expressed a preference for U.S. accents even though
they were able to comprehend a Korean accent as well as a U.S.
accent in a listening test.
Scholars have explored and critiqued the workings of native
speakerism from different angles. Some, such as Holliday (2005)
and McKay (2002), challenged native speakerism by developing
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 403

a better understanding of English as an international language

(EIL). However, as this article argues, ELT scholars can push
their inquiry further by drawing more extensively on race theory.

Race and ELT

Over the past decade, scholars in the ELT field have seriously be-
gun to explore the connections between race and ELT. Nonethe-
less, as Kubota and Lin (2006) pointed out in the introductory
article for an edition of TESOL Quarterly devoted to this topic,
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the field has a long way to go: ‘‘Contrary to the relative absence
of discussions on race in TESOL, other fields such as sociology,
anthropology, education, and composition studies have both ex-
tensively and critically explored issues of race’’ (p. 472). Kubota
and Lin (2006) suggested that this absence may be connected to
the taboo nature of discussions revolving around race, especially
because this term elicits thoughts related to racism. In ‘‘Denying
Racism: Elite Discourse and Racism,’’ van Dijk (2002) demon-
strated that racism is often associated with extreme actions made
by White supremacists, something that is not often associated
with everyday actions. van Dijk (2002) explained how mainstream
manifestations of racism often go unnoticed or are not overtly
objected to because of strategies of denial.2 As a result, many
refrain from discussing race and racism with others, knowing
that it will bring up strong reactions that may hinder progress
in discussing such issues. Thus, in ELT as well as elsewhere,
silence often reigns because many fear the heated and irrational
emotions that may ensue in discussing the charged issues of race
and racism.
Despite these barriers, ELT researchers have begun to ex-
plore the intersections of race and native speaker status. For
instance, the Lindemann (2002) and Rubin (1992) studies ex-
amined how teachers’ ethnicity can significantly impact the way
they are heard by students, regardless of their English ability. As
demonstrated by this work, along with that presented in edited
collections such as Curtis and Romney’s (2006) Color, Race, and

2 According to van Dijk, strategies of denial include labeling the mainstream as

moderate and attributing racist acts to extremists like White supremacists. Another
strategy includes portraying anti-racists as the enemy, unfairly accusing an ‘‘innocent’’
victim of making a racist comment or conducting a racist act.
 404 T. Ruecker

English Language Teaching and the 2006 TESOL Quarterly special

issue, scholars have tended to focus on a teachers’ ethnicity, their
NES or NNES status, and the connection between the two. There
were some exceptions to this in the 2006 special Critical Inquiry
in Language Studies issue on postcolonial approaches to TESOL.
Postcolonial theory certainly has a connection to race theory in
that the process of colonization (Bhabba, 2002) and the scientific
discourses of this era (West, 2002) played an important role in the
construction of race and associated racial hierarchies. Multiple
authors in the 2006 CILS issue (Taylor, 2006; Motha, 2006a) drew
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on Bhabba’s (2002) theories of hybridity, mimicry, and identity

construction. However, despite the work of scholars such as Lin
and Luke (2006), Taylor (2006), and Motha (2006a), the knowl-
edge developed by race theorists regarding the creation of racial
hierarchies has been underexplored by ELT theorists working to
develop a more complex understanding of the inequalities in the
ELT field. This knowledge includes the role of daily discourses in
constructing hierarchies, race as a socially constructed concept,
racism as a process, and theories of passing.
In response to those who may question the application of
theories of inequality developed around race to analyzing linguis-
tic hierarchies, I refer to Motha (2006b) who wrote, ‘‘I consider
linguistic identities to be inextricable from racial identities be-
cause I believe Whiteness to be an intrinsic but veiled element
of the construct of mainstream English’’ (p. 497). Shuck (2006)
has illustrated how ‘‘dominant ways of talking about race in the
United States persist as templates for creating arguments about
language’’ (p. 273). Because mainstream English associated with
White native speakers and race have been imbricated through
a colonial legacy, analyses of racism are applicable to a study of
native speakerism and the inequality that it perpetuates. Through
drawing on the work of race theorists and analyzing these various
hierarchies in tandem, it is possible to gain a better understand-
ing of how they function together to perpetuate inequality.

