Global Englishes and the Native Speaker Standard in EAL Classrooms

Abstract

According to recent estimations, of the approximately 1.5 billion speakers of English, more than seventy-five percent (around 1.1 billion people) have learned English as an additional language (EAL) (Stevens, 2019). This means that the vast majority of current English speakers would be referred to as ‘non-native’, while the minority would be considered ‘native’. While this might not come as a surprise to most people, it does beg the question: Does speaking English like a ‘native’ speaker really matter?

To counter this pressure on students to ‘speak like a native,’ some in the international TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) community have begun to emphasize the necessity of teaching English in a global setting (Global Englishes). Specifically, by teaching Global Englishes in EAL classrooms throughout the world, thus intentionally stepping away from the ‘native’ English speaker standard (NESS) (Tardy, Reed, Slinkard, & LaMance, 2021). It is worth uncovering and analyzing the reasons that so many EAL learners feel pressure to sound like what can only be described as a minority of English speakers and how these factors impact the curriculum of EAL programs.