Debate on 'authentic' English
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By Akli Hadid
Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel Literature Prize winner who writes predominantly in English, cannot teach English writing or conversation classes in Korea. In many other countries also, English schools would not hire him to teach. Korean law and many schools only authorize people from seven “chosen” countries to teach English: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Supporters of this law claim that English as it is spoken in those seven countries is more “authentic” than the varieties spoken in Nigeria, Singapore, India or the Philippines. Many argue that people who are not from the seven countries grew up bilingual, speaking English alongside their other native language, but are disqualified from being native speakers.
People from former British or American colonies are often compound bilinguals, meaning they are perfectly fluent in their native language along with English. In such countries, most cross-ethnic communication goes on in English, many households adopt English as their language of communication, and most of the media and press are in English. They may have differences in intonation, pronunciation, syntax or semantics, but such differences are no different than the differences between British and American English.
Society has constructed what it believes is “authentic” English: it’s the variety spoken by monolingual, Caucasian educated people from predominantly monolingual English regions or countries. Anyone who does not fit the model is often believed not to speak “authentic” English.
Many believe that growing up speaking a language other than English at home means one cannot speak “authentic” English, as the language spoken at home gets in the way of English. Studies have shown that people can be perfectly bilingual and will even have the edge when teaching languages, as they will know grammar nuances from comparing them with the different languages they speak.
Scholars argue today that English is a de-territorialized language and that there is no “authentic” variety of English. Any variety of English can be considered English with no discrimination, no matter how annoying that variety may sound to a speaker’s ear. Some have invented concepts such as “CNN English” to define standardized English, but Ralitsa Vassileva’s slight Bulgarian accent, Fareed Zakaria’s slight Indian accent, Hala Gorani’s slight French accent or former anchor Veronica Pedrosa’s mixed British and Filipino accent is not what people refer to. When people refer to “CNN English” many have Anderson Cooper in mind.
With English being the official or de facto official language in 99 countries, and being widely spoken around the world, defining the “native” English speaker as someone who is from the seven Anglophone countries with sizable Caucasian populations, and leaving countries with predominantly non-Caucasian speakers out of the game can hint at the fact many view Caucasians as role models when it comes to speaking English.
However, with those seven countries experiencing recessions the last few years, and other Anglophone countries’ economies being healthier the last few years, several business opportunities are emerging around the world and non-native students who learn English from predominantly American or British resources often complain they have trouble understanding other varieties of English. With globalization picking up at a fast pace, English as a Foreign Language textbooks and test materials need to expose students to a wider variety of accents and dialects so they can be prepared to face the realities of the globalization of the English language.
When looking at English as foreign language teacher job advertisements, many advertise that they want people from the seven countries, give or take one country. Giving the seven countries preferential treatment means less exposure for students from different varieties and accents and means more communication problems and misunderstandings in global business.
Now that English is increasingly becoming the global lingua franca, it would be wise to reconsider defining the native speaker as someone who comes solely from those seven countries. How many more Wole Soyinkas will be barred from teaching English around the world because they don’t have the right passport?
Akli Hadid is a Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of Korean Studies. His email address is hadid.akli@gmail.com.