A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

A critical discussion of a postmodern approach to the concept of the native speaker 2

Introduction 2

Main characteristics of the postmodern turn 2

Deconstructing the native speaker: definitions and intersections 3

Conclusion 6

Bibliography 8

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

A critical discussion of a postmodern approach to the concept of the native speaker

This paper argues for the prominent influence of the postmodernist paradigm on the evolution of the

concept of the native speaker and, focusing on one particular postmodern theory, proposes to examine

several views of the concept that offer alternative definitions that could be suitable for all speakers who do

not fit neatly in the clearcut categories represented by the terms native and nonnative speaker.

Introduction

Rising from the ashes of the Middle Ages and its superstitions and religious constraints, the modern era was

based on `optimism, reason and progress′, and in this era, these values `became the dominant discourses

and the foundations of knowledge′. The `rational man was believed to have the capacity to uncover a

singular knowable reality a reality that would not be subject to question...′ (Grbich, 2004). The nation

state was central to the modern era, with its idealised standard version of the official language, its

educational system that actively promoted the use of that standard language and often strongly

discouraged the use of regional dialects, its language planning programmes and institutions aiming at

encouraging nationalist sentiments and unifying `particularistic and diverse subgroups′ (Fishman, 2003;

Billig, 1995) its study of `the Other′ and its colonial ambitions. The postmodern turn questioned the

modern era′s stereotypes.

Main characteristics of the postmodern turn

A child of modernity, the notion of postmodernism is an elusive one because postmodernist theories and

attitudes come in many forms and have many meanings; an experimental style of representation in the arts

and architecture, a historical epoch that follows the modern one and varieties of social theory. There is no

single theory called Postmodernism, but from Foucault to Derrida and others, according to Dean (1994, p.4),

they are all characterised by a `scepticism toward longcherished concepts and modes of thought, an

unwillingness `to accept takenforgranted components of our reality and the ``official′′ accounts of how

they came to be the way they are′ (cited by Rubdy, 2007), as well as an awareness of the contingent,

particular and shifting nature of categories inherited from the modern era (Pennycook, 2006). The modern

era′s metanarratives, dichotomies and its nationstate leave the postmodern thinker incredulous (Lyotard,

1984; Grbich, 2004). Indeed, the postmodern thinker discovers several models of order, and perceives

knowledge as local and contextual. Colonial and postcolonial systems of thought gradually give way to

globalisation and multiculturalism, the centralisation of power decreases, the voices of minority groups and

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scholars from former colonial territories are increasingly heard (Grbich, 2004; Chakrabarty, 1992).

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

Deconstructing the native speaker: definitions and intersections

The notion of the native speaker fits the modern idealised concepts of a standard language and a unique

truth, perfectly. According to Ferguson, `linguists . . . have long given a special place to the native speaker as

the only true and reliable source of language data′ (Ferguson, 1982, p. vii). Indeed the concept fulfils the

appeal for models and norms that characterises the Western modern world′s tendency to study and classify

(Jeffers, 2006; King, 1999; Tuhiwai Smith, 1999). The concept of the native speaker can be scrutinized

through this lens of postmodernism (Rubdy, 2007), and within the postmodern theories, this paper uses

Derrida′s deconstructionism for this scrutiny.

`

Derrida′s deconstructionism is provocative, if not subversive, in questioning the selfevidence, logic and

nonjudgmental character of dichotomies we live by′ (Rawlings, 1999).

It does not necessarily offer solutions, but dissects `texts′1, and the concept of the native speaker can be

viewed as one such `text′ to be undone. Like everything else, it is socially constructed (Davies, 2003; Rubdy,

2007) and can therefore be deconstructed. This particular theory seems ideal as the aim of this discussion

is to understand what being a native speaker entails, rather than to search for a single and allencompassing

`truth′, insufficient to account for the complexities involved in the real world.

The notion of the native speaker has greatly evolved since its first appearance `in medieval times′ (

natale

idioma

or

lingua native

meaning language of birth or innate language). At the time `it was commonly

believed or suspected that language was in some way biologically inherited′

(Christophersen, 1988). It is

now commonly accepted that `no human baby is born with an innate knowledge of any particular language′,

but that they `learn the language of their environment′

(ibid). Apparently only the English language uses the

term `native speaker′; other languages and cultures offer concepts that are dissociated with the notion of

birth. For example, in Polish the term that comes closest to the English one is

jezyk ojczysty

(sic), which can

be loosely translated as `father tongue′ i.e. language of the fatherland; in Russian,

nositel jazyka (sic)

, or

carrier of the language; in Chinese,

country language

(sic) (RadwaskaWilliams, 2008) while in French, the

concept of the mother tongue is preferred (langue maternelle). In Duala, a Bantu language of the Niger

Congo group (Ethnologue.com), such a definition is not even considered, the only interest being to know in

what language(s) an individual can communicate.

