L’ideologia del madrelinguismo nell’accostamento alla lingua inglese in contesto prescolare

The present paper explores the concept of native-speakerism, which has been described by Adrian Holliday (2006) as “a pervasive ideology within ELT, characterized 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.