native speaker essay

Native Speaker

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Henry Park is a Korean American man who lives in New York City and works as a spy of sorts. His job is to go undercover in a variety of contexts and gather information about a specified target. His boss is a man named Dennis Hoagland , whose firm gets hired by outside clients to gather information about “people working against their vested interests.” In general, the people Henry spies on are usually wealthy immigrants who secretly support insurrections or revolutions in their home countries.

Most recently, Henry was assigned to gather information on a Filipino therapist named Emile Luzan . It’s normally easy for Henry to stick to his invented backstory, but he had a hard time doing this because life was in shambles: his wife, Lelia , had recently gone to Italy alone. Her departure was tied to the fact that their son, Mitt , died at the age of seven.

Lelia felt alone with her grief because Henry never talked about it, but Henry just isn’t a very expressive person. This is thanks to his Korean upbringing. His family moved to New York City from Korea when he was young, and his father worked hard to open grocery stores in the city. He did this with money from a ggeh , or a Korean “money club.” After Henry’s mother died when he was 11, his father moved Henry to a wealthy neighborhood north of the city and didn’t dwell on his wife’s death. Henry eventually became accustomed to his father’s silent, stoic ways.

These days, Lelia has returned from Italy but hasn’t moved back in with Henry. She’s still angry about the way he mourned Mitt’s death, which happened when they were staying with Henry’s father during the summer. Mitt eventually wound up becoming close friends with the white children in the neighborhood, but during a rowdy pig pile at a birthday party, Mitt was crushed beneath the weight of the other boys and died.

Back in the novel’s present, Henry has been avoiding his company’s office because he doesn’t want to talk to Hoagland about what happened during his Luzan assignment: Henry developed a real therapeutic relationship with Luzan and planned to warn Luzan to be careful. But two of his coworkers appeared and took Luzan away before Henry could say anything. One of those coworkers was Jack , an older Greek man who’s a mentor to Henry. Now, Henry has been put on a new assignment, and Hoagland has instructed Jack to oversee it.

Henry is supposed to gather information about a Korean American city councilman named John Kwang . The fact that both Henry and Kwang are Korean Americans living in New York City is supposed to make the job easy for Henry, whose task is simply to work at Kwang’s new political headquarters in Queens as an intern. He’s supposed to write periodic reports about Kwang’s activities and send them to Hoagland. But he’s slow to get started, since he’s preoccupied with what’s happening in his relationship with Lelia. Henry turns to Jack for advice on how to fix his marriage, knowing Jack had a happy marriage before his wife died. In turn, Jack not only acts as a professional mentor, but also as a friend and confidante—and yet, it becomes increasingly clear that his advice to Henry about how to handle the Kwang case comes directly from Hoagland.

In the first weeks of his internship, Henry notices how much the other volunteers respect Kwang. They see him as a unifier who’s representative of New York’s immigrant communities. One volunteer, a young man named Eduardo , stands out as being especially devoted to Kwang. Eduardo is a 23-year-old—though he looks older—college student who has become close to Kwang. As for Kwang himself, he has a magnetic presence and hasn’t yet confirmed or denied whether or not he’ll be running for mayor. The current mayor, De Roos , is clearly nervous that Kwang will make a run for the position, so he has been criticizing him in public.

As Henry works his way into the Kwang organization, he manages to reestablish contact with Lelia. He does this by asking if he can borrow tape recordings she has of Mitt, saying he wants to hear their son’s voice. This leads to a late-night conversation at their mutual friend’s apartment—a conversation in which Lelia makes it clear that she left Henry because she’d had enough of his silence and secrecy, she hates that he never talks about Mitt, and she also dislikes his commitment to his job. After this, Lelia and Henry begin to see each other more regularly.

Slowly but surely, Henry endears himself to Kwang, who takes an interest in him because he’s Korean American. Henry likes Kwang because he reminds him of a younger version of his father. The closer Henry works with the councilman, the more Kwang takes him under his wing, which only makes Henry feel worse about sending information about him back to Hoagland. Jack pays him several visits and encourages Henry to do his job, indicating that Hoagland is getting impatient.

Around this time, Lelia moves back in with Henry. They’ve been on good terms ever since a trip to clean out his father’s house (his father died not long after Mitt). On this trip, Henry finally opens up to Lelia about his feelings. He even tells her about his difficulties at work, explaining that he’s under pressure to dig up dirt on Kwang. He also implies that Hoagland might want him to make something up if he can’t actually find anything scandalous about Kwang. But Henry’s hesitant to do so because he knows Kwang might get hurt; after all, he recently learned that Luzan was killed in an alleged “accident” while traveling.

One night, Lelia and Henry are watching the news and discover that Kwang’s headquarters have been bombed. Two people died: a custodian and Eduardo. Henry immediately contacts Hoagland and Jack, but they claim to have had nothing to do with the bombing. After this, Kwang’s political operation moves to his house in Queens, where Henry starts working late and taking on many of Eduardo’s duties. Everyone on the team is tense: Kwang still hasn’t made a statement about the bombing and refuses to be seen in public. He’s unraveling. Late one night, he comes downstairs and drinks with Henry. There have been rumors in the news that Eduardo was secretly renting an expensive apartment in Manhattan. People think Kwang was bankrolling him, but they don’t know why. When Henry tries to broach the subject, Kwang gets angry, and their conversation devolves into an argument in which Kwang shouts at Henry. Henry backs down, and then Kwang declares that they’re going out together.

It's almost four in the morning when Kwang tells Henry to drive him into the city. They stop to pick up Sherrie , Kwang’s PR coordinator. They then go to a Korean after-hours club where the waitresses shower the (mostly male) clientele with flirtation and physical affection. Henry can tell that Kwang and Sherrie have been here together before; they’re clearly having an affair. Once inside a private room, Kwang tries to pair Henry off with the waitress. Noticing that Henry is very uncomfortable, Sherrie decides to leave—but the door is locked. Kwang jumps up and physically restrains her, so Henry defends her by tackling Kwang. Sherrie slips out of the room, and then Kwang turns his rage on Henry. He’s quite drunk, and he claims that everyone is against him. Even Eduardo was against him, he says, explaining that Eduardo was stealing information. When Kwang found out, he says, he hired a Korean gang to take care of the matter, though he claims he didn’t know they’d bomb the headquarters. Henry is speechless and leaves as Kwang sits back for a lap-dance from the waitress.

Around this time, Jack meets Henry in a diner and urges him to give Hoagland information. One of the duties Henry took over from Eduardo is organizing Kwang’s “money club,” which Kwang has styled after the traditional Korean ggeh to empower his community of immigrants. Henry is in charge of keeping track of all the people who contribute to the ggeh , and now Jack tells him that Hoagland wants a copy of the list of names. After some hesitation, Jack delivers the list.

Kwang is arrested the following day. Kwang returned to the club the previous night, got drunk, and crashed his car while driving with one of the waitresses, a 16-year-old Korean girl. His entire political team is thrown into chaos, but not just because of the scandal—there’s also a report that the Immigration and Naturalization Service has gotten its hands on a list of people participating in Kwang’s “money club.” Most of the people in the club are undocumented immigrants, and by the time Henry is watching the news broadcast, the director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports that they have all been arrested and will be deported. Henry is devastated. He feels as if he has betrayed his own people, and he refuses to ever work for Hoagland again. He now knows Eduardo was another of Hoagland’s operatives.

