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.