Defining Terms

Before proceeding, a few key terms and theories utilized in this

article will be discussed so that the reader may understand the
theoretical framework guiding the discussion.
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 405

Race

This article relies on Omi and Winant’s (1994) definition of race:

‘‘Race is a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts
and interests by referring to different types of human bodies’’
(p. 55). Omi and Winant (1994) acknowledged that racial sig-
nification invokes a connection with biological characteristics;
however, as their definition indicates, it is ‘‘necessarily a social
and a historical process’’ (p. 55). Similarly, Bonilla-Silva (2010)
has written that social scientists generally agree that race is a ‘‘so-
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cially constructed category’’ (p. 8). While biological differences

are part of the dominant societal notion of race, the socially
constructed aspect is that which moves these observed differences
to being part of a hierarchy in which those possessing certain
features are superior.

Native Speaker

Kramsch (1998) referred to the prevalence of a static view of

native speaker identity, writing that ‘‘as a rule, native speakers
are viewed around the world as the genuine article, the authentic
embodiment of the standard language’’ (p. 16). Cook (1999)
explained that the defining characteristic of a native speaker is
that one is a native speaker of a language she learned first. Both
these authors challenged these simplistic views in a variety of
ways. For instance, Cook (1999) pointed out that even though
native speakers are often equated with fluency, native speaker
children are far from fluent in a language. Similarly, they make
the point that a simplistic definition of native speaker depends
on a notion of linguistic identity as static and that there is one
standard English.

Racism

Essed (1991) explained that ‘‘racism must be understood as an

ideology, structure, and process in which inequalities inherent in
the wider social structure are related, in a deterministic way, to
biological and cultural factors attributed to those who are seen as
 406 T. Ruecker

a different ‘race’ or ‘ethnic’ group’’ (p. 43). As this definition in-

dicates, racism is not merely the recognition of difference but also
a process in which this recognition contributes to the inequalities
prevalent in society. More recently, Bonilla-Silva (2010) has made
the distinction between Jim Crow racism, which is the overt type
of racism that most people associate with the term, and what he
has termed ‘‘color-blind racism,’’ which is a more subtle form
of racism. Color-blind racism may be found in statements such
as ‘‘Mexicans do not put much emphasis on education’’ (p. 28)
or those opposing affirmative actions programs with comments
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such as ‘‘I don’t think that [minorities] should be provided with

unique opportunities. I think that they should have the same
opportunities as everyone else’’ (p. 32). In addition to the dis-
tinction between overt and subtle racism, it is important to note a
difference between passively allowing racist practices and actively
practicing racism and that racism may occur on multiple levels:
the individual, systemic, and social.

Native Speakerism

Holliday (2005) defined native speakerism as ‘‘an established

belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a ‘Western culture’
from which spring the ideals both of the English language and of
English language teaching methodology’’ (p. 6). Holliday further
explained that native speakerism is based on the idea that NESs
possess English, thus thwarting attempts to define English as an
international language owned by all its speakers. As with racism,
it involves recognizing difference and using this difference to
‘‘deliberately put ‘native speakers’ in an advantageous position
: : : ’’ (Holliday, 2005, p. 28). Thus, like racism, native speakerism
is a social process in which differences are recognized and used
to create a hierarchy of power and dominance.

The Everyday

A notable aspect of Essed’s (1991) definition of racism is that it

is a process that depends on reification of what she describes as
‘‘everyday racism,’’ which is defined as ‘‘the situational activation
of racial or ethnic dimensions in particular relations in a way
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 407

that reinforces racial or ethnic inequality and contributes to new

forms of racial and ethnic inequality’’ (p. 189). van Dijk (2002)
explained how everyday racism is essential for racism’s survival:
‘‘Racism : : : can survive only when it is daily reproduced through
multiple acts of exclusion, inferiorization, or marginalization’’
(p. 323). Racism, as well as native speakerism, only survive if
they are constantly reinforced through daily discourses that make
them seem natural, increasing their power through making them
invisible and less likely to be challenged.
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Using Race Theory to Analyze Native Speakerism:

An Example

I draw on a seminal critical race theory (CRT) article, Harris’

(1993) ‘‘Whiteness as Property,’’ to discuss how NES identity
in ELT has been constructed through legal and recruitment
discourses as a property with real economic benefits. This ex-
ample demonstrates how ELT scholars can utilize the work of
race theorists like Harris to gain a more complex understanding
of the NES/NNES hierarchy that dominates the ELT field.

