How to end native speakerism

Questioning language ideologies is not enough. It's time for a new view of language.

Here’s the crux of the problem: Every mainstream ESL classroom is built through a monolingual lens.

You start on day 1 of learning English at zero.

And the gold-standard end-goal is to hopefully, one day, speak as well as a monolingual “native” speaker…fingers crossed!

But wait. No student in any ESL classroom will ever achieve the goal of being a monolingual “native” speaker. All students in every ESL classrooms, are, by default, bilingual¹.

You start at zero and the end-goal is to reach a “monolingual/native” level. With this model, how would “native” speakers not be preferred as the “best models”?

Questioning our beliefs about language is an important first step to realizing that many beliefs, like the one listed above, don’t make much sense.

Last week, we discussed the questions: 1.) Is monolingual “native” English inherently better? 2.) Does being exposed to monolingual “native” speaker teachers help students learn English more efficiently?

And while these questions are important, they’re not enough. These questions still stem from a monolingual bias, which leads to bilingual speakers being compared to monolingual standards in each language. Which isn’t fair.²

A new approach to language is needed

It’s time to introduce Translanguaing, which is three things: a pedagogy (an approach to teaching), a theoretical approach (an approach to Language), and a stance (a political position that connects classroom practices to social justice advancements).

A major goal of Translanguaging is to disrupt linguistic hierarchies: the placement of one version of a language as better than another.

Goal of Translanguaging: To interrogate linguistic inequality and disrupt linguistic hierarchies and social structures, (García & Wei, 2014, p. 121).

Translanguaging does this is by providing a new definition of language.

Language, though a Translanguaging lens, is not something like English or Spanish. These are merely “named languages,” things that we, as a society, have called languages.³

They are not real language. Real language only exists inside of the person. It’s a constantly changing, evolving verb that reflects the experiences of the individual.

So, bilinguals don’t speak several languages, they, like everyone else, have a single linguistic repertoire. Inside my single linguistic repertoire, I have parts associated with the named-languages of English, Spanish, and Swiss German.

Language is specific to the individual.

As you are learning aspects of a new named language, you are adding them to your existing linguistic repertoire.

This perspective is very different from the monolingual lens—no student ever starts at zero.

You enter the classroom linguistically whole and you’re adding more ways to express yourself and more opportunities to make sense of the world around you, through language.

Language is, then, defined as: “the simultaneous process of continuous becoming of ourselves and of our language practices, as we interact and make meaning in the world,” (García & Wei, 2014, p. 8).

A new perspective

When I first heard the theory, I was skeptical. It seemed, more than anything else, like just a semantic change. It didn’t seem revolutionary.

However, it’s a new lens of language. You can think of a lens as a pair of glasses. Whether you put on glasses that turn everything blue or ones that turn everything green, you could take them off and the actual reality hasn’t changed.

A lens is the same thing: a way to interpret reality.

A good example is using multiple languages in the same sentence. For example, “No hagas eso, please.”

From a traditional perspective, we’d call this code-switching. While code-switching, a bilingual rapidly goes between different codes (languages) and mixes them in a grammatically correct way.

From a Translanguaging perspective, that bilingual is not code-switching (because separate codes don’t exist). Rather, that bilingual is just speaking. Using their whole linguistic repertoire.⁴

On the surface, it’s the same. The way we interpret it is different.

Taking multilingualism as the norm

Translanguaging places multilingualism at the center. In a classroom that uses a Translanguaging pedagogy, the goal is to help students leverage everything they already know (all the other languages in their repertoire) to help them learn aspects of the target language.

An example:

[mainstream ESL classroom]

Let’s say everyone is in an intermediate writing class.

They first read an article completely in English and discuss it again in English.

Then they plan their essay completely in English. And write it, again, in English.

[Translanguaging classroom]

Same class. The assignment is to produce a monolingual English writing assignment.⁵

First, students might read an article on the topic in the language they feel most comfortable with. Then, they’ll read it in English. They’ll discuss it with classmates in whichever language they feel most comfortable in⁶.

