'I’m still not sounds like native speaker' : the native speaker norm, language ideology, and the empowerment of international students

摘要

InternationalstudentsintheUnitedStatesarealargeandgrowingpopulation(InstituteofInternationalEducation,2010).UniversitiesintheUnitedStatesandelsewhereareattemptingtotapintothepotentialbenefitsofinternationaleducationincludingtheadvantagesthataculturallyandraciallydiversestudentbodyoffers.Despitevaluinginternationalstudentsfortheirculturaldiversity,universitiesstillseemreluctanttoembracethelinguisticdiversitythatinternationalstudentswhoare‘non-­‐nativespeakers’ofEnglishinevitablybringwiththem(cf.Jenkins,2011).Thisstudyexploresthisissuefromthepointofviewofeightinternationalstudentsstudyingatamid-­‐sizedUSuniversity,usingquestionnaireandinterviewdatacollectedlongitudinallyovereightmonths.Thedatarevealsthatdespitemanyclaimstothecontrary(e.g.Carter,1998;Kubota,2006;Kuo,2006;Prodromou,2006;Scheuer,2005;Sobkowiak,2005),internationalstudentsarenotunequivocallyinsupportofusingastandardbasedonnativespeakernormsforlanguagelearninganduse.Rather,theissueisasourceof conflictandcontradictionforthestudents.Furthermore,thisideologyof‘nativeness’formedonthebasisofthebeliefthat‘nativespeaker’languagerepresents‘authentic’or‘superior’languageleadstheparticipantstoapositionofdevaluingtheirownandother‘non-­‐nativespeakers’’intelligibilityandcommunicativecapacity.Thestudyconcludeswiththesuggestionthattheideologythatholdsthat‘non-­‐nativespeaker’languageisdeficientasopposedtodifferentfrom‘nativespeaker’languageisincompatiblewithavisionofegalitarianinternationaleducation,inwhichEnglishisusedasacommonlanguageorlinguafranca.InordertoempowerinternationalstudentstocontributetotheacademicdiscoursesthatcharacterizeUShighereducation(andothercontexts),recognitionofthelegitimatespeakerhoodof‘non-­‐nativespeakers’ofEnglishiscritical.