Whiteness as Property

CRT is a field that grew out of the critical legal studies movement
in the United States in the 1980s. As a result, it has focused
mainly on legal issues and U.S.-based racial concerns. Harris’
(1993) ‘‘Whiteness as Property’’ is no exception, as she focused
on how U.S. legal discourses have built up and protected a system
of privilege for those classified as White.
Like other CRT theorists (Bonilla-Silva, 2010; Hall, 2002;
Omi & Winant, 1994; Roediger, 2002, 2005), Harris (1993) held
that the strict division between White and Black is a socially
constructed practice, albeit an important one with serious im-
plications:

Because whites could not be enslaved or held as slaves, the racial line
between white and Black was extremely critical; it became a line of pro-
tection and demarcation from the potential threat of commodification,
and it determined the allocation of the benefits of this form of property.
 408 T. Ruecker

White identity and whiteness were sources of privilege and protection;

their absence meant being the object of property. (pp. 1720–1721)

In this instance and others, Harris (1993) explained how white-

ness has consistently been attributed certain privileges under
legal status in the United States, largely through laws forcibly
enslaving or excluding non-Whites from mainstream culture, or,
in the case of the Chinese Exclusion Act, from the country itself.
Because these discriminatory practices based on race were estab-
lished in custom and reified in law, Harris (1993) believed that
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whiteness ‘‘may be understood as a property interest’’ (p. 1728).

In making the argument that whiteness is property, Harris (1993)
explained that this brings those possessing whiteness multiple
expectations and rights: (a) expectation of some benefit, (b) the
right of disposition, (c) the right to use and enjoy, and (d) the
right to exclude. In the following section, I build on Harris’
(1993) concept of ‘‘whiteness as property’’ to argue that NES sta-
tus has been similarly constructed as a property interest through
legal and recruitment discourses.

Constructing Native Speaker Privilege Through Legal

and Recruitment Discourses

As legal discourse has played a huge role in perpetuating racial

discrimination, it has similarly contributed to NES privilege by
codifying it into law in the United States and other places around
the world. In the United States, groups such as U.S. English have
been successful in pushing constitutional rules regarding offi-
cial English policies (McKay & Bokhorst-Heng, 2008, p. 99) and
outlawing bilingual education states such as Arizona, California,
and Massachusetts. More recently, the Arizona Department of
Education has ordered school districts to remove teachers with
accents from English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms
(Jordan, 2010). Scholars such as Schmidt (2002), Shuck (2006),
Wiley and Lukes (1996), and Woolard (1989) have argued that
these policies are implicitly or explicitly racist. A 2005 TESOL
position paper on English-only policies emphasized this as well,
stating that ‘‘English-only policies will polarize and divide rather
than unify; they will exclude rather than include immigrants and
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 409

