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When we look at English teacher ads on social media there’s often a comparison between “Normal/Basic” English vs. “Native/Advanced” level, and what we see under the latter are idiomatic expression, colloquialism and phrasal verbs.

Just so we are clear, a phrasal verb is a type of verb that is made up of multiple words, typically a base verb and one or more particles (such as prepositions or adverbs).

These particles change the meaning of the base verb, giving the phrasal verb a unique meaning. For example: “She put off the meeting until next week”, the meaning of “put off” in this context is to delay or postpone the meeting.

Since phrasal verbs are typically learnt through exposure and practice, common ones are included as study material for foreign students with the explanation that Native Speakers use these expressions and so they must too. But how true is this?

It is estimated that approximately 365 million of the world’s population can be considered under the very vague definition of the term “native speaker”, however, there are around 1.5 billion speakers of English as a second language worldwide.

The importance of studying phrasal verbs would be to accomodate a minority by speaking “as they speak”, or learning expressions which they themselves might not know how to explain or paraphrase.

One might wonder why it is not the native speaker who needs to be more accomodating in the communication process given the innate proficiency level of English they hold, per definition (I will save that for another post).

Let’s say you have several thousand phrasal verbs under your belt and you find yourself in a multicultural, multinational room. Would you be saying things like:

1. “To back out” – This phrasal verb means to withdraw from a commitment or agreement.
2. “To bring up” – This phrasal verb can have multiple meanings, such as to raise a child or to mention a topic in conversation.
3. “To call off” – This phrasal verb means to cancel or postpone something.
4. “To stand up” – This phrasal verb has multiple meanings, one of which is to cancel an event or appointment – I was stood up

The answer is both yes and no because it really depends on your awareness level you have of those around you and what is the purpose of the communicative act.

• Is it to boast about how well you can use these expressions?
• Is it that you don’t know alternatives for the words you’re using?
• Are you trying to fit in?
• Are you trying to confuse or exclude someone from the conversation?

As a teacher I find myself using fewer and fewer phrasal verbs and I teach only the essential ones to learners. If I use them myself I try to provide as much context possible, I leave clues behind and paraphrase what I meant with another go.

I am often disappointed with misunderstandings that occur because of the use of phrasal verbs among international colleagues, and when I can, stealthily, I offer more context for them by saying more on the topic to clarify meaning (not directly offering a translation or teaching!)

Surely you must speak in a way that caters to the receiver of your message, and to do that you must grade your language, just as you would with a student who is struggling. It is a matter of respect towards others, native speaker or not.

Let’s not fill our conversations with inside jokes if all the participants are not made privy. We should know better.

Thursday, 20th April 2023, 6pm CET

Topic: How are our students affected by native Speakerism?

Guest: Kayla McKesey, also known as Teacher Kay Kayla McKesey (she/her), is a Toronto-based educator who began her English teaching career in Sao Paulo, Brazil where she founded Diaspora English Learning – a platform seeks to share the diverse cultures and ethnicities found across the English-speaking world while helping students transform into confident and powerful speakers.

Recently someone suggested that I teach countable and uncountable nouns to children in the primary using British Pounds, in Italy. The lesson would have included a little “market” where children would role play and ask “how much is it?” and then reply “£1.50 please”. You get the idea.

The conversation started something like this: “do you have any pounds at home?”

I liked the idea of bringing more context into the lesson, but I genuinely wondered how children would benefit from the introduction of the a currency that was new to them, the British pound sterling, instead of using one they were more familiar with, the euro.

“Why would you use pounds and not euro?”, I asked my colleague. “Well, they ARE studying English, so it’s good that they learn more about British culture along with it”.

I shook my head thinking, THIS is the face of native speakerism and how educators are unaware of their own detrimental attitude towards non-native English speaking teachers. THIS is a pure example of how NNEST are not given any grace, because their origins and feelings have no place in the English classrooms. For how fitting is it for ME to teach a culture of a country whose spare change I don’t possess to bring to school and speak of… the only foreign land learners can one day visit to practise their English(?)*sarcasm

“Should I bring Armenian Dram, then?” I asked, smiling, “or am I to be excluded from such lesson since this is not MY culture we are talking about?”

Why should I feel belittled for not being a part of GB, or as an English teacher, merely for not wanting to make the lesson about British culture, when I honestly don’t see the point of making it about British culture in the first place.

You see, I wouldn’t worry about teaching currency to kids at that age, and get their little heads wondering about conversions instead of giving them opportunities to use the language. They are just about adding and subtracting whole numbers, learning decimals and place value. Why would anyone want to confuse them even more, with the sole justification of this being part of cultural studies, when all one should say is “your English books show the £ sign but feel free to think of these as the € sign, since it’s what you normally use every day and you don’t live in GB”. Nobody in the class has signed up for learning currencies or Britsh culture, yet all need to speak the language and practice their English skills.

I wouldn’t be writing this if I hadn’t said exactly what I wrote here to my colleague. She didn’t object, instead she reflected.

Let’s not make English about British culture. Let’s pull ourselves out of such boxes. Let’s be more inclusive of our non native staff and never suggest things that can simply be avoided or made more friendly to students and teachers who are not from Great Britain.

I believe all cultures are equally important, but how can learners benefit from that if we are only feeding them with one, supreme culture, as if it were the only one available to master the English language?

I will not stand by and feel inadequate. Nobody owns the language I teach so I will not succumb to the ever-growing tendency of making English about British culture, waving union jacks and speaking of the royals and their corgis and double-decker buses and red phone booths, and tea-time at 5 o’clock, because that is NOT what English is to me, and I bet it’s not what it is for my students.

Thursday, 20th April 2023, 6pm CET

Topic: How are our students affected by native Speakerism?

Guest: Kayla McKesey, also known as Teacher Kay Kayla McKesey (she/her), is a Toronto-based educator who began her English teaching career in Sao Paulo, Brazil where she founded Diaspora English Learning – a platform seeks to share the diverse cultures and ethnicities found across the English-speaking world while helping students transform into confident and powerful speakers.