L’IDEOLOGIA DEL MADRELINGUISMO NELL’ACCOSTAMENTO ALLA LINGUA INGLESE IN CONTESTO PRESCOLARE

Abstract

The present paper explores the concept of native-speakerism, which has been
described by Adrian Holliday (2006) as “a pervasive ideology within ELT,
characterised by the belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a ‘Western
culture’ from which spring the ideals both of the English language and of English
language methodology”. The first section discusses some theoretical issues
related to the definition of a ‘native speaker’, while the second section provides
an up-to-date literature review of the ideology of native-speakerism and its
effects in English language teachers and learners. The third part presents the
results of a study which involved a group of educators who regularly expose
preschoolers to foreign languages and were required to fill in a satisfaction
questionnaire at the end of a training course. The analysis revealed traces of
native-speakerism in some answers and free comments, as well as forms of
cultural resistance and counter-framing.