A funny point: it is untrue, that this article speaks only about responsibilities of the natives. It describes the responsibilities of the non natives too, such as spending a lot of money, time, and efforts on not only learning English, but also passing exams (which may require something totally different than normal use of English at work), and also facing bullying sometimes. Even if we limit it just to the money, it is simply clear that any native (=with zero investment in learning English) is morally wrong to claim that non natives have no responsibilities (=most of the people working in the International Bad English environment have paid hundreds and thousands of euros/dollars to get through this gatekeeping mechanism).
However, there is no good universal solution, and we see a part of the reasons even in this thread.
If we push the natives to dumb their English down, and to make it more standard, we don't know which standard to pick. It is impossible to find one standard for so many people, any language will start crumbling after having reached some point (just look what happened to Latin or Arabic, it's normal). We will also dumb down the communication and not only prevent the non natives from improving, but also lose some important parts of the functions of the communication. Even jokes and dumb sportsy sayings are a part of communication and socialisation, unless we want to talk like robots. I'm also convinced that pushing natives to dumb down their speaking in general (not for specific situations requiring it) further strenghtens the prejudices towards the non natives and the class system, where we are bellow the anglophones. Honestly, I'll be very cross with any anglophone patronising me and talking to me like to a moron
But just dismissing the need for some native participation to the solution of the problem, that's not gonna work either. Bullying shouldn't be supported. It is done very often and either very obviously (like the mocking professors mentioned in the article. I heard similar stories from the medical congresses) or less obviously but very harmfully (hiring token anglophones in companies wishing to improve their image, and paying them much more than to equally educated and experienced locals or non anglophone expats). The call for normal basic decency, and for consideration for the non native's efforts and real skills, that's surely a needed impulse.
I'd say the only solution is diversification and strenghtening the role of regionally important languages. If you demand people to learn English, you can demand them to learn a different big language too, they'll do it (if you pay, or if you make it a gatekeeping mechanism too). It would make the ground internationally more even, the anglophones wouldn't be seen as the globally superior class, and you'd get higher quality communication in languages, that haven't created their International Bad Spanish/French/Chinese/German/anything yet. The important thing is making two foreign languages the norm among the educated people. It is partially happening, at least in some countries, two languages are demanded more and more often, but this trend hasn't reached the needed scale and level yet.
But I know it's probably not gonna happen on the global scale, the marketing that is part of the huge EFL business is simply too strong. So, what will keep happening are companies paying lots and lots of money to push their International Bad English employees to improve their English, and countries funding English in schools at the expense of the other (and in many cases potentially more profitable) languages.
