DECONSTRUCTING THE 'NATIVE SPEAKER' IDEOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY ELT TEXTBOOKS: PROMOTING GLOBAL ENGLISHES AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN THE MODERN CLASSROOM

The contemporary landscape of English Language Teaching (ELT) is undergoing a major paradigm shift driven by the global expansion of the language. Historically, ELT textbooks have prioritized the "native speaker" ideology, presenting Inner Circle varieties—specifically British and American English—as the exclusive pedagogical standards. However, since non-native English speakers now vastly outnumber native speakers globally, this monocentric approach fails to prepare learners for real-world communication. This article deconstructs the native speaker ideology within ELT materials and advocates for an inclusive framework centered on Global Englishes (GE) and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). Utilizing a critical textbook analysis methodology grounded in Kachru’s Three Concentric Circles, this study evaluates the representation of diverse linguistic varieties, intercultural contexts, and non-native interlocutors in globally distributed ELT coursebooks. The findings indicate that while modern textbooks show minor improvements in including Expanding Circle characters, they remain heavily biased toward Anglo-Saxon cultural norms and standardized Inner Circle phonetic models. The analysis highlights that over-reliance on idealized native standards causes student self-marginalization and restricts the development of pragmatic accommodation strategies. The article concludes with a comprehensive framework for curriculum designers to integrate pluricentric linguistic inputs, interactive translanguaging practices, and deep reflective intercultural tasks in the modern classroom.