For a long time, the English language teaching (ELT) profession in Asia has been regarded as a dichotomous composition of so-called ‘native English speaker’ (NES) teachers and ‘non-native English speaker’ (NNES) local teachers. This dichotomy serves as a benchmark against discussing various problems in the discipline ranging from learners’ proficiency to hiring practices of teachers. In this article, I will present a diachronic account of how the ideas of ELT have changed over the years, with special attention to the status of NES–NNES dichotomy, and consequently how the changes have contributed to the formation of the disciplinary discourse at different times. I will then critically analyze how the notion of native speakers has been represented in the literature in applied linguistics to identify the key issues on native-speakerism in ELT and make a proposal for optimizing the profession by calling for a departure from the NES versus NNES dichotomy.