Henry quits his job and spends his days walking through Queens. He sometimes passes by Kwang’s old house. Kwang himself has moved back to Korea with his family, but Henry still thinks about him. Otherwise, he spends time with Lelia and helps her in her job as an ESL teacher, going into classrooms and helping children work on their pronunciation—an activity that at least makes him feel like he’s helping the immigrant community instead of hurting it.

Native Speaker

53 pages • 1 hour read

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Discussion Questions

Why is the novel titled Native Speaker ?

Henry’s sense of self is harmed when he fails in his assignment on the psychotherapist Luzan. What is the reason for this failure, and what does it reveal about Henry’s psyche?

Make an argument: Should Lelia and Henry stay together? Explain your reasoning.

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Native Speaker - Definition and Examples in English

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

In language studies , native speaker  is a controversial term for a person who  speaks  and writes using his or her  native language  (or mother tongue ). Put simply, the traditional view is that the language of a native speaker is determined by birthplace. Contrast with non-native speaker .

Linguist Braj Kachru identifies native speakers of English as those who have grown up in the "Inner Circle"  of countries—Britain, America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

An extremely proficient speaker of a second language  is sometimes referred to as a near-native speaker .

When a person acquires a second-language at a very young age, the distinction between native and non-native speaker becomes ambiguous. "A child may be a native speaker of more than one language as long as the acquisition process starts early," says Alan Davies. "After puberty (Felix, 1987), it becomes difficult—not impossible, but very difficult (Birdsong, 1992)—to become a native speaker." ( The Handbook of Applied Linguistics, 2004).

In recent years, the concept of the native speaker has come under criticism, especially in connection with the study of World English ,  New Englishes , and English as a Lingua Franca :  "While there may be linguistic differences between native and non-native speakers of English, the native speaker is really a political construct carrying a particular ideological baggage" (Stephanie Hackert in World Englishes--Problems, Properties and Prospects , 2009).

Examples and Observations

"The terms 'native speaker' and 'non-native speaker' suggest a clear-cut distinction that doesn't really exist. Instead it can be seen as a continuum, with someone who has complete control of the language in question at one end, to the beginner at the other, with an infinite range of proficiencies to be found in between." (Caroline Brandt, Success on Your Certificate Course in English Language Teaching . Sage, 2006)

The Common-Sense View

"The concept of a native speaker seems clear enough, doesn't it? It is surely a common sense idea, referring to people who have a special control over a language, insider knowledge about 'their' language. . . . But just how special is the native speaker?

"This common-sense view is important and has practical implications, . . . but the common-sense view alone is inadequate and needs the support and explanation given by a thorough theoretical discussion is lacking." (Alan Davies, The Native Speaker: Myth and Reality . Multilingual Matters, 2003)

The Ideology of the Native Speaker Model

"[T]he notion of 'native speaker'--sometimes referred to as the ideology of the 'native speaker' model—in the field of second language education has been a powerful principle that influences almost every aspect of language teaching and learning . . .. The notion of 'native speaker' takes for granted the homogeneity among, and superiority of the linguistic competence of 'native speakers' and legitimizes the unequal power relations between 'native' and 'non-native' speakers."

(Neriko Musha Doerr and Yuri Kumagai, "Towards a Critical Orientation in Second Language Education."  The Native Speaker Concept . Walter de Gruyter, 2009)

An Ideal Native Speaker

"I know several foreigners whose command of English I could not fault, but they themselves deny they are native speakers. When pressed on this point, they draw attention to such matters as . . . their lack of awareness of childhood associations, their limited passive knowledge of varieties, the fact that there are some topics which they are more 'comfortable' discussing in their first language. 'I couldn’t make love in English,' said one man to me. . . .

"In an ideal native speaker, there is a chronologically based awareness, a continuum from birth to death where there are no gaps. In an ideal non-native speaker, this continuum either does not start with birth, or if it does, the continuum has been significantly broken at some point. (I’m a case of the latter, in fact, having been brought up in a Welsh-English environment until nine, then moving to England, where I promptly forgot most of my Welsh, and would no longer now claim to be a native speaker, even though I have many childhood associations and instinctive forms.)" (David Crystal, quoted by T. M. Paikeday in The Native Speaker Is Dead: An Informal Discussion of a Linguistic Myth . Paikeday, 1985)  

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• Original article
• Open access
• Published: 18 February 2020

Examining the influence of native and non-native English-speaking teachers on Korean EFL writing

• Andrew Schenck   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3864-6267 1  

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education volume  5 , Article number:  2 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Both Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) may have advantages as writing instructors, yet little is known about how they actually influence writing in EFL contexts like South Korea. To address this issue, 76 high proficiency Korean EFL university students from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE) were separated into a group that received extensive native English speaker instruction ( n  = 57) and a group that did not ( n  = 19) using a self-survey. Analysis of essay content revealed that words used by Korean EFL writers with more NEST instruction are similar in difficulty and variety to native English writers. Concerning style, Korean EFL learners with more NEST instruction used stances to evaluate, validate, and state personal opinions, while learners with less NEST instruction used speech formulas and more unbiased logical arguments. Regarding grammar, Korean EFL learners with extensive NEST instruction used more sophisticated vocabulary, word forms, and verb tenses to create a novel argument using personal experience, whereas Korean EFL learners with low NEST instruction tended to use formulaic and logical arguments with more accuracy. Overall, results suggest that NEST instruction in Korea promotes more creativity and sophistication in composition, while NNEST instruction encourages more accurate use of language. In accordance with the findings, curricula or teacher training may be developed to ensure that each type of instruction shares the strengths of its counterpart.

Introduction

Recently, legislators in South Korea rescinded a law banning English education in the first and second grades of elementary school. This law, which had been designed to keep children that are “too young to learn a foreign language” from being negatively impacted (Jung, 2019 , p. 2), has been highly criticized by both parents and teachers who argue that it will only deepen the growing hardship of poor families, who cannot afford English instruction through extracurricular private academies (Jung, 2019 ). This issue is nothing new. It is the latest in a series of controversial debates over the best means to promote English education in Korea.

Ultimately, increased English classes both inside and outside the public-school classroom reveal an intense desire to overcome perceived problems with traditional language instruction in South Korea, which often promotes rote memorization and teacher-centric instruction (DeWaelsche, 2015 ). This type of learning, which helps students achieve in more receptive tasks like reading and listening (Kwon, Yoshida, Watanabe, Negishi, & Naganuma, 2004 ; Programme for International Student Assessment, 2015 ), may inhibit performance on communicative tasks like writing. This view is supported by evidence of TOEFL performance in 2009. During this period, average writing scores were well below the global average (Kang, 2009 ). Despite more than 6 years of English instruction in public school classes, learners still had problems with writing tasks, adaption of language to real situations, and critical thinking skills needed to make a written or spoken argument (Kim & Kim, 2005 ; Niederhauser, 2012 ).

To counter perceived problems with educational techniques which failed to cultivate writing skills, several curricular changes were enacted. In addition to communicative activities, writing assessments such as the National English Ability Test (NEAT) were introduced at the elementary school level (Moodie & Nam, 2016 ). While a positive step forward, such reforms resulted in failure, partly due to teachers who were unskilled or unequipped to implement such changes (Byun et al., 2011 ). Research suggests that many Korean instructors currently lecturing through English Medium Instruction (EMI) still need additional language training so they may teach writing more effectively (Kim, 2014 ).