other English language learners from civic life and hence further
marginalize this group’’ (p. 4).
On a global level, NES privilege has been codified into law by
visa requirements established by certain countries which actively
recruit English teachers. For instance, a recruiting site for a Ko-
rean school states that you must be a NES to teach in Korea and
that ‘‘you MUST have citizenship and a valid passport from one
of the following English speaking countries: Australia, Britain,
Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United
States’’ (gone2Korea, 2010, emphasis in original). This partic-
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ular site attempts to shift the responsibility from itself for this
decision, pointing out that it is codified in Korean law: ‘‘These
requirements are enforced by the Korean Ministry of Justice
(Immigration) and receiving a visa is not possible if you don’t
meet these requirements.’’
Like Korea, the Taiwan Bureau of Education requires that
English teachers possess a passport from what they define as
English speaking countries. Their list of countries is the same as
that of Korea (Hess, 2009b). A major English school in Taiwan
warns potential applicants with the following, again citing the
law to affirm the practice: ‘‘Please do not apply if you cannot
fulfill these six requirements, as all teachers must meet the Tai-
wanese government’s regulations to qualify for legal working
status’’ (Hess, 2009b).
In the case of Korea, some change has occurred because of
complaints by regional educational officials that strict visa laws
have hindered recruitment of foreign teachers (The Chosun Ilbo,
2008, April 4). In 2008, the Korean Ministry of Justice declared
that they will allow nationals of countries that have English listed
as an official language to come to Korea to teach (The Chosun
Ilbo, 2008, Dec. 29). While Korea began by negotiating to al-
low teachers from India, it later planned to allow teachers from
countries such as Singapore and the Philippines. Nonetheless,
the new law still codifies privilege for NES teachers from Aus-
tralia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and
the United States because nationals of newly included countries
will be required to have both a teaching license and a four-
year bachelor’s degree while teachers from the countries named
above will only need at least two years of college-level education.
Also, teachers from newly included countries will not be allowed
 410 T. Ruecker

to teach at private language institutes (The Chosun Ilbo, 2008,

Dec. 29).
In addition to governmental policies, an important area that
constructs native speaker privilege is job advertising. A review of
the job advertisements on TEFL.com on one day in April 2009
revealed the following: Of the 61 ads listed under the ‘‘Asian’’
region, 13 specified no particular linguistic qualification, 3 speci-
fied NES or bilingual with neutral accent, 19 simply stated native
speaker, and an additional 26 requested a NES from specific
countries. Of the last category, the Korean and Taiwan seven-
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country standard dominated, with 16 occurrences. Six ads left

out South Africa, while one left out Ireland. This review reflects
the findings of Govardhan, Nayar, and Sheorey (1999), whose
survey of 237 ELT job advertisements found that native speaker or
native-like was the only main and common requirement (p. 117).
This review also reveals how the concept of native speaker, like
race, is largely socially constructed as there is no consensus re-
garding country of origin nor even the importance of referring
to country of origin in defining a NES.
In some advertisements and recruitment practices, NES sta-
tus has been explicitly connected with race. For instance, an ad
posted on jobschina.net for Jiangxi Vocational and Technical
College (2009) declared ‘‘white native English speakers only!’’
An LA Times article titled ‘‘Where English teachers have to look
the part’’ focused on how well-qualified Asian Americans struggle
to find jobs teaching English in China (Zhou, 2007). One student
is even quoted in the article as saying, ‘‘White people can speak
better English’’ (p. 2). A blog told the story of one Chinese
American who had a master’s degree and five years of experience
teaching English composition at a major New York university, yet
after much effort, was only able to secure a job at a ‘‘third-tier
vocational school for bottom wages’’ (Greg, 2010). The same
article mentioned that many Chinese language schools request a
picture as part of their application process, something that would
be considered illegal in countries with stricter anti-discrimination
laws for employment.
As the examples described above indicate, the status of being
a native speaker of English, narrowly defined by country of ori-
gin, has been codified into law and subsequently has been used
to exclude NNES teachers (and even non-White NES teachers)
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 411

regardless of their English teaching ability. With these examples,

the initial discrimination against NNES teachers was largely cre-
ated through legal practices; however, as individual schools un-
critically refer to these laws in recruitment practices, the notion
of NNES teacher as inferior is perpetuated and strengthened
through these discursive reiterations.
Because of the many ways that native speaker status has
been constructed as a property interest, it is not surprising to
hear prominent scholars such as Canagarajah (1999) explain
how MATESOL programs may be preparing NNES students for
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a lifetime of unemployment. He illustrated this point with an

