Going beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching

TLDR

Language teaching traditionally models language use on native speakers, overlooking that L2 users differ cognitively and linguistically and should be treated as distinct speakers. The article contends that centering instruction on L2 users, rather than native speakers, improves teaching outcomes and sets realistic goals for learners. It proposes incorporating L2‑user‑based goals, real‑world roles, and students’ L1 into classroom activities, and using L2‑user descriptions as instructional models. Recognizing L2 users as legitimate speakers fosters a positive image among students and teachers, rather than viewing them as failed native speakers.

Abstract

This article argues that language teaching would benefit by paying attention to the L2 user rather than concentrating primarily on the native speaker. It suggests ways in which language teaching can apply an L2 user model and exploit the students' L1. Because L2 users differ from monolingual native speakers in their knowledge of their L2s and Lls and in some of their cognitive processes, they should be considered as speakers in their own right, not as approximations to monolingual native speakers. In the classroom, teachers can recognise this status by incorporating goals based on L2 users in the outside world, bringing L2 user situations and roles into the classroom, deliberately using the students' L1 in teaching activities, and looking to descriptions of L2 users or L2 learners rather than descriptions of native speakers as a source of information. The main benefits of recognising that L2 users are speakers in the own right, however, will come from students' and teachers' having a positive image of L2 users rather than seeing them as failed native speakers. Language professionals often take for granted that the only appropriate models of a language's use come from its native speakers. Linguists look at the intuitions of native speakers or collect quantities of their speech; language teachers encourage students to be like native speakers. This article argues that the prominence of the native speaker in language teaching has obscured the distinctive nature of the successful L2 user and created an unattainable goal for L2 learners. It recommends that L2 users be viewed as multicompetent language users rather than as deficient native speakers and suggests how language teaching can recognise students as L2 users both in and out of the classroom.