In English, tentative definitions of the concept have been offered. Bloomfield who prefers the term `native

language′ defines it as the `first language a human being learns to speak′ and excludes from that definition

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1 According to Derrida, "Everything is a text; this is a text," he said, waving his arm at the diners around him in the bland

suburban-like restaurant, blithely picking at their lunches, completely unaware that they were being "deconstructed."

(Cuddon, 1991)

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

all languages learnt later; Chomsky, taking the focus away from a binary distinction between native and

nonnative, looks at language development as part of all human development, and states that `everyone is a

Native Speaker of the particular language that the person has `grown `in [their]... brain′. Chomsky′s native

speaker construct, a member of an idealised homogeneous speech community 2 , is taken as the

authoritative and reliable source of grammaticality judgments indicative of linguistic competence

(RadwaskaWilliams, 2008). Halliday (1978) choosing to use the `mother tongue′, recognises that it

requires clarification and states that `no language ever completely replaces the mother tongue′; he suggests

that `certain kinds of ability seem to be ... difficult to acquire in a second language′ but considers the

possibility of acquiring native speaker level in a second language. Davies (2003), who argues that the native

speaker is determined by attitude as much as language ability and knowledge, offers step by step

characteristics of the native speaker; he states that the native speaker acquires the language during

childhood, has grammatical intuitions, a capacity to produce fluent spontaneous discourse, to write

creatively in his or her language (from jokes to epics, metaphor to novels) and to translate into the language

of which she or he is a native speaker.

These characteristics quite clearly exclude a great number of native speakers worldwide; it seems obvious

that not all native speakers can translate into their language as it implies a good knowledge of the source

language they are translating from, let alone write novels as that entails writing skills that many laymen do

not have. Another interesting concept is that of the home language (MbassiManga, 1973); it is prudent,

because it does not make any claims whatsoever as to the level of proficiency or expertise of the speaker,

but just signals the fact that it is the language spoken at home, probably the language of intimacy but not

necessarily the one in which the speaker will have the best writing skills for example.

Most linguists associate the concept of the native speaker with primacy in language use, with an idealised

intrinsic spoken competence, with the notion of gradual postnatal acquisition and refinement, or with

written competence. These frames exclude or ignore languages that are replaced by new ones, and used

more frequently and fluently than the

first

one, for example when children migrate; they marginalise

multilingual people (Davies, 2003; Lee, 2005) and people who are highly competent in a language but have

foreign accents, those who speak a language fluently but do not write it for various reasons for example if

there are no written forms of a language ((Florez & Terrill, 2003), or all the socalled `native speakers′ who

are not `ipso facto knowledgeable, correct and infallible in their competence′ (Nayar, 1994) . The term is

clearly a useful one in that it responds, albeit in an imperfect way, to the perception shared by laymen and

linguists, that some people have of an `insider knowledge′ of a language or dialect, while others approach it

at a later stage in their lives, and use it with less ease. Nevertheless, there is a genuine need for more

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2 Davies offers three definitions of the speech community (2003); the one referred to here, a blend of some of his criteria,

is `a group of people all of whom speak the same language′ and who share a common acceptance of which language code

is to be used for what purpose.

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

appropriate terms suitable for particular language practices and situations, in linguistics, built on the study

of the native speaker′s language competence, and in education, for the study of second language

acquisition, in language teaching and other professional situations in which the term is used as a benchmark

for the evaluation of language proficiency (RadwaskaWilliams, 2008). It would be difficult to simply drop

the concept (Ferguson, 1982) without offering suitable alternatives. Such alternative terms are offered by

several linguists, particularly Paikeday (1985) who proposes `proficient user of the language′,

Christophersen (1988) who offers the notion of a `primary′ language ­with regard to importance rather

than chronology and Rampton (2003), with language expertise, inheritance and affiliation. While

Paikeday′s term essentially focuses on the use of the language without taking into account `personal

preference and commitment′ (Christophersen, 1988), social factors, cultural realities, identity etc..., and

Christophersen′s interesting proposition requires a detailed discussion about the meaning of `importance′

in this context3, Rampton′s multiplicity of terms cover a wider range of linguistic and social situations.