example of a Korean MATESOL graduate from a U.S. university
concerned about finding employment in her own country. Ac-
cording to this graduate, Korean schools do not hire NNESTs
because ‘‘teaching is defined primarily in terms of linguistic con-
siderations’’ and not on the basis of educational qualifications
(Canagarajah, 1999, p. 84). This view is exemplified in the follow-
ing statement on the recruitment page of the Korean school ref-
erenced earlier: ‘‘Previous teaching experience or a related major
is not a requirement to teach English in Korea’’ (gone2Korea,
2010). In another instance, an ad on TEFL.com (2009) stated:
‘‘The ideal candidate will be someone who works well in a team,
has a positive outlook, likes meeting people, making friends and
has the ability to adapt to living in a developing country.’’ By
defining a qualified teacher primarily on the basis of linguistic
qualifications, social demeanor, and even the color of one’s skin,
actions of schools undercut the value of experience, training, and
disciplinary knowledge in the ELT field.
A recruiting video for a Taiwanese school that ‘‘profiles the
lives of five Native English Speaking Teachers’’ in Taiwan makes
an additional contribution to undermining the value of training
and disciplinary knowledge in ELT. The first of such profiled
teachers, a woman from South Africa, is depicted enjoying Tai
Chi in the park and visiting local hot springs while declaring,
‘‘For me, being in Taiwan isn’t about the money, it’s more about
the experience : : : So being in Taiwan, I didn’t want to fill my
day with just working, working, working, I wanted to have enough
time to explore the country as well, to meet different people’’
(Hess, 2009a). This is native speaker privilege being exploited to
the fullest. While a Taiwanese teacher possessing an MATESOL
 412 T. Ruecker

may struggle to find a job for low pay, this White South African
woman, possessing NES status, can come abroad for a few years
to enjoy local culture and teach English part-time while earning
enough to support her adventures. With English teaching being
promoted largely as a way to travel and live abroad, it is not sur-
prising that there is a public perception in places like Korea that
‘‘some foreign English teachers are little more than cowboys’’
(The Chosun Ilbo, 2009).
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Excluding Others From the Native Speaker ‘‘Club’’

As evidenced by the barrage of ‘‘No trespassing’’ signs, alarms,

locks, and other deterrents on private property, property also
gives one the right to exclude. While defining whiteness as prop-
erty, Harris (1993) depicted whiteness as a club in which its
members have strived to deny entrance to members of other
races. The desire to exclude others from one’s property or from
one’s club stems from the feeling that there may be material
loss for the privileged when sharing with outsiders. This desire
to avert material loss may be seen in the United States, United
Kingdom, and other inner-circle countries’ attempts to protect
their ‘‘ownership’’ of English, something that has been explored
in depth by Phillipson (1992, 2008).
The British Council assertion that the ELT export market
is second in importance to the UK economy after North Sea
oil (Graddol, 2006, as cited in McKay & Bokhorst-Heng, 2008)
indicates the economic importance countries such as the United
States, United Kingdom, and Australia maintaining their status as
authorities in the English speaking realm. Through the creation
of official English authorities such as British Council offices or
Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships, inner-circle countries
have perpetuated the belief that they are the true guardians and
possessors of the English language, explicitly asserting that it is
in their national interest to maintain this control (see Phillipson,
1992, pp. 136–169). Unfortunately, these are not the only bodies
reproducing this belief. Canagarajah (1999) has pointed out the
sad irony that the exclusion of NNES teachers from the club of
NES benefits is largely perpetuated by expanding and outer-circle
institutions (p. 83).
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 413

Why Draw From Race Theory?

Using the ‘‘native speaker status as property’’ argument as an

example, I am arguing that ELT scholars draw on race theory as
a way to expand the breadth and depth of scholarship on the
NES/NNES hierarchy, learning from a field that has made an
important contribution to challenging the racial hierarchies that
pervade our society. Exposure to race theory and the application
of an article such as Harris’ lead to a greater understanding of the
NES/NNES hierarchy for several reasons. First, it exposes how
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the inequality surrounding native and nonnative speaker, like

