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`To be a native speaker means not to be a nonnative speaker’

Teachers College, Columbia University, han{at}tc.columbia.edu

The construct of the native speaker is germane to second language acquisition (SLA) research; it underlies, and permeates, a significant bulk of SLA theory construction and empirical research. Nevertheless, it is one of the least investigated (and for that matter, least understood) concepts in the field. Even a cursory reading of the major SLA literature would not yield one readily available definition that captures the essential uses that have been made of the concept: including, but not limited to, setting the native speaker as a goal or a model for SLA or using the native speaker as a yardstick to measure second language knowledge. As is, the concept remains assumed-based on common sense observation and intuition-rather than exposed to scientific inquiry. In this article I would like to draw attention to this pivotal yet much neglected concept by reviewing Davies (1991; 2003) on the native speaker. A by no means exhaustive account, the books outline principal parameters for considering the native speaker concept, thereby providing a useful basis for further inquiry.

Second Language Research, Vol. 20, No. 2, 166-187 (2004)
DOI: 10.1191/0267658304sr235oa


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