What do you see as advantages & disadvantages of being native a speaker and a non-native speaker - Essay Example

What do you see as the advantages & disadvantages of being a native and a non-native speaker? Native speakers of a language enjoy numerous advantages over their non-native counterparts who, subsequently, experience a range of disadvantages due to social exclusion, lack of any intense or ongoing semantic familiarity and the burden of social or ethnic otherness that finds itself replicated in language systems. Advantages also exist for non-native speakers however, as the concept of English as a global language creates a simplified, secondary stream of English language communication. Native and non-native speakers therefore enjoy both positive and negative flow on effects from their degree of expertise or familiarity - and these effects vary as global language systems evolve. LAYERS OF LANGUAGE As the use of English spreads throughout the world and the concept of a global english becomes more viable - a clear delineation emerges between native and non-native speakers of the promoted dominant language. There is a clear linguistic stratification within groups who are speakers of a certain language. Even within groups of native speakers there are cultural, socio-economic and micro-social dialectic particulars creating sub-categories of communication that produce exclusivity within even smaller groups. From the foundation of language basics - commonly learned at infancy by a native group of speakers - a fragmentation occurs whereby verbal and wriiten communication evolves, fragments and channels itself along lines particular to individual experience, social standing and education variables. On a macro1 level there is the English language in its text book form, on a deeper level is the English language among its native speakers within a broader social and cultural context - but even deeper still - and influenced and interdependent upon a multitude of levels in between - is the personalised English language that, honed to a state of flexibility by a lifetime of familiarity and usage - is as reflective of ones personal experiences and as individualised as DNA. EXCLUSION, LITERACY AND SOCIALISATION Language is also malleable and prone to adaptation, change and playful alteration - and it is difficult to pin down, define and - subsequently teach - something which is unpredictable and in a state of constant and often illogical flux. This the basic problem behind attempts to narrow the divide between native and non-native English speakers - and also the core issue when it comes to acknowledging and defining degrees of linguistic disadvantage. It is hard to deny that these micro levels of exclusion - privy only to native speakers - do indeed exist and proliferate throughout society. Olsen (1997, pp. 240-241) examines the way discrimination against non-native speakers can assert itself in the schoolyard: "There are three pieces to the process of Americanization that newcomers to the United States undergo in our high schools: academic marginalization and separation; the requirements to become English-speaking (despite many odds) and to drop ones native language in order to participate in the academic and social life of the high school; and insistent pressures to find and take ones place in the racial hierarchy of the United States." When looking at the specific disadvantages this exclusion sets in motion however - it is important to consider what benefits are open to native speakers who can converse on all levels of micro and macro English communication.Social inclusion has communication as its lifeline and often as its shaping force. Shared experiences can be given a place in the social narrative by way of re-telling or even by the process of expanding upon the core groups common vocabulary. Like twins who create their own language as a type of intimacy, social groups bond over key words, phrases and references that allude to their shared memories.2 These key words, phrases and references are often playful in their use and adaptation of a native tongue and they frequently deviate from basic language structures and rules - but they are no less ladden with meaning and relevance for those that understand them. One of the main ways they foster intimacy - apart from the establishment of an ongoing shared narrative is, conversely, by their ability to exclude others outside of a particular group who do not have access or knowledge of the core groups language. Over time, these references or personalised social cues can evolve into a complex form of communication - and can often cross-reference with popular culture, larger social spheres or geographic determinants.3 Macneil (2005, p.1) speaks of the internal linguistic variables across different soci-economic and geographic locations in parts of the United States: "They know themselves as "Yinzers," from "yinz," the plural of "you," or "you ones." They use "slippy" for "slippery"; "red up" means to "tidy up"; and "anymore" as in "Anymore, theres so many new buildings you cant tell which is which." In downtown Pittsburgh--pronounced "dahntahn" - the question, "Did you eat yet?" sounds like "Jeet jet?" If you havent, the response is, "No, jew? " The problem in the way English is necessarily taught and understood as a secondary language - is that it tends to become essentialised4 - effectively reducing it to a set of linguistic formations and overlooking its inner contradictions, variability and complexity. Those inner attributes - which change all the time and exist in inumerable variations - inform some of the most important communication processes shared among native speakers. According to Macneil (2005, p. 18): "Language change happens and theres nothing you can do about it." The confidence to interact using micro levels of communication, and the familiarity with a native language that allows one to be playful and inventive with meaning and structure - is not something accessible to non-native speakers. Therefore, social exclusion is a key disadvantage for the non-native speaker - who also stands to miss out on of the many connected benefits of inclusion - such as a feeling of emotional connectedness, the ability to utilise networking opportunities and foster personal and business links and the ability to access information that may be beneficial, but which is only shared on the micro level. THE NATIVE TONGUE AND POST-COLONIAL POWER Taken further, social exclusion can become akin to a state of otherness - both on a micro and macro level. According to Tollefson (1991, pp. 207-208): "Language policy is a form of disciplinary power. Its success depends in part upon the ability of the state to structure into the institutions of society the differentiation of individuals into Read More