[etni] Fw: re: spik inglish
- From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:21:13 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: Doron Narkiss - doron.narkiss@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: spik inglish
Dear Linda,
I don't doubt that people are capable of achieving native or near-native
competence in a language that is not their mother tongue. I'm sure, after
years of living in israel, that your hebrew is excellent, yet is it as good
as that of a hebrew native speaker your age with a similar educational
background, only in hebrew? And even if it is in your particular case, this
may not be statistically true for all non-native speakers. All I'm saying is
that isn't fair to rate a non-native speaker on the same scale as a native
speaker, like complaining that there's not enough orange juice in an apple.
Doron
Linda wrote:
> 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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