Preparing us for what?

[Molly]

Do you agree with Nayar's view?

“the ideological loading of most of the arguments in cyberspace postings authorizes the view that English learning is seen as a part of the process of preparing them (the learners) for the chance of joining us (the native speaker community)."

Nayar, in Us and Others: Social Identities Across Languages, Discourses and Cultures By Anna Duszak.

[Jamie (K)]

Oh, this is more of that paranoid navel contemplation that's so common in the academic world. This type of academic is generally bigoted against some class of people or other that he considers dominant, whether it be "native speakers", "whites", "men", "the ruling class" or whatever is in vogue in that regard, and they love to concoct evil mentalities and project them on those classes of people. A lot of what they say is going on in the minds of the people they analyze is actually just going on in their own minds.

If what he says is true of native English speakers, it's doubly or triply true of speakers of other languages who post online. I used to post in another language that I'm supposedly quite proficient in, but since it's the language of a small country that very few foreigners learn, I was treated as a sort of spectacle. The native speakers on the forums never paid any attention to the content of what I said, and never answered my questions, but simply started arguing about my language. Generally they'd take some detail of my text and argue over whether or not it was a natively acceptable way to say it. I could never get answers to anything, so I started posting in English instead of in their language. When I posted in English, they paid attention to the content of my post, commented on it and answered my questions. When I posted in their own language, they ignored what I said and focused on how I'd said it.

At least native English speakers pay attention to what the person with faulty English is really trying to say.

[Molly]

[Jamie (K)]

[Molly]

[NinaZara]