[etni] Re: Fw: re: spik inglish
- From: Lev Abramov <lev.abramov@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: ask@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:52:04 +0200
Hi Linda!
You are confusing two [certainly related] things: language competence
and accent/pronunciation, the latter being only one [albeit important]
component of the former. A person can have an excellent ear for
languages, develop pronunciation that makes him/her indistinguishable
from a native speaker - but at the same time have a small vocabulary,
poor grammar and spelling, use primitive syntactic constructions and
be totally unaware of subtle differences in the meaning of
near-synonyms (what we call subcategorizational restrictions) which
would result in forming wrong collocations, etc.
The reverse is also possible (and quite frequent). No-one will mistake
me for a native speaker by my accent - but in written English I can
probably lure most of my occasional correspondents into believing
English is my L1. Do you agree? :)
Best -
Lev
2010/2/23 Ask Etni <ask@xxxxxxxx>:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Linda Dayan - lindadayan7@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: spik inglish
>
>
> Hi, Doron,
>
> First, I liked your reply to the person who dropped the literature
> course.
>
> However, I do not agree that a non-native English speaker cannot achieve
> "full native competence", which I understand to mean that an Israeli can
> never talk like a native speaker. There are two English teachers in my
> school - neither of whom has ever lived abroad -whose spoken English sounds
> as American as mine if not more so (I am a native speaker, by the way).
> There is such a thing as an ear for language (many times connected with and
> ear for music) and so teachers can hope that some pupils will, indeed, reach
> this high standard.
>
> Linda
>
>
> Doron wrote:
>> Another point in the "spik Inglish" wars: since it is impossible for
>> non-native speakers to achieve full native competence, it is wrong to hold
>> them to a native-speaker standard. We should talk, precisely, of
>> "competence" in L1, L2, L3, etc., as indeed the European Union, among
>> others, suggests. Laurie will never be mistaken for a native-speaking
>> Bedouin; she can, with work, reach pretty good L3 competence, and be
>> congratulated for doing so. The same is true of Barry's Russian and
>> Ethiopian pupils, and my Arabic speakers - all hope to achieve
>> "sufficiently
>> good" competence in their L3 - English. To expect more is worse than
>> unrealistic, it is unfair and disempowering.
>
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