NG Chi Wui
About half a year ago, a preservice English language teacher in Hong Kong shared with me the latest safety video of Cathay Pacific and expressed discontent at the ‘non-native’ accent of the speaker. As Evans (2011) as well as Jenkins and Panero (2025) note, a lot of Hong Kong speakers of English still believe in native-speaker norms to determine ‘correctness’ in English. The Hong Kong Education Bureau, however, explicitly advocates for students’ comprehension of “a variety of accents” (Curriculum Development Council, 2017, p.A39). In the context of global Englishes, the paradigm of native-speakerism and its implications for English language education ought to be critically reflected upon.
One central question to ponder is: who is a native English speaker? A traditional definition of a ‘native speaker’ of a language is a person who learns to speak the language as a first language (Bloomfield, 1933). Native speakers of English conventionally refers to speakers of English language varieties in the Inner Circle of Kachru’s (1985) Three Circles of English, such as British English and American English and are often characterised as representing the ideals of the English language. For pedagogical purposes, English as a native language (ENL) where English is the primary language of the majority of the population, is contrasted with English as a second language (ESL) spoken in countries where English is an important but not main language, and English as a foreign language (EFL) where it is learnt in institutions but seldom used in everyday life (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Such a conceptualization of nativeness is however criticized for being simplistic as the distinction between ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ speakers is fuzzy due to the difficulty in identifying one’s first language in the contemporary multilingual and globalized world (Chan, 2024). Even speakers of localized English varieties not belonging to the Inner Circle may identify themselves as native English speakers (Hansen Edwards, 2017). These concerns show a need to redefine the construct of ‘native English speaker’.
As it is problematic to define ‘native English speaker’ by excluding speakers of regional varieties, it is unrealistic to regard the so-called ‘native standard’ as the goal of English language learning. The ‘native standard’ of the English language usually refers to Standard English, which has been delineated as “the most important [language variety] in the English-speaking world from a social, intellectual and cultural point of view” (Trudgill, 1999, p.123). Although Standard English is only one of the numerous varieties of the English language, use of the adjective ‘standard’ to characterize it reflects linguistic imperialism, in which a certain variety of the language is privileged as standard with all other varieties being treated as non-standard (Philipson, 1992). A further implication is that those who produce Standard English are more educated than those using other varieties. This violates applied linguists’ widespread belief that all varieties of a language enjoy an equal status.
In response to the aforementioned problems with native-speakerism, the Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) framework (Matsuda, 2003) is relevant to Hong Kong English language education. The framework recognises the value of introducing attributes of Standard English as an instructional variety to learners while embracing linguistic diversity. Being a researcher of Hong Kong English, I have been proactively promoting this regional variety of the English language. As I suggested in my Master thesis, Hong Kong English should be incorporated into the Hong Kong English language curriculum to acknowledge and raise the status of this specific local variety (Ng, 2022). It is also desirable to promote translanguaging in the classroom by deploying students’ full linguistic repertoire and drawing upon their knowledge of different varieties of the English language. The ultimate goal is to nurture competent English language users in international contexts.
With the absence of one single standard or norm of the English language which all English learners must look up to and abide by strictly, it may not be useful to strive for clear-cut definitions of a native English speaker. Instead of comparing learners’ language with the so-called ‘native standard’, it is more meaningful to enhance learners’ communicative competence as well as their awareness of different language varieties.
References
Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. London: George Allen & Unwin Limited.
Chan, K. L. R. (2024). The construct of English native speaker in Hong Kong. Journal of English and Applied Linguistics, 3 (1), 1-7. https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/jeal/vol3/iss1/1/
Curriculum Development Council. (2017). English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 – Secondary 6). https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/kla/eng-edu/Curriculum%20Document/ELE%20KLACG_2017.pdf
Evans, S. (2011). Hong Kong English: The growing pains of a new variety. Asian Englishes, 14 (1), 22-45. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13488678.2011.10801292
Hansen Edwards, J. G. (2017). Defining ‘native speaker’ in multilingual settings: English as a native language in Asia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38 (9), 757–771. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01434632.2016.1257627
Jenkins, J., & Panero, S. M. (2025). Global Englishes: A resource book for students (4th ed.). Routledge.
Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the Outer Circle. In R. Quirk & H. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world (pp.11-30). Cambridge University Press.
Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes: Implications for international communication and English language teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Matsuda, A. (2003). Incorporating world Englishes in teaching English as an international language. TESOL Quarterly, 37 (4), 719-729. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3588220
Ng, C. W. (2022). Relative clauses in written Hong Kong English: A corpus-based study Unpublished Master thesis. The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Trudgill, P. (1999). Standard English: What it isn’t. In T. Bex & R. J. Watts (Eds.), Standard English (pp.117-128). Routledge.
