p. Medgyes

The Vivian Cook article didn’t work when I tried to open the email so I am writing on P. Megyes article, “Native or Non-native: who’s worth more?” since this is what we are covering on the November 9th class.

I must say that when I first read the title of this article I was a little put off. Asking the question, native or non-native: who’s worth more? entirely goes against what I thought this class was about: working toward establishing equality between NS and NNS, and raising the awareness that’s it’s not what you are but more who you are and what you do. However, after reading a little further into the article I found that in the first paragraph it states that NS and NNS have an equal chance of becoming successful teachers, though they reach success by following different paths. Many of the issues the article raises have to do with what Medgyes says are problems and issues that arise in defining the NS. Medgyes states that some “liberally minded” concepts maintain that native speakers are more or less, “more accomplished users of English,” and that because of this we shouldn’t even use the words native or non-native (instead, more accomplished users of English). Maybe I am reading too much into this, but my question is, more accomplished in what? In speaking English? I would like to have the “liberally minded researchers” explain this to me in detail. By this definition it could be an accomplished person, like a Nobel Peace Prize winner who maybe learned a little English at some point in their lives, and used it. That is, by definition, an accomplished person who uses English. I was happy to see that Medgys saw the issues in defining NS and NNS in these ways. Really, are there any completely accurate ways to define NS and NNS? It seems to me that instead of trying to define NS and NNS we should instead use our energy to raise awareness in developing established knowledge of the ambiguities in any definition of native or nonnative, but stress the idea that both NS and NNS are equally capable of becoming great teachers. After all, Medgys also says that even the question, “who’s worth more?” is counterproductive.