I'm very late to the discussion and many of you here have made very interesting points.

I'm very late to the discussion and many of you here have made very interesting points. Many of you have made a good point by stating that nonnative speakers have outnumbered native speakers; to which I'd like to add that the English language, like any other social construct, is not a fixed and/or homogeneous entity. A large percentage of native speakers, like non-native speakers, are exposed to different accents and dialects, on a daily basis, which increases the chances of language contamination. This makes me wonder: what qualities do we look for in a native-speaker's text? Are they always present if the native factor is? Are these same qualities exclusive to native speakers?

I still think, for that reason, that context is key. For instance, I know that my A1 students have trouble understanding non-native speakers with pronounced accents, and notice that they have less difficulties recognising sounds when 'standard' English is spoken. Hence, because it's familiar to them, native-speakers' English becomes preferable.

As mentioned before, in the discussion, it also depends on where, when, and with whom students are going to use the language. If they're more likely to come across English spoken by non-native speakers, then it would be more useful to expose them to the same variety of English. The opposite also applies.

Long story short, I think that it's hard to define what we mean by English spoken by a native-speaker; and even if we do, the materials we use should be chosen with the students' needs in mind.