the inequality surrounding racial categories, is not a determinis-
tic facet of our existence but rather a discursively constructed
practice. Second, reading race theory shifts attention towards
legal discourses, something that is only occasionally done in ELT
publications; however, it often seems like those discussing these
discourses are simply stating them as a fact, failing to explore
how they contribute to the social construction of hierarchies.
Third, it reveals how racial and linguistic prejudices often work
in tangent to reinforce societal hierarchies, such as the one that
exists between NES and NNES teachers in ELT.
The interdisciplinary stance advocated here is not new for
ELT. Pennycook (2001) has explained how applied linguis-
tics, and to a greater extent critical applied linguistics (CAL),
are largely interdisciplinary in nature. According to Pennycook
(2001), one of CAL’s primary goals is ‘‘to find ways of mapping
micro and macro relations, ways of understanding a relation
between concepts of society, ideology, global capitalism, colo-
nialism, education, gender, racism, sexuality, class, and classroom
utterances, translations, conversations, genres, second language
acquisition, media texts’’ (p. 5). As a subset of applied linguistics
or CAL, ELT should be concerned with this mapping project,
especially in its quest to develop higher employment standards
and equality within the field. In doing so, ELT scholars cannot
and should not work to discover these relations on their own;
rather, they should draw more extensively on theories developed
in a field such as race theory to strengthen and expand their
work. While ELT theorists have begun to draw on race theory
to analyze the NES/NNES hierarchy, there are ways they can
expand their inquiry.
 414 T. Ruecker

One way would be to explore the concept of linguistic

passing in light of theories and narratives surrounding the well-
developed concept of racial passing.3 Piller (2002) has been one
of the few scholars who consciously addressed the concept of
linguistic passing. In her study, she focused on privileged elective
bilinguals who were native speakers of English, German, and
Dutch and discussed the performative and temporary nature
of linguistic passing. More recently, Bashir-Ali (2006) gave us
the example of a Puerto Rican immigrant who denied her
knowledge of Spanish, learned African American Vernacular
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English (AAVE) fluently, and attempted to pass as a native

AAVE speaker. Future scholars exploring the practice of linguistic
passing could draw more extensively on the literature of racial
passing to deepen their analysis. Researchers could also make the
distinction between privileged and marginalized bilinguals, with
Piller’s (2002) participants an example of the former and Bashir-
Ali’s (2006) an example of the latter. With a few cases offered
at the end of her article, Piller (2002) raised ethical questions
surrounding the use of linguistic passing in order to secure
economic gain. Bashir-Ali (2006) hinted at the power imbalance
that forces ESL students to pass with this statement: ‘‘Many
ESL newcomers feel pressured to assimilate into the dominant
social culture of their schools, causing them to deny their own
language and cultural identities’’ (p. 628). Future researchers
could further unpack the implications of these questions and
issues by drawing on race theorists such as Harris (1993), Bel-
luscio (2006), and Ginsberg (1996). For instance, Harris’ (1993)
work could be used to examine how power imbalances and the
hope of economic gain lead people to the ‘‘irrational’’ behavior
of passing: ‘‘The embrace of a lie : : : could occur only when
oppression makes self-denial and the obliteration of identity
rational and, in significant measure, beneficial’’ (p. 1783). In The
Politics of Passing, Ginsberg (2006) explained how passing creates

3 Harris (1993) wrote that ‘‘Passing is well known among Black people in the

United States and is a feature of race subordination in all societies structured on white
supremacy’’ (p. 1712). She used a narrative of her Black grandmother ‘‘passing’’ as a
White woman in order to gain employment in the 1930s at a major department store in
Chicago. Despite progress made on racial issues in the United States and elsewhere since
the 1930s, Harris explained that it is ‘‘not an obsolete phenomenon’’ as it can still make
economic sense to deny one’s skin color.
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 415

a ‘‘category crisis’’ and ‘‘destabilizes the grounds of privilege

founded on racial identity’’ (p. 8). Work like Ginsberg’s could
be used to further Piller’s discussion about the ways linguistic
passing upsets the NES/NNES divide.
Another way ELT scholars could examine the construction
of the NES/NNES hierarchy is to focus their attention on daily
discourses and actions. Some race theorists (Bonilla-Silva, 2010;
Essed, 1991; van Dijk, 2002; C. West, 2002) have discussed the
concept of ‘‘everyday racism’’ and how racism is an ongoing
process that is maintained and strengthened through daily reifi-
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cations. Closer to ELT, Shuck (2006), drawing from Foucault,