Widespread dissatisfaction with attempted reforms for Korean teachers and learners of English has prompted both parents and educators to seek out the use of native English speakers who can teach the requisite communicative skills. To accommodate parental demand, widespread expansion of extracurricular academies which employ native English speakers has resulted (Kim & Lee, 2010 ). In addition to extracurricular activities, government programs like the English Program in Korea (EPIK) have been developed to hire native-speaking English teachers for public schools. The introduction of Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs), designed to enhance writing skills through natural communication, is conventionally thought to have a positive effect on production and critical thinking skills. Research does suggest that NESTs can have a positive effect on the completion of task-based activities (Jiang & Li, 2018 ). At the same time, these NESTs may lack a valid teaching credential or experience in English education, making them ill-equipped to teach. Lacking teaching experience, NESTs may not have an explicit awareness of underlying language systems, precluding effective instruction (Keh, 2017 ). NESTs, like their NNEST counterparts, may not have the repertoire of skills needed to prepare students to write effectively.

Potential problems of both NEST and NNEST instructors has sparked a controversial debate over the efficacy of each. While supporters of NNESTs contend that they provide effective language development through understanding of the Korean culture and language, as well as a shared understanding of the L1 (Brewer, 2016 ; Chun, 2014 ), they may overemphasize literal use of grammar and vocabulary, without an adequate understanding of the social and connotative world knowledge needed to use them. NESTs may have more knowledge about contextual and social concepts needed to use grammar and vocabulary, yet they may also lack educational experience or an understanding of the host culture, which may inhibit communication of key concepts (Wang & Lin, 2013 ). While debate continues as to the efficacy of NESTs and NNESTs, little research has been conducted to analyze how these teachers impact communicative competence in an EFL context like South Korea.

Potential impact of NESTs vs. NNESTs on writing

NNEST teachers may have an advantage in teaching grammatical features or literal denotation of vocabulary through comparison and contrast with a Korean learner’s L1, whereas NESTs may understand social contexts, connotation, and pragmatic usage of vocabulary within the target language, leading to more advanced use of language in authentic contexts. While this distinction has been proposed (Brewer, 2016 ; Chun, 2014 ; Wang & Lin, 2013 ), very little is known about the effects of such instruction. Cultural and linguistic influences of both NESTs and NNESTs may affect aspects of writing such as content, style, and grammar, warranting further investigation.

Content may be influenced by interaction with both NEST and NNEST instructors. Although impartial evaluation of content is a difficult task, research suggests that discrete measures of lexical variety (diversity of words), sophistication (word difficulty), and density (the number of content words, as opposed to grammar) are objective measures of quality writing, closely correlating to scores assigned by human raters (Lu, 2012 ; Read, 2000 ; Yu, 2009 ). Because such measures provide a more empirical, unbiased foundation for the judgement of differences in writing, they represent an ideal tool to judge the impact of NEST and NNEST instructors. A teacher’s ability to help learners with lexical variety, sophistication, and density may differ for both NEST and NNEST instructors. NESTs often possess a more complex lexicon with increased word variety, sophistication, and density, which can be advantageous in the classroom. Despite such an advantage, it is a mistake to think that this implicit knowledge will automatically be imparted through natural productive tasks. Research suggests that mere exposure to authentic communicative tasks is not enough to learn a language (Harper & de Jong, 2004 ). When learning metaphors, for example, which are imbued with culturally figurative language, EFL learners tend to benefit more from systematic and explicit explanations (Veliz, 2017 ). To be sure, an explicit understanding of underlying language systems, referred to as Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) (Andrews & Svalberg, 2017 ), is required for effective teaching. Teachers who lack such knowledge may avoid focusing on aspects of content that are problematic for learners (Keh, 2017 ). Because NESTs with little or no teaching experience may not have extensive TLA, they may rely too heavily on implicit techniques for language learning, inhibiting learner development. While NNESTs may lack some sophisticated knowledge of register and cultural context, they may provide more systematic and explicit instruction needed to learn a language. As second language learners themselves, NNESTs may be better able to explicitly explain a feature in English.

In addition to content (lexical variety, sophistication, or density), NNEST and NEST instruction may have a different impact on discourse within writing. Merriam Webster defines discourse as “a mode of organizing knowledge, ideas, or experience that is rooted in language and its concrete contexts (such as history or institutions)” (Discourse, 2020 ). As this definition implies, discourse is closely related to the cultural institutions and contexts in which the language was created (Murphy, 2010 ). This is why we do not picture Cinderella wearing Nike flip-flops, even though this information may not be explicitly provided. Indeed, each speech community or cultural context uses a precise set of language to establish its own identity (Ortaçtepe, 2013 ). It is this language set that L2 English learners may use to build a type of hybrid style that is “largely, but not completely, native-like” (Pérez-Llantada, 2014 , p. 84). Korean EFL learners, for example, may “borrow” Western style stances and hedges to emulate native counterparts, leading to higher values for writing quality (Min, Paek, & Kang, 2019 , p. 12). While it is clear that the English speech community may use language that improves perceived writing quality, the extent to which NEST or NNEST instructors teach this culturally specific language is unclear. NEST instructors may use this language to teach rhetorical concepts like stance and hedges, leading to expression of agreement, disagreement, or opinion. If these teachers are not explicitly aware of such concepts, however, systematic and meaningful learning opportunities may not be provided. NESTs’ more advanced knowledge of specific language may also be ineffective as a teaching tool when EFL learners lack basic communication skills (Harper & de Jong, 2004 ). While NESTs may have a heightened awareness of culturally laden terms and linguistic devices, NNESTs may provide a better bridge between basic aspects of discourse in both languages, leading to a better foundational understanding of writing.

Finally, NNEST and NEST instruction may have a different impact on grammar within writing. In addition to words that denote aspects of content such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, there are bound and free morphological features that serve a grammatical function (White, 2009 ). Bound morphological features, present on content words like verbs and nouns, reveal aspects of tense (walk ed ), agreement (walk s ), or number (sneaker s ). In addition to bound morphological features, free morphemes like pronouns, auxiliary verbs, determiners, and conjunctions may be used to clarify and expand meaning within writing content (Master, 1996 ). Concerning both free and bound grammatical features, NESTs may have an advantage in creating quality contextual circumstances for their use. They may, for example, provide accurate input and communicative contexts for correct use of determiners like a , an , or the . Unlike non-native speakers, NESTs may provide more accurately conjugated nouns and verbs within input, thereby facilitating acquisition. Finally, they may provide more fluent and longer discourse through the use of conjunctions like and or addition . NESTs may also be at an advantage to identify errors in use of grammatical features that are not present in the Korean L1, such as the English determiner, present perfect tense, and phrasal verb. As with aspects of content and style, understanding and correct use of grammar by the teacher may not guarantee acquisition. Explicit grammatical emphasis may be needed to help foreign language learners focus on a target feature (DeKeyser, 2015 ; Dyson, 2018 ; Dyson & Håkansson, 2017 ; Pienemann, 1989 ). NNEST instructors have a distinct advantage in providing links to the L1 which may promote acquisition. Through providing cross-linguistic comparison and contrast, Korean EFL learners may be better able to understand and acquire grammatical features.

Both NEST and NNEST instructors may have strengths that help their EFL learners produce better content, discourse, and grammar in writing. Despite potential strengths, little research has been conducted to investigate how such advantages may actually influence English learners. Lacking a clear understanding of how both NEST and NNESTs can best be utilized, both teacher groups receive skepticism. They have become subject to bias and discrimination, which may negatively impact instruction, as well as cooperative educational efforts between the two groups.