They’ll plan and draft their essay in whichever language they feel most confident in and will brainstorm English vocabulary they might use.

Then, they’ll write a final draft in English.

…

In the Translanguaging approach, students are not stifled into only speaking in English. Maybe they don’t fully understand the text. Maybe they’re embarrassed to speak to their classmates in English. The result is that they’re more likely to have a superficial understanding of the text by only using English.

As this quote by Wei (2017) shows, Translanguaging allows students to use all of their linguistic resources to understand class materials:

If we say to them: do NOT use your mother tongue, do NOT use the language or languages you already know and you know the best, while you are trying to learn English as an additional, new language, it is like tying one of their hands at the back or blindfolding one of their eyes and still expect them to do and see things as others do and see with two free hands and two open eyes.

The quote means that monolinguals are able to make meaning of materials using all of their linguistic resources. However, bilinguals are often told to only use the target language, regardless of proficiency.

Translanguaging places the importance on understanding the material and forming ideas. As ideas are not bound to named languages, this can all be done in the language the student feels most comfortable with.

It’s important to point out that in this approach, how languages interact in the classroom, matches how languages interact in student’s lives.

Students, out in the world, will, likely, not be operating only in English, everywhere. They’re likely to use English in some places, and their first language in other places.

In these classrooms, would a “native” speaker be favored?

Native speakerism, when you sit down and think about it, doesn’t make much sense. However, when everything in ESL classrooms—from the greeting to the assignments—is fully in English (and students are only evaluated in how well they English), the discussion of “who speaks the best English” is inevitable.

Language is no longer outside of the speaker. It is no longer something that has a 100%. Language, like speakers, is constantly growing and evolving.

It’s not enough to tell students, “being bilingual is great!” We need to show them how being bilingual can help them learn English.

When students disavow the idea of language being something outside of themselves, then they realize they are adding to themselves through language learning.

“Non-native” speaker would never be a term in these classrooms, as it upholds “natives” as better and represents the idea that language can be completely learned.

No, in these classrooms, “non-natives” are bilinguals—people who navigate the world and experience life in multiple languages. People who have added to their linguistic repertoire. People who have more opportunities to express themselves and think about the world than monolingual speakers. People who know their strengths and who have strong bilingual identities.

In these classrooms, bilingualism (previously known as being “non-native”) is a strength—for teachers and students.

To conclude

The process of learning a language has always been multilingual. You simply can’t “turn off” your first language, while learning another one. Moreover, bilinguals’ lives are complex, as they navigate their lives in multiple languages. To me, Translanguaging represents a pedagogy that validates, holds space, and empowers bilingual students.

Discussion

Thank you for reading this newsletter! I had a great time writing it, and it was one of the theories I was most excited to share. In the comments below, let me know:

1. What has your language learning experience been like? Have you always only used the target language?

2. Do you think it would be beneficial for students to use all of their linguistic resources? In what ways?

Works Cited

García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Language, bilingualism and education. In Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education (pp. 46-62). Palgrave Pivot, London.

Wei, L. (2017). Translanguaging and the Goal of TESOL.

1. There are many ways to define bilingualism. In Translanguaging, emergent bilingual is used to describe someone just starting to learn another language.

2. It isn’t fair because bilinguals do more with language, overall, yet they’re being compared in only one language. So, if person A knows 50 words in English, and person B knows 40 words in English and 30 in Spanish, person B can do more with language, overall. If you only compare their English knowledge, though, person A knows more.

3. They are sociopolitical realities connected to the nation-state.

4. We could have a whole other newsletter on how this slight shift changes everything. As someone who grew up speaking Spanglish, it did feel like I was just talking. However, to the outside world, there were connotations of Spanglish speakers being people who didn’t fully speak English or Spanish.

5. Translanguaging is all about getting students to think critically about language. Sometimes, they’ll write completely in the target language. Other times, they’ll produce texts using their full linguistic repertoire and reflect on how the use of multiple named-languages enhanced their writing. This helps build a strong, bilingual identity.

6. This works in a classroom in which students share the same first language. But there are plenty of other Translanguaging strategies for instances in which students have different first languages.