has written: ‘‘Dominant ideologies maintain their hegemonic
positions not because they belong only to people in authority
but rather because they are pervasive in much larger discourse
formations located in a vast array of communicative practices’’
(p. 274). By building on the work of scholars who have examined
racist discursive acts in everyday life and how they contribute
to the reification of this ideology of differences, ELT scholars
can explore the ways that the NES/NNES dichotomy and native
speakerism are constructed and strengthened through daily dis-
courses. While van Dijk focused on traditional media and parlia-
mentary sources, ELT scholars should also direct their attention
to online discourses as people all over the world are increasingly
spending more time consuming and contributing knowledge in
these spaces. Pandey (2000) wrote: ‘‘The spread of cybercultures
across the globe demands a re-evaluation of the premises of
knowledge’’ (p. 23). Realizing that the sources of knowledge
production shift as technologies change, prominent linguists like
Fairclough (2006), Gee (2010), and Kress and Van Leeuwen
(2006) have turned their attention to electronic discourses. The
role these discourses play in constructing and maintaining the
NES/NNEST hierarchy should be explored more in depth.

Engaging in Critical Negotiation

I would like to move toward a conclusion by referring to a work

that addresses the role of difference in our society, T. R. West’s
(2002) Signs of Struggle: The Rhetorical Politics of Difference. The
success and uniqueness of West’s book lies in his synthesis of
 416 T. Ruecker

rhetorical theory, race theory, and cultural studies in a study of

difference. A scholar from any one of these fields working in
isolation would not have been able to achieve what West (2002)
does by combining elements from all three.
West’s (2002) concept of critical negotiation is a practice
that may guide ELT scholars as they draw more extensively on
race theory to address the NES/NNES hierarchy and strive to
rewrite the meanings of native speaker and nonnative speaker as
used within ELT. According to West (2002), critical negotiation
is not negotiation in the following, clichéd sense: ‘‘Some utopian
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Rortian ‘conversation’ that is supposed to lead, in some genteel

fashion, to consensus, to an accommodation’’ (p. 14). Rather,
critical negotiation is ‘‘messy, sprawling, and emotional,’’ some-
thing that should ‘‘create a sense of unease’’ (p. 15). According
to West (2002), it should guide our discussions of difference
and the way we engage in challenging inequalities perpetuated
by these differences. Critical negotiation involves four impor-
tant aspects: (a) ‘‘recogniz[ing] the role and effect of emotion
during negotiation,’’ (b) ‘‘understand[ing] that negotiation is a
co-constitutive process, that it is at the point of negotiation, of
interaction, that meaning and identity are mutually constituted,’’
(c) realiz[ing] the importance of power relations of those nego-
tiating, and (d) ‘‘insist[ing] on situating negotiation within its
larger social and historical contexts’’ (p. 20).
Discussions of difference tend to foster a sense of unease
and stir emotions, which is precisely why they must occur. When
a hierarchy created around difference is challenged, those who
benefit from this hierarchy may feel threatened because they
will have to face the possibility of loss of power. Thus, it is not
uncommon to hear someone confidently deride Indian English
as a joke and defend her statement while confidently denying
any accusations of racism (Marvin, 2007). Others will lament
that treating English as an international language will lead to a
decline in language ‘‘purity.’’ It is important to be ready for these
emotional and subsequently defensive reactions, deal with them
patiently yet unyieldingly, and work to legitimize all Englishes.
West (2002) spent a significant amount of time developing
the second point, explaining that identities are hybridized and
that this should not be taken negatively since there is no such
thing as a pure race. Similarly, in a world where multilingualism
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 417

is the norm and NNESs outnumber NESs, the supremacy of

the monolingual NESs is threatened. When a student intends
to use English as an international language and interact with
people from different cultures who speak WEs, the importance
of sounding like an inner-circle NES is diminished. As scholars
like Canagarajah (2006), Kramsch (1998), and Matsuda (2003)
have argued, multilingual NNESs possess advantages and bring
many strengths to cross-cultural interactions that NESs may not.
West’s (2002) third point explains that it is important to note
that those in power do not speak for those having less power but
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speak with them. NESs and NNESs need to work together to

