{"id":2750,"date":"2016-02-09T13:14:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T21:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2750"},"modified":"2016-02-08T13:14:43","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T21:14:43","slug":"what-is-a-native-english-speaker-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/what-is-a-native-english-speaker-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Native English Speaker, Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most ambitious English learners share the same goal: to use English with \u201cnative-like\u201d fluency. But what is<\/em> native English? And who are the native English speakers?<\/p>\n

The popular belief among English learners (and many English teachers) is that native English belongs to the United Kingdom and its five major former post-colonial nations: Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. But is this really accurate? Are those really the world\u2019s only native English speaking societies? And are citizens of those six countries automatically native English speakers?<\/p>\n

The answers to these questions are not as obvious as some might think. To understand what native English is<\/em>, it might be good to first look at what native English is not<\/em>, according to conventional wisdom.<\/p>\n

Native English is not the same thing as English lingua franca<\/em>. \u201cLingua franca\u201d refers to any language that\u2019s used as a common second language among groups of people who are in frequent contact, but speak different native languages. Because English is a global language, it\u2019s often used as a lingua franca in multilingual nations.<\/p>\n

English is used as a lingua franca to some extent in multilingual European countries like Switzerland, where different regions are dominated by different languages. Swiss people may use English as a common language when they travel to a part of their own country with a different native language than theirs. Switzerland has just four languages, each of which dominates a specific region of the nation. When Swiss native Italian French, German, or Romanish speakers travel outside of their language zones, they often rely on English as their lingua franca.<\/p>\n

In other more linguistically diverse countries, English sometimes acts as a lingua franca for every day\u00a0 local living, not just travel. Take India, which has 22 official languages, and over 1500 language groups overall. In a India and other linguistically rich countries, there aren\u2019t that many regions where everyone has the same native language. Individual cities and towns can lack a dominant native language, so that a global language such as English becomes the community lingua franca. And even individual households can have mixed languages, with the father speaking one language, and the mother speaking another.<\/p>\n

When a mother and father have two different native languages, English as lingua franca can dominate home life as well as life outside the home. The parents may speak English to each other and to their children. So English can actually be a person\u2019s \u201chome language,\u201d even if they live in a country that is not considered to be a native English speaking country.<\/p>\n

By now you may see the problem with the distinction between native English and English as lingua franca. Places like Canada and Australia are seen as native English speaking countries, because English is the language of home, school, business, and life in general. But doesn\u2019t English also dominate life in the same way in many communities in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and so on?<\/p>\n

At some point an English lingua franca evolves and becomes a new form of English in its own right. This is what happened with English in Jamaica, for instance. And debatably, this is what happened with English in the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The early settlers of these countries had many different native languages, but they used English\u2014the language of their colonial government\u2014as a lingua franca. And this process is still going on in some ways. Multilingual immigrants still come to these countries and use English as a common language.<\/p>\n

And children still grow up in homes where their parents use English as a lingua franca rather than a shared native language. In fact, my father grew up in an American English lingua franca household So did my son, since his mother is a native Korean speaker. And even England, which has the clearest claim to native-English nation status, is full of immigrants. The English lingua franca experience is very common in British households, neighborhoods, towns, and cities.<\/p>\n

\"wianesa_img1\"<\/p>\n

The takeaway here is that trying to sound exactly like you come from one specific \u201cnative English\u201d country isn\u2019t necessary. You can have the native-like fluency you want\u2014or need\u2014just by reaching a point where you can comfortably use English in any of your life\u2019s situations. So don\u2019t measure the understandability of your English by whether or not you have the right accent, or the correct \u201cnative\u201d manner of speech. Your understandability is measured by whether people can understand you.<\/p>\n

Native-like fluency is a good concept and a good goal. But it\u2019s not<\/em> a concrete set of rules and standards. In fact, as you can see in this Engvid video lesson<\/a>, native English speakers make mistakes too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most ambitious English learners share the same goal: to use English with \u201cnative-like\u201d fluency. But what is native English? And who are the native English speakers? The popular belief among English learners (and many English teachers) is that native English belongs to the United Kingdom and its five major former post-colonial nations: Ireland, Australia, New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13600],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is a Native English Speaker, Anyway? - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/what-is-a-native-english-speaker-anyway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is a Native English Speaker, Anyway?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most ambitious English learners share the same goal: to use English with \u201cnative-like\u201d fluency. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}