Problems faced by NESTs and NNESTs

Insufficient evidence concerning the positive impact of NESTs and NNESTs on EFL learner development has fueled biases that depict both groups as inferior. NNESTs in EFL countries like South Korea, for example, are often thought to be less effective due to a lack of native proficiency. This bias, referred to as native speakerism, may cause teachers to lose confidence or suffer from an inferiority complex. Programs like the English Program in Korea (EPIK) also perpetuate this bias through recruiting teachers only from “inner circle” countries like the United States, England, Australia and New Zealand (Copland, Davis, Garton, & Mann, 2016 ). Not only is the problem of native speakerism present in South Korea, it is found in other countries like Thailand, where professional status of Filipino NNESTs is eroded by the misconception that native English skill is necessary for teaching (Ulla, 2019 ). Like non-native counterparts, NESTs often suffer from prejudice and discrimination, which is fueled by the view that inexperience or lack of teacher training makes them ineffective (Copland et al., 2016 ).

Evidence suggests that biases against both NEST and NNESTs in EFL contexts hamper the implementation of English programs like EPIK, primarily through a lack of collaboration, cultural conflicts, or an unwillingness to work together among the two groups of teachers (Copland et al., 2016 ). While such problems may have cultural or even political foundations, they are ultimately fueled by a lack of knowledge about how each type of instruction can be effectively utilized. Past studies have focused primarily on attitudes and perceptions of the teacher groups (Ma, 2012 ), which has limited understanding of the actual impact on EFL learner speech or writing. Through further research, strengths of both groups may be identified, leading to more effective utilization of teachers, a reduction of negative biases, and establishment of more effective cooperative efforts among both groups.

Research questions

Due to the need for further investigation of the impact of NESTs and NNESTs, this study was conducted to examine differences in academic writing among Korean EFL learners who are exposed to native English instructors and those who are not. Such study may lead to more effective use of both NESTs and NNESTs, particularly in cooperative efforts like EPIK. In accordance with a need for further research, the following questions were posed:

Does word choice of Korean EFL writers exposed to more native speaker instruction significantly differ from that of Korean EFL writers with little or no exposure to native speaker instruction? How does word choice of each Korean group compare to that of native English writers?

Does word choice in writing between groups reveal differences in content such as lexical variety, lexical sophistication, and lexical density?

Does word choice in writing between groups reveal differences in the utilization of stylistic devices like stances and hedges?

Does word choice in writing between groups reveal differences in the utilization of grammatical features?

To examine essays produced by Korean EFL learners, the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE) was used. This 2-million-word corpus contains essays from college students (including graduate school) from ten different EFL countries. Included in the corpus are essays from Korean EFL learners and native English speakers, which could be used for comparison (Ishikawa, 2018 ). The corpus also has an Infosheet (self-survey) completed by each learner, which includes demographic information like age and major, along with background details such as the amount of instruction received from NESTs (Question 31).

Research design

The aim of this study was to see how word choice differs between learners who receive a large amount of NEST instruction, learners who receive little NEST instruction, and native English students. To fulfill this aim, a mixed-methods approach was used. Word frequencies from the writings of the three groups (taken from ICNALE) were quantitatively tested for significant differences using a paired-samples t-test. Following this statistical examination, aspects of content, style, and grammar where quantitatively examined using statistics of word frequency or variety related to each respective aspect of writing (content, style, and grammar). This investigation was then followed by qualitative examination of learner essays.

Essays collected from the ICNALE Corpus

Essays in the ICNALE corpus were strictly controlled to ensure that all participants wrote about the same topics. They were given the same two prompts (Ishikawa, 2013 , p. 97):

Topic A: It is important for college students to have a part-time job.

Topic B: Smoking should be completely banned at all the restaurants in the country.

Following receiving prompts, all participants were given from 20 to 40 min to write an essay from 200 to 300 words. No dictionaries or other reference tools were allowed (Ishikawa, 2013 ). Control of topics in this way helped to increase the validity of contrastive analysis between groups in the present study.

Participants from the ICNALE Corpus

For this study, essays from 76 Korean EFL university learners at the highest proficiency level, B2+, were selected from the ICNALE corpus. The essays had been assigned the B2+ level because they were at Vantage or higher stages of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) according to proficiency values from tests like the TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS (Ishikawa, 2018 ). Each learner wrote two essays about the same topics, having a part-time job and banning smoking, meaning that 76 learners had a total of 152 essays. Using essays from the highest proficiency learners in the ICNALE corpus ensured that all writers had an equivalent degree of competence in writing. All essays came from Korean EFL university learners who ranged in age from 19 to 29 and majored in a variety of subjects from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. For comparison, essays from 100 native English speakers (a total of 200 essays) were also selected from the ICNALE corpus. These essays also came from university learners who ranged in age from 19 to 29 and majored in a variety of subjects from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

From the 152 Korean EFL learner essays from the B2+ level, 38 essays came from 19 learners who reported in the ICNALE self-survey that they had little or no instruction with native speakers (numbers 1 to 3 on a Likert scale), and 114 essays came from 57 Korean EFL learners who reported more extensive instruction with native English speakers (numbers 4 to 6 on a Likert scale). While the self-survey does not provide a precise description of how much experience learners have had with native speaking instructors, the separation of survey scores helps to ensure that one participant group has more NEST instruction than the other.

Preparation of Corpus data and analysis

Essays in ICNALE were separated by learner group and compiled into sub-corpora (text files) for analysis. The corpus of 38 essays from Korean EFL learners with low NEST support had 9312 words, while the corpus of 114 essays from Korean EFL learners with high NEST support had 26,753 words. Finally, the corpus of 200 native English writer essays had 44,966 words. To answer the research questions, word frequency values were obtained from each corpus using the online program called lextutor.ca.

To answer research question one, which sought to examine preferences in word choice, words that were used at least 10 times in one or more of the corpora (Low NEST Support, High NEST Support, and Native English Writer) were recorded in a spreadsheet for analysis. Next, frequency counts for words from the High NEST Support and Native English Writer corpora were adjusted to match the size of the smaller Low NEST Support corpus using the following calculation:

Frequency of Word in Corpus B * (Size of Corpus A / Size of Corpus B)

Following this calculation, which was conducted to proportionally adjust word frequencies for the High NEST Support and Native English Writer corpora to those of the Low NEST Support corpus, word frequencies of each corpus were statistically compared using a paired samples t-test to reveal significant (or insignificant) differences.

Research question two aimed to investigate differences in content. In accordance with this aim, lexical density, word difficulty, word types, and tokens (total number of words) were calculated for each group of essays (Low NEST Support, High NEST Support, and Native English Writer) using lextutor.ca. Amount of content was evaluated using lexical density. A high value for lexical density, which reflects a larger number of content words like nouns or verbs (as opposed to grammatical or functional features), may suggest that meaning within writing is more complex or substantial. Difficulty of content was evaluated by examining the number of vocabulary words present from the New Academic Word List (NAWL). When added to a list of core words called the New General Service List (Stoeckel & Bennett, 2015 ), the NAWL’s 570 word families account for approximately 92% of the total words (tokens) in academic texts (Browne, Culligan, & Phillips, 2013 ). Because the NAWL accounts for 10% of all words in academic texts, yet only comprises 1.4% of the words in fiction collections, the NAWL represents an ideal measure of difficulty in academic essays (Coxhead, 2000 ). The presence of more academic words may suggest additional sophistication of essay content. Finally, variety of content was examined by looking at type / token ratios. Whereas a type represents one root word, or lemma (e.g., eat), the token represents the instantiation of each type (e.g., eating, eaten, ate, etc.). A larger ratio (a larger variety of tokens) is thought to signify more sophisticated content (Laufer & Nation, 1995 ).

