Up Your Teaching: Transforming ELT & Learning Beyond Labels - Podcast · Ania Karwowska PolCa Languages

The Non Native Speaker- Meri Maroutian Fighting for Equal opportunities for Non-Native Speakers in ELT.

·31 min·2 clips

Mary Maroutian says she entered teaching without qualifications and later sought formal training.

1. Up Your Teaching: Transforming ELT & Learning Beyond Labels - Podcast focuses on Mary Maroutian and the non-native speaker problem in ELT. 2. Mary Maroutian is a Delta-qualified teacher based in Parma, Italy, and the host introduces her as someone teachers need to hear. 3. The episode asks why non-native speakerism still shapes hiring, classroom practice, and professional respect. 4. Mary says she entered teaching around 2011 through an online ad and was hired over the phone before she had qualifications. 5. She explains that she originally wanted to become a journalist and was working as a shop assistant when the school contacted her. 6. Mary says she immediately sought formal training after entering the profession without qualifications. 7. She argues that native speakers can be unqualified and still get hired, while non-native speakers are often expected to prove themselves first. 8. Mary says the bias comes from perception, physical appearance, and the impression that articulate speech equals competence. 9. She compares that perception to politicians who can sound convincing without saying anything that is actually useful. 10. Mary describes her multilingual background with Armenian, Russian, Spanish, English, and Italian. 11. She says she and her sister often served as family translators while moving between countries. 12. Mary rejects the idea that multilingualism is a deficit and says monolingual frameworks still dominate many schools. 13. She supports translanguaging and says she uses students’ first languages to build rapport and connection. 14. Mary says she was taught not to use students’ languages in class, but she disagrees with that advice. 15. She links some monolingual attitudes to colonial history and to the idea that only a speaker from the language’s origin can teach it. 16. Mary says English is a global lingua franca and that parents often demand full immersion even when research does not support it. 17. She discusses EU anti-discrimination rules, including the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and says legal loopholes still allow exclusionary hiring. 18. Mary says LinkedIn posts that ask for “native speakers” are still common and that teachers should publicly challenge them. 19. The conversation is direct, advocacy-driven, and practical, with examples from classrooms, job ads, and teacher training. 20. Teachers interested in multilingual classrooms and hiring fairness will get the most from this episode, while listeners looking for light chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A direct challenge to the idea that only native speakers can be trusted to teach English.

Mary Marutan, a Delta-qualified teacher based in Parma, Italy, makes a clear case against non-native speakerism from lived experience in Malaysia, the US, and Italy.

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Why you'd press play

If you've heard 'native speaker' used like a hiring shortcut, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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