“The concept of “native-like” proficiency is a moving target, which isn’t fighting fair. What is a native speaker, really? It’s becoming more and more difficult to define. The fact is, people speak the language(s) they know lots of different ways. The ways that people speak the language(s) they know relates to more than just the order they learned them in, for example, their education, experiences, and more. And, as my BILD colleague, Sumanthra, pointed out to me when we were talking about this topic, there are so many different groups around the world who use English, begging the question, which group has “ownership” of native-like proficiency? In other words, whose “native-like” proficiency should be considered the model? It’s simply not possible to define or answer these questions.” (Godfrey-Smith, 2016)

The excerpt above was written by my BILD colleague Lauren in her most recent post about the desired ‘native-speaker proficiency’ end goal many students aim for in their language studies. Her post is the springboard for this piece, where my purpose is to explore the effect of the “native-speaker” narrative on not only students but educators as well.  Continue reading →