To answer research question three, which sought to evaluate how discourse (style) may differ, categories for hedges and stances employed in the study by Min et al. ( 2019 ) were utilized. These hedges and stances reveal a writer’s ability to increase and decrease the significance of opinions. They were divided into the following categories (Table  1 ):

Prototypical stances and hedges from each category were tallied from each corpus of essays (Low NEST Support, High NEST Support, and Native English Writer). Resulting values were then adjusted for corpus size as in the procedure for research question one. Next, use of the words was qualitatively analyzed. While not an exhaustive list of discourse words, comparison in this way yielded insights about how commonly used stances and hedges were employed by each group examined within this study.

To answer research question four, which was designed to evaluate grammar, words from specific categories for auxiliary verbs, pronouns, determiners and conjunctions were selected from Systems in English Grammar by Master ( 1996 ). For auxiliary verbs, both do and can were selected for analysis. In addition to use of the base form, evaluation of forms like does , did, done , and could were evaluated to reveal an awareness of tense and agreement. Subject pronouns I , you , they and we were also selected for analysis. Differences in pronouns may reveal an attempt to influence the reader through explaining personal experiences (e.g., I used to smoke.), addressing the reader (e.g., You may think that secondhand smoke is harmless, but…), or creating a more general example (e.g., They will suffer from secondhand smoke.). Next, the definite and indefinite articles ( a , an , and the ) were chosen to examine how determiners were utilized. Heightened use of articles may represent a more sophisticated or systematic use of the feature. Finally, types of conjunctions ( and , addition ) were selected for evaluation, along with words for relative and conditional clauses ( if , who , which , where , how , whether ). Through examining these words, aspects of sentence length and complexity could be evident. Following selection, words from each grammar category were tallied from all three corpora of essays (Low NEST Support, High NEST Support, and Native English Writer). Resulting values were then adjusted for corpus size as in the procedure for research question one. Next, grammatical word use was qualitatively analyzed in individual learner essays. Through such analysis, grammar related to auxiliary verbs, tense, agreement, pronouns, determiners, and conjunctions could be evaluated. While the words included in this study do not form an exhaustive list, they represent a foundation from which key grammatical characteristics may be ascertained.

Results and discussion

Research question one: differences in word preference.

Results of vocabulary analysis suggest that there are indeed significant differences in use of high frequency words. Although essay topics were the same for each writer, vocabulary from Korean EFL learners with more instruction from a native speaker differed significantly from those with little or no instruction from a native speaker ( t  = 3.11; p  = .002). At the same time, the writing of Korean EFL learners with high NEST support was not significantly different from their native English-speaking counterparts ( t  = −.64; p  = .520). This result suggests that EFL learners with high NEST support do indeed develop more native-like writing (See Table  2 ).

Statistical comparison of frequency of commonly used vocabulary suggests that there is indeed a difference in writing between groups. Follow-up analysis of individual word use suggests that these differences may be related to differences in content, style, and grammar.

Research question two: differences in content

Analysis of individual words suggests that there are indeed differences in content. While lexical density (number of content words) does not differ considerably (See Table  3 ), the amount of academic words seems substantially higher in the Korean EFL group with higher NEST support and in the native English speaker group. In the writings of Korean learners with low NEST support, only 4% of words were contained in the New Academic Word List (NAWL). This value is half that of the native speaker group. In the Korean group with high NEST support, 6.2% of the vocabulary was academic, which reveals a closer link to the native English speech community. While native speaker group performance is not a benchmark for quality, higher amounts of academic vocabulary may suggest increased sophistication of academic essays.

Qualitative analysis of content appeared to confirm the assertion that content of the Korean group with high NEST support was more academic. Words like anomaly and diminished revealed a sophisticated understanding of vocabulary. Furthermore, more precise descriptions of health issues through words like diabetes , larynx , hygiene , and stroke suggested a more specific and expansive explanation of content.

In addition to more academic words, a larger number of tokens per type in the Korean group with high NEST support (Table 3 ) suggests that word forms were more diverse and sophisticated than their counterparts with low NEST support. Korean EFL learners with high NEST support had essays with more word variants (e.g., hygiene, hygienic; beneficial, beneficiary; broad, broaden; disturb, disturbed, disturbing, disturbs , etc.). This increased use of different word forms, which included a variety of affixes (e.g., ben or dis ) appears to reflect higher complexity of content.

Research question three: differences in Discourse and style

In addition to content, aspects of style appeared to differ between groups. As can be seen from Table  4 , Korean EFL learners with higher native speaker instruction utilized more stances for evaluation. These writers used words like appropriate , bad , and important more often as a means to emphasize validity or invalidity of an argument (Table 4 ). Unlike their counterparts with less NEST instruction, Korean EFL learners with high NEST support used stances with awkward collocations, as in the following examples for the word appropriate :

It could be an appropriate solution to help them move out from the addiction.

I highly recommend you to find appropriate work, try different jobs and study hard.

In the above examples, the writers are trying to persuade, yet unique word combinations like “move out from the addiction” or “recommend you to find appropriate work” make the arguments appear awkward. In contrast to these awkward statements, Korean EFL learners with low native speaker support used stances with more accurate collocations. Refer to the following examples:

That’s why many of them are working as interns in order to gain an appropriate experience that would be necessary in their future profession.

I think periods of college are not appropriate to do part-time jobs.

Unlike their counterparts, the low native speaker support group of Korean EFL learners used expressions that are more conventional and accurate.

In addition to stances for evaluation, Korean EFL learners with high NEST support utilized stances for ease or difficulty much more often (Table 4 ). Overall, these stances appear to be used to express personal opinions or preferences about an issue, as a means to persuade the reader. This more overtly partial perspective may reflect an influence of NEST instructors from Western contexts, who may value personal opinion more than group consensus, a hallmark of Confucian societies like South Korea.

In contrast to Korean EFL learners with high support from NESTS, Korean EFL learners with low native speaker support did not use as many stances to evaluate an argument using personal opinion. These learners appeared to rely more on formulaic patterns obtained from input and instruction, thereby revealing a lesser tendency to create novel expressions or express personal opinions. This assertion is supported by low NEST support learners’ heightened use of elements of style ( according , generally , usually ), which may be memorized and may not directly express the personal opinion of a writer. These stances are often used to express opinions indirectly through outside sources (e.g., According to research…). Overall, learners with low NEST instruction appear to use these “unbiased” speech formulas to express an opinion. This perspective is illustrated by more extensive usage of stances for ability or willingness. The word able , for example, is often used with formulaic expressions for reasoning or inference. Refer to the following examples from Korean EFL learners with low NEST support:

If smoking is banned at all restaurants in Korea, we will be able to enjoy the dish more at the restaurants.

Since college students are already adults, they should be able to make money for living, independently from their parents.

When students have a part-time job and work it, they are able to think about concept of money and consumption.

In the above examples, an argument without personal judgment from the author is expressed. The logical arguments appear to show unbiased opinions of the author, with little awareness of the reader.

Unlike words for evaluation or discussion of ease and difficulty, which are characteristic of Korean EFL learners with high NEST instruction, elements of style or ability are not imbued with clear opinion about the argument being proposed. Korean EFL learners with low NEST instruction may prefer to use stylistic conventions without as much creativity or awareness of the reader. Whereas Korean EFL learners with less NEST support may rely more heavily on speech formulas and collocational knowledge, Korean EFL learners with more NEST support may be more creative in composition, choosing to express personal opinions about the validity or invalidity of an argument. While more creative, these learners may also use more incorrect or awkward phrases.

