When using an authentic audio or video it is important to use only ‘native speakers’.

When using an authentic audio or video it is important to use only ‘native speakers’. Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons.

I neither agree nor disagree. I think it completely depends on the situation. I don't think excluding or including non-native English is wrong. For me, there are so many variables that come into play when making this decision, so there really is no right or wrong answer. I don't think natives speakers or non-native speakers are necessary for every audio clip or class.

As a Bilingual English and Spanish speaker who has family in Costa Rica and is married to a Mexican, I know how important accents can be to some people. My grandmother, cousins, aunts, and uncles get very upset when my accent is more Mexican sounding as I watch Mexican novelas and speak to my husband often in Spanish. They feel I'm losing my heritage. My husband gets upset when I sound too Costa Rican because the certain pronunciation of words sounds jarring to him. I am visiting my grandmother next month, so I am trying to listen to only Costa Rican accents as I know how easy it is to mix things up, and I don't want to upset her as she hasn't seen me in a while and takes great pride in having taught me Spanish. It's tricky. Interestingly enough, I know that if I have a "gringa" accent, they would both be upset, so that's not an option for me. I can't win.

At an English school in the US, I was only allowed to play native English speakers from the US. It was what the school was known for.

When I taught business English in China, it was whatever the group needed. For instance, there was a group of Chinese students that did business with Malaysians 99% of the time, so I actually ended up handing it off to a teacher that was actually from that area, and they focused on that. They had different features that they used as their English was their own, and I wasn't adept at understanding the cultural nuances or the particular pronunciation differences. I wasn't needed and that was fine. As a native speaker, I couldn't meet the clients' needs and excused myself.

If I get requests for accent modification, then I would definitely only use native speakers. Listening to segmentals and not focusing just on suprasegmentals has a lot to do with it.

Some of my students work in major international corporations, so they would definitely need a variety.

I had one student whose boss was from the US. The boss called up and told me he felt his subordinate was having issues understanding him. The student spoke perfect Indian English, had no issues understanding his Asian colleagues, but had issues understanding American English, so we focused on that.

Lastly, If I had a student who I knew was transferring to LA or a large international city, then I thought it was great to focus on a variety of English accents. However, once I had a student that was transferring to Peoria, Iowa, to study English. It didn't make sense to me to worry about exposing him to a lot of different accents.

Like I said, it is totally situational dependent and far be it for me to push my students towards something they don't need.