The CATESOL Journal

In this article, the author argues that the “native speaker of English” concept is a linguistic manifestation of nativist discourses that construct visible minority immigrant women in First-World countries as being nonnative to the nation state and, thus, as being nonnative speakers of English. This study is based on the experiences of eight minority immigrant women who have taught English as a second language (ESL) to adults in Toronto, Canada. The article explores the teachers’ encounters with native speaker ideologies and recounts how they negotiated challenges in the classroom. Using data from the study, the author raises questions about the validity of the native speaker model that is used in ESL programs and suggests that the native-nonnative speaker dichotomy be dismantled, and the native-speaker norm be reconceptualized.