Research question four: differences in grammar

As with aspects of content and style, grammar within writing of Korean EFL learner groups differed in several distinct ways. Aspects of verb tense and agreement appeared much more frequently in the Korean EFL learner groups with more NEST support. For the word do , third person singular, past and present perfect tenses were used more often in the writing of Korean learners with extensive instruction from native speakers (See Table  5 ).

Conversely, frequency of the past tense in the word could was larger in the Korean group with low NEST support. Overall, this finding, along with larger values for root words like do and can among learners with little instruction from native English speakers, may reveal a tendency to rely on basic modals and formulaic expressions for hedging.

Concerning grammatical features associated with nouns, the high native support group of Korean EFL learners and native English speakers used I more often, supporting a claim that personal experience and opinion is used more extensively to support arguments of these groups. Such usage may represent an attempt to provide personal opinions that are designed to influence the reader. Korean EFL learners with low NEST support used we and you more often. This method to connect with the reader appears more neutral, perhaps supporting the contention that writings from Korean EFL learners with less NEST instruction are more impartial, logical, and formulaic.

Korean EFL learners with low NEST support used determiners less often than other groups (Table 5 ). Use of the indefinite article by Korean EFL learners with high NEST support more closely resembled that of native English speakers than their counterparts. However, the definite article, the , was used by Korean EFL learners with high NEST support much more often than native English speakers, perhaps reflecting a growing awareness of the grammatical feature, albeit an incomplete one. Because this feature is imbued with information about general cultural use (e.g., the sun), immediate situational use (e.g., Don’t go in there, the dog will bite you), local use (e.g., the car), and anaphoric use (e.g., I bought a cat. The cat’s name is Whiskers), an increase of determiners may reflect growing awareness of contextual relationships between nouns and other elements of a sentence or composition. It may also reflect a heightened understanding of the reader’s perspective (Celce-Murcia, Larsen-Freeman, & Williams, 1999 ).

It appears that larger clauses or sentences were more frequent in the Korean EFL learners with high NEST support and native English speakers, who used words like and and addition more often. Korean EFL learners with low NEST support tended to add complexity and content to individual sentences using relative clauses. This group used relative pronouns like which and who more often than other groups. It also used if more extensively, along with modals like will , can , or should be able to (e.g., “if it is banned, it could make Cleaner Street”). Greater reliance on such logical phrases may support the assertion that content of Korean EFL learners with less NEST instruction is more formulaic, being focused on unbiased interpretation rather than personal evaluation or devices to influence the reader. More frequent use of the words how and whether by Korean EFL learners with high NEST support and native English writers may suggest a higher emphasis on process.

Grammatical differences between Korean EFL learner groups may be illustrated through two excerpts from the ICNALE corpus. The following comes from a Korean EFL learner with more extensive support from NESTs:

I read an article, which is about whether teenagers should have a part time job. In today’s society, more and more college students have part time job after school. In my opinion, I support that teenagers have part time jobs in their free time and the reasons are as follows. First, I think that having a part time job can train the teenagers how to earn money and let them know that it is not an easy thing to make money.

From the excerpt, we can see not only a large emphasis on the first person, but a clear attempt to express the opinion of the author. In addition, the word and is used to construct longer sentences. While there is a clear focus on meaning, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. The determiner in “a part time job” is correctly used in one context, yet it is absent in another. Collocations like “I support that” also have contextual clarity but are grammatically incorrect. This style contrasts significantly with texts from learners with little or no native English instruction. Refer to the following excerpt from a Korean EFL learner with little or no support from NESTs:

Have you ever seen people who smoke in the restaurant? Most people in Korea do not like a person who smokes in the restaurants, so smoking has been banned in most of Korean restaurants. However, there are still some restaurants where people are allowed to smoke. In my opinion, smoking should be banned at all restaurants in this country. The reasons are below. First, other people in the restaurants can feel uncomfortable …..

As suggested in quantitative analysis, learners use more relative clauses to expand nouns (people who smoke, a person who smokes, restaurants where people are allowed to smoke). While the writer attempts to make an opinion, vague references to people , as well as phrases such as “most of Korean restaurants” and “some restaurants,” appear to bleach out the perspective of the author, making it more difficult to discern the writer’s opinion. Questions such as “Have you ever seen people who smoke in the restaurant?” use the word you to address the reader, yet they appear mechanical and are not designed to influence the reader’s opinion. At the same time, there appears to be a heightened awareness of grammar, as is revealed by the use of the determiner the . This feature is consistently used throughout the text. Within “the restaurants,” however, no specificity is needed. In this case, the object is not known by both the writer and the reader. Such an error reflects an awareness of grammatical accuracy, yet it does not reflect awareness of context or the reader.

Analysis of word usage has revealed key differences in the essays of Korean EFL writers who have had extensive NEST instruction and those who have not. Compositions by Korean EFL writers with more NEST instruction closely resemble native English writers in word frequency and usage. These essays also include more academic vocabulary, as well as a larger variety of word forms to enrich essay content. Concerning style, Korean EFL learners with more NEST instruction tend to use stances that evaluate, validate, and state personal opinions about an argument. Learners with low NEST instruction appear to rely on speech formulas, utilizing more unbiased logical arguments that do not reveal either the opinion of the author, nor an awareness of the reader.

Regarding grammar, Korean EFL learners with more NEST support show a heightened awareness of verb tense and agreement; use determiners more often than their counterparts with little NEST instruction; utilize the first person singular more often, which reveals a tendency to use personal experience to support an argument; and tend to combine phrases or sentences using the conjunctions and or addition . Learners with low NEST instruction use pronouns such as we, you, and they more often, which may be an attempt to avoid personal opinion. They also tend to utilize relative clauses to add complexity to sentences, rather than using conjunctions like and or addition . In general, use of grammar in the study suggests that while Korean EFL learners with extensive NEST instruction use more sophisticated vocabulary, word forms, and grammar to create a novel argument supported by personal experience, Korean EFL learners with low NEST instruction use formulaic and logical speech sequences to express opinions more accurately and neutrally.

Results of the study suggest that both EFL learner groups have distinct advantages. While learners with more NEST instruction made more creative and sophisticated constructions, their counterparts were more grammatically accurate in their use of language. Such results have implications for language teachers in EFL contexts such as South Korea, which have a variety of schools staffed with both NEST and NNEST instructors. Learners who are taught extensively by NEST instructors may benefit more from exercises that utilize formulaic language, as well as grammar instruction to assist with the editing process. Learners without instruction from NESTs may benefit from increased tasks that cultivate creativity with language and critical thinking. Specialized instruction in this way may allow all learners to add rhetorical and linguistic variety, while cultivating greater grammatical accuracy.

Although this study has provided useful information concerning EFL writing instruction, limitations in method still exist, highlighting a need for further research. The present study only used a self-survey to report time spent with NESTs, which limited understanding of each learner’s educational background. Since educational policies that encourage the hiring of more NESTs may also be coupled with curricular changes, such as the addition of communicative tasks with more speaking and writing, any relationships between these potential covariates must be further investigated. More experimental or qualitative studies documenting curricular experiences of learners in conjunction with teacher influences can provide a holistic understanding of the EFL learner process, which may then be used to substantially improve instruction. Such study may help educators to develop policies and pedagogical techniques that combine the strengths of diverse groups, thereby enhancing the efficacy of English instruction.