dismantle the hierarchy that permeates the ELT profession. In
order to do so, NES speakers need to engage in linguistic trea-
son.4 As with race treason, linguistic treason may be accompanied
by a material loss: ‘‘Whites would lose many of their perks and
privileges. So, the realistic appraisal is that whites do have a lot
to lose by committing race treason, not just something to gain by
forsaking whiteness’’ (Leonardo, 2002, p. 37). While there may
be immediate loss for teachers and institutions from inner-circle
countries that profit on maintaining their NES authority, there
is much more to be gained in the long-term through raising the
professionalism of ELT by highlighting the value of disciplinary
knowledge and professional training over NES status. By working
with NNES teachers, joining them on conference panels, co-
writing articles, and conducting other projects together, NES
and NNES teachers and scholars can work together to push
an egalitarian negotiation process that includes voices from all
involved.
West’s (2002) last point is the most salient for the current
argument in that it is important to situate the negotiation of the
NES/NNES terms within ‘‘larger social and historical contexts’’
(p. 20). It is impossible to erase the history of colonial oppression
connected with the spread of English; instead, scholars should be
clearly cognizant of this history since it has played a vital role in

4 Race theorists like Leonardo (2002) have written that White people need to

engage in race treason by examining and acknowledging the many forces that have put
them in a position of power and subsequently working to deconstruct them. Similarly,
linguistic treason would involve native speakers of English acknowledging their position
of power and examining the way they have earned and continue to earn that power, while
subsequently seeking ways to challenge their position of privilege in ELT.
 418 T. Ruecker

constructing the NES/NNES hierarchy. Similarly, while detailed

localized studies are valuable, scholars can work to situate them in
larger societal discourses to show how individual discourses have
contributed to the larger NES/NNES hierarchy that pervades
the ELT profession. A field such as race theory, whose scholars
have extensively explored issues such as the formation of racial
hierarchies and the history of colonial oppression, can help us
situate native speakerism in larger contexts. Race theory can
also direct scholars’ attention to areas such as legal discourses,
areas that could be explored more fully by ELT scholars. It can
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also help scholars take future empirical work to deeper levels

by providing more tools of analysis when discussing issues like
linguistic passing.

Moving Forward

Along with deconstructing or doing away with the NES/NNES

hierarchy, scholars need to reconstruct healthy, more egalitarian
roles for NES and NNES teachers and recognize NNES teachers
as ‘‘an important, vital, and very credible presence in the TESOL
profession’’ (Thomas, 1999, p. 12). This involves recognizing that
both NNES and NES teachers bring a different set of strengths
(Matsuda & Matsuda, 2001) and that NNES teachers have a num-
ber of advantages such as being bilingual and bicultural and a
vital role model as a language learner and one who can, in fact,
better empathize with students.
As Canagarajah (1999) wrote, the fallacy of the NES being
the best teacher ‘‘prevents the critical development of the TESOL
professional community and its discourses as it denies the par-
ticipation of Periphery teachers on equal terms’’ (p. 87). Unfor-
tunately, the belief of NES as superior has been ‘‘internalized’’
so a shift towards more egalitarian NES/NNES roles will take
time (Phillipson, 1992, p. 199). To challenge these internalized
beliefs and the power of words such as ‘‘native speaker,’’ imbued
with an almost superhuman quality, ELT scholars can expand
their efforts not only by familiarizing themselves with different
Englishes (see Kachru, 2005) but also by drawing on new tools
of analysis in the form of theories developed by race theorists.
By doing so, they can actively work towards a future in which
 Challenging NES/NNES Hierarchy With Race Theory 419

teaching abilities in ELT will not be determined by native speaker

status but by competence in the specific English(es) being used
in the context in question and qualifications that include bidi-
alectal or bilingual skills. Scholars and teachers, both native and
nonnative speakers, can then work towards a more egalitarian
relationship among members of the ELT profession and better
working conditions for all.

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