According to Rampton (1990), language expertise is particularly valuable in that it focuses on learned and

relative competence, it is different from identification, it is partial and subject to certification. The

underlying premise is that expertise is targeted and limited by nature, and thus encompasses more

speakers than the term `native speaker′. He recognises that expertise does not cover language as a symbol

of social group identification, and offers inheritance and affiliation, two aspects of language loyalty that he

deems worth distinguishing. These two flexible and `negotiated′ terms express the individual′s membership

in a group; inheritance is not limited to birth (because it can `lose its value and be disowned′ for example

(ibid)) and affiliation can vary, for example because people can belong to several groups or their feelings of

belonging can change. Unlike the concept of the native speaker, this flexibility takes into account the

complex nature of the language practices that exist in the multicultural world people live in today. For

instance, `native speakers′ of substandard varieties of the standard language and of regional dialects might

not be recognised as ′native speakers′ of the standard variety, but they certainly have a certain level of

expertise and could be affiliated or not to the standard variety. In addition, the notion of expertise is less

biased than the native/nonnative dichotomy in that the latter implies that native is positive, superior and

offers greater prospects of success while nonnative is negative, `less than native′, inferior and can convey

feelings of inadequacy. (RadwaskaWilliams, 2008). This can have implications in schools for example

leading to the discrimination of nonnative teachers of English (Thomas, 1999), Holliday, 2005, Chiba et al.,

1995) or the false perception that nonnative speakers among the children are less able to learn.

Similarly, people who learn two languages from birth have two `first languages′ and can be `experts′ in both

languages, but it would be difficult to classify them as native speakers of both, even if they are `fully at

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3 Who is the language important for, and how is it important? The most important language for a learner could be the one

she/he masters less, for example because she/he needs to acquire proficiency in that language for professional reasons.

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

home in the language[s], confident in [their] use of [those languages] and able to make judgments about

usage with which other members of the language community will normally agree′ (RadwaskaWilliams,

2008). For example, when registering as an interpreter or a translator on professional websites or paper

forms, there is always only one box to tick or one field in which the linguist is invited to put her/his native

language; even though translators are experts in several languages, they are not considered `native′ for

more than one.

Moreover, an individual′s knowledge of language can vary over the course of a lifetime. A native speaker of

one language for example who moves to and settles in a country where a different language is spoken and

uses the new language most of the time, will certainly experience a change in her/his `expertise′ in her/his

`native′ language.

Conclusion

Deconstructing the `native speaker′ discourse reveals a rich and complex layer of language practices, and

various models that take into account language use within the society. The awareness by scholars that

there is nothing straightforward about languages and language practices can be useful to inform

classification particularly in education but also to understand practices of people who are likely to find it

difficult to fully pledge allegiance to a former colonial language, or others who may be keen to maintain one

particular language spoken by their parents or ancestors as a way of preserving what remnant of identity

they can preserve.

Where a job requires applicants to be native speakers, with a hidden agenda aiming at eliminating foreign

candidates who are assumed to be nonnative, a scenario that Paikeday condemns (1985), the potential risk

of social discrimination might be reduced if a certain level of expertise is taken as the criterion, because

proficiency in the language required for the position would imply suitability for the position.

Nevertheless, some questions remain; if

expertise implies assessment by others, how can the expertise of

languages that are not taught in oral or written form in schools, and with no officially certified expert, be

assessed? Furthermore, would expert native speakers of a `world′ variety of a language such as French be

awarded native speaker status in Europe (for example for educational or professional purposes)?

Many people nowadays are from several places at a time and from no place in particular, because they are

not necessarily affiliated to their birth place or their current place of residence and some have no link with

their parents′ place of birth (for example many Beurs4 in France).

Paul Christophersen, a native Dane with

outstanding proficiency in English that surpasses that of many `native′ English speakers, and who

epitomises the complexity of this matter, points out that `there is clearly a need for a term to replace

native

6

when talking about proficiency (1988). The term `primary′ (in the expression `primary language′)

,

he says

,

is

4 Second-generation immigrants of Maghrebi descent (Tarr, 2005)

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

rather ambiguous. He argues that the term `dominant′ is illsuited and rather unpleasant, and that the term

`proficient′

offers an incomplete picture.

Like Christophersen, this paper recognises the validity of several propositions particularly the notions of

home language, expertise and affiliation, but suggests that there is no unique solution; different concepts

cater for different aspects of the relationship between the speaker and the language, and the concept of

the `native speaker′ is not one of them. Indeed, given its fuzzy nature, its irrelevance in the present world

with its shifting language practices, and its inadequacy in meeting the need for valid definitions, this paper

sympathises with Paikeday′s statement (1985) that `the native speaker is dead′.

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A CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

January 10, 2009

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