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Race and native speakers in ELT: parents' perspectives in Hong Kong

Chinese parents in Hong Kong err in their perceptions of racial background and the native speaker of English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2011

Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
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Extract

English is used as an important means of international and intercultural communication around the world more than ever. Because of its widespread use in the global context, non-native speakers of English around the world outnumber native speakers by far (Crystal, 1997). According to Kachru and Nelson (1996: 79), ‘accepting even cautious estimates, there must be at least three nonnative users of English for every old-country native user’. A similar phenomenon is also observable in the English Language Teaching (ELT) profession, with the vast majority of teachers of English as a second and foreign language in the world being non-native speakers.

Type
Original Article
Information
English Today , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , September 2011 , pp. 25 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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