Availability of data and materials

All materials for this study are available through the ICNALE corpus.

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Schenck, A. Examining the influence of native and non-native English-speaking teachers on Korean EFL writing. Asian. J. Second. Foreign. Lang. Educ. 5 , 2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-020-00081-3

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The downloadable zip file includes the original LOCNESS files as distributed by the CECL as well as an additional repertory that contains a revised cleaned-up and formatted version of the corpus made available by Noam Ordan and his team.

Why I’m Teaching My Daughter My Mother’s Language

L ate in January 2024, cantilevered over my husband’s shoulder in line at our favorite coffeeshop, my toddler roared out one of her usual requests: “Tata, please bring maca and capall to folcadan.”

“Oh honey,” the woman standing behind us laughed. “That’s a mouthful.”

My husband explained that our daughter was asking him to bring her farmhouse figurines, a cat and a horse, along to the bathtub. (Reader, there was no bathtub; or rather, the bathtub was at home, as were the cat and the horse figurines.)

“What language is she speaking?” the stranger wanted to know.

We explained the linguistic arrangement of our household: my husband is from Dublin, and speaks Irish; I was born in the former Yugoslavia, and speak Serbian; we met in New York and communicate in English. Now living in Wyoming, we are trying our best to raise our daughter with all three languages.

I am still surprised by how many people smirk when they hear this. “Oh wow,” they tend to say. " That’ll be useful.”

What they mean, I assume, is that neither Serbian nor Irish is an especially proliferate language. Irish, spoken by an estimated 1.2 million people , is categorized as “definitely endangered” by the UNESCO Atlas of World Languages. Serbian is the first language of about 7.2 million people —though, once you venture outside the post-war nationalist designations that characterize Serbian as being entirely separate from, say, Croatian or Bosnian, the reach of the language grows. Still, native speakers tend to be concentrated in their countries of origin, as well as a smattering of communities to which they emigrated, as most of my maternal family did, after the wars of the 1990s. So if a language’s usefulness is measured by its ability to connect the speaker with a large proportion of the earth’s population, then yes, I suppose Irish and Serbian are surely on the lower end of the spectrum.

But I grew up measuring linguistic utility by a different set of parameters. Ones that spoke more to my family’s urge to seclude than their desire to connect.

My grandfather, a Slovene born and raised in Belgrade, spoke Ekavian, a standard dialect of what was then known as Serbo-Croatian. My grandmother, ethnically Muslim, spoke Ijekavian, a lilting dialect of Bosnia & Herzegovina that tends to lean into Turkish and Arabic roots. My mother, their only child, born in Sarajevo and raised in Belgrade, was a chameleon: she could, and still can, easily switch between both. When the war broke out, we moved first to Cyprus, then to Egypt. I managed to maintain fluency largely thanks to my grandmother’s dogged refusal to learn English, and my mother’s insistence that one must never lose one’s native language.  

Her reasons for this had to do with its utility, but as a mechanism of preservation rather than communication. As is true of many immigrants, our language served as a container of all things home. Proverbs, jokes, witticisms rooted in socio-historical context. Family stories. Recipes. Swear words, of course—and lots of them. Translation eroded some aspect of them all, and thus eroded the parts of my grandparents and mother that made them their whole, complex, fully rounded selves.

But most crucially for my mother, Serbian served as a kind of escape hatch out of precarious situations. She would glide in and out of the language, usually as a protective measure against threats that were not apparent to me. “Start crying,” she might say in Serbian, when she realized that strange men were following us around a grocery store. “Make a scene.”

We were fortunate at that time to be living in places that had huge international communities, and where the use of a foreign language was not something to be remarked upon, or even noticed, as it often is in America. My peers at the small international school I attended were the children of expatriates and asylum seekers from all over the world. Bilinguality was the default. But even then, most people’s second language was Greek or French or Dutch or Arabic, and the communities to whom this language was available were bigger. My mother and grandparents and I were cocooned by the rarity of our language.

Read More: We’re Still Living in the World That Inspired Animal Farm —75 Years Later

(Of course, sometimes we misjudged the extent of that rarity. In one particularly memorable instance, a little while after we had come to the United States, a woman banged her grocery cart into my mother in a Walmart parking lot. My mother smiled cheerfully. “Go fuck yourself,” she said in Serbian, and steered our cart away. A few minutes later, the woman caught up to us in the produce aisle. “Excuse me,” she said, also in Serbian. “ You go f*xck yourself. ”)

For the most part, our shared language served as a fulcrum of our relationship, a kind of room to which my mother and I could both teleport, a place of secrets and frustrations. To this day, in heated exchanges, we both head there, all the better to hurl invectives that are as precise as possible at one another. When I want to share something difficult or emotionally charged with my mother, I tend to say, “I don’t know how to say this.” Her inevitable response is, “probaj maternjim”—try your mother tongue. Every so often, some long-forgotten word or phrase comes slamming out of the disused recesses of my memory. I ask my mother about its etymology, and then look for ways to use it in conversation with her, or translate it to see if it works in conversational English. When that fails, it inevitably ends up in my writing.

All this, the good and the bad, reinforces the bond between us. I want this bond for myself and my daughter, my daughter and her father, his people and mine.

At the heart of this desire, I think, is the life each of us can allow ourselves to imagine for our children. When my mother named me “Tea,” she did not imagine that I would end up living in a country, much less making my living in a language, in which that particular arrangement of letters had an entirely different pronunciation and meaning—one that would, I must pettily admit, frustrate me forever. She did not imagine that the war would come, that her homeland would tear itself apart, and that the things she thought she knew, and the life for which she sought to prepare me, would no longer be useful. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that I, too, have no idea what may or may not be useful for my daughter. I want her to speak my language, and her father’s, too, because I want her to be a chameleon, like my mother is; because I have no idea what camouflage she will need to survive the things I cannot imagine.

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Is a Native Speaker the Best Teacher? Essay

Introduction, native teacher advantages &disadvantages, non-native advantages & disadvantages, argument for non-native superiority, experiences of learning a second language.

International Corporation has led to assimilation and integration of different cultures into other countries. It is currently normal to find a non-resident working comfortably in a foreign nation. This is motivated by different experiences and skills that may be helpful in a certain organisation.

However, one area has not appreciated the services of non-natives. Despite their commendable services in other employment sectors, non-native speakers have not been preferred to teach English language especially to the natives.

This is mainly due to their accent that may interfere with the communication skills of the learners. Apart from influence of accent, other qualities possessed by these teachers qualify them to offer commendable services to students.

Teaching languages in institutions is a critical issue that has been a source of debate on the choice of an English teacher. In selecting a teacher for a particular subject, the administration mainly considers qualifications and experience of the teacher and his or her capability to handle the subject.

Other issues like race and cultural background are insignificant matters. However, when it comes to choice of a language teacher, rules are re-examined to determine whether the teacher is a native speaker or not.

Employing a native speaker is a rule applied in many schools whenever they want to recruit an English teacher. Apart from the necessary academic qualifications, school administration will want to know who among the applicants is a native speaker, and who is not.

From there the non-native speakers are eliminated even if their academic qualifications are better than those of the native applicants.

According to, Phan (2008 pp 24-26), these applicants are not given a chance to express their ability; ‘it is assumed that because of their mother tongues influence they will not be able to deliver quality services to students’

A non-native speaker being denied an opportunity does not only involve the school administration, some administrations who have allowed non-native teachers to handle language classes have received negative response from students who prefer to be taught by a native speaker.

Such an attitude is planted in their minds and they feel that a non-native teacher may not understand their language needs. Some of these students are not ready to listen to the teacher not because of the quality of his or her services but simply because he is non-native speaker.

The discussion below is a critical analysis of both the advantages and disadvantages of a native and non-native language teacher.

Schools and students may prefer a native teacher because he has a deep understanding of the language. Compared to the non-natives who had to learn the language at later stage, a native teacher is used to the language because they have been learning it since they were borne.

Ellis (2002 pp 75-78) enumerates that being native also gives a teacher an advantage of knowing students’ weak areas when learning a language. They will integrate what they went through as they grew up learning the language and the acquired skills about the language that puts them in a better position to handle the real learning issues of their students.

Native teachers are not affected by the accent. Accent is an important aspect of communication that no parent, school or student will desire to compromise. A native teacher will ensure that his or her students are identified by their accent.

A non-native is likely to interfere with it through the pronunciation of words for example; an Italian can easily be distinguished from an American by their accent. A native teacher provides a conducive learning environment for the students who look at him or her as a person they can easily identify with which gives them confidence.

A native teacher will be able to handle a beginner’s class by giving necessary translations to pupils who may not be familiar with some difficult words.

Despite the preferences of a native teacher above, he or she may not always be the best choice for the students due to some reasons. A native teacher takes many things that students are supposed to be taught for granted.

This is because; he or she has mastered the language so much, that it may not be easy to deliver the best services to the students. Some native teachers who are preferred because of their background may not necessarily have teaching skills.

There is a difference between written and spoken English that consideration when teaching. A native teacher may be eloquent yet weak when it comes to the written language.

Native teachers may rely on their experience of speaking the language to teach students rather than using their technical skills. This makes it hard for the students to learn the basic rules of the language that form its foundation.

Despite the discrimination that has existed for long against a non-native teacher, he or she is a choice that should be given priority. First, a non-native teacher who has interest in a foreign language reveals how much passion he has for it that he decided to pursue it as a career.

His career is not primarily based on earning a living but also on passion. He will therefore deliver the best services as he encourages the students to love the language passionately. A non-native teacher has a better understanding of the challenges that learners of a language go through due to similar experience he has had, Llurda, (2006 pp 22-25).

Therefore, non-native teacher understands the real areas that learners will face difficulty and help them accordingly. Despite their challenges in accent, non-native teachers are endowed with basic skills required for learning and teaching the language that places them in a better position to teach it effectively.

Students who have difficulty in grasping the language can always be inspired and motivated by their non-native teacher. He will be an example they can look up to and get assurance that if he made it despite his or her background they can also make it.

However, a non-native teacher may not be able to deliver quality services to the students due to a number of weaknesses. His accent may affect the spoken language of students that may make them to loose their identity. For instance, there is a difference between German and American English.

If a pupil of American origin interacts so much with a German English teacher, the pupil will tend to acquire such an accent that may make other people mistake him to be a German. Non-native teachers have a direct influence on the cultural beliefs of the students, in citing examples for sentence construction; a teacher of German origin will site examples as per his background.

This is because of the integration of cultural aspect to the learning process that may make the students learn more of a foreign culture than their own. A non-native teacher may not be preferred for a beginner’s class because; he or she may not be able to translate some English words to the native language for proper understanding.

Most students hold a certain negative attitude towards non-native teachers. Such students may not be convinced that he or she is qualified to teach them properly.

Non-native teachers are at times discriminated because of their background, for instance some African Americans may be despised because of their skin colour. This may intimidate them hence affect the quality of their services to students.

When a line is drawn between the qualities of a language teacher, it is clear that a non-native teacher is simply discriminated on attitude ground. A non-native teacher has the skills, knowledge, experience and passion for the language.

When all this attributes are combined together and appreciated in schools, the students are able to get the best learning services of a language, Ellis (2002 pp 93-97). Most schools are afraid of employing non-native teachers because of the response the students will have against them.

This small issue can be solved by the school administration. Denying the teacher chance to teach in a school due to resistance from the students is a factor that has contributed to such discrimination.

It shows the inability of an administration to take control of school affairs and instead giving students such authority. This also shows their weakness in administration by suggesting that they made a wrong choice in their selection procedure.

The school administration should not entertain such resistance of a non-native teacher from their students. Once the teacher has been gauged for quality, students have to be assured that he or she is the best choice that will deliver quality-teaching services.

Most students will resist them because the administration has not given them an assurance of his qualifications. It is the role of the administration to clear such kind of attitudes among students by encouraging them to value a teacher according to his capability.

Despite their background, non-native teachers are trained and qualified to teach English as their second language, in fact most of them have passed through reputable institutions that offer quality skills in the teaching profession.

Denying them the chance to teach due to their background is a suggestion that the teaching skills they acquired did not amount to anything. Gass (2001 pp 20-25) describes a non-native speaker as a person that understands the difficulty of learning a second language yet appreciated it by facing the challenges that came with it.

It is therefore clear that a non-native appreciates a language more than the natives who may take it for granted. This will also reflect on the attitude they will display when teaching it. A non-native speaker is eager to know more about a language.

He or she will therefore not only rely on the skills acquired during training but also have a desire to explore and find out more about certain language commands.

The extra knowledge they acquire will be transmitted to their students. Such privileges may not be granted to students who are taught by native teachers who rely on what they have previously acquired.

It is important for school administrators to understand that there was nobody who was born to teach a language, professionalism is acquired through the skills that have been acquired through education.

A person being born a native does not guarantee them quality teaching skills because; it is the technical knowledge received in their education system that qualifies them for the profession.

Learning English as a second language has never been an easy task. The experiences that one may go through in their efforts to be fluent in it are challenging. Most people who had a passion for foreign language gave up on their way because they could not handle the challenges.

Those who managed to pursue it further like non-native speakers were inspired by the passion they had for it. They went through challenges of grasping the very first common words like greetings to complex stages where they had to learn vocabularies, Ellis (2002 pp 88-90).

Non-native speakers have a clear understanding of their second language more than their first one. They not only had to learn the words one by one but also had to practice and express themselves in an accent that is foreign to them.

The most challenging part of it is that they are not only supposed to verbally communicate the language but also know how to express it in writing. Spoken language may be easier to learn when such an association is maintained but the skills of writing it require a lot of dedication and commitment on the part of the learner.

The challenges that learners may face especially when they have to communicate in the language with native speakers may be unbearable to them. It takes courage for one to fumble with words in order to construct a sentence. Such experiences that non-natives go through makes them appreciate the language even more.

As they pursue a teaching career in English as their second language, they do so with the knowledge of the difficulties that a learner may face. They will integrate those challenges with teaching skills they acquired to give students the best, Rubdy (2006 pp33-36).

If students and school administrators knew what such teachers went through and still purposed to pursue the subject to such a level, then they would understand how much experience they have in a language they are not connected to because of their background.

The above analysis shows a different form of discrimination practiced in the education sector. It was a trend practiced and not seen as a big issue in the past. However, in the recent years, choice of a language teacher has been a debated topic where most people doubt the effectiveness of a non-native teacher.

With a clear analysis of the subject, it is realized that it is simply an attitude in the mind of school administrators and students that causes such a resistance. It may be caused by variety of applicants that school administrators receive for an advertised English language position.

They use it as a first elimination procedure when short listings applicants who are supposed to be interviewed. Considering the other hidden qualities of non-native teacher, it is clear that they will produce comparatively higher results for the students than non-native ones.

Most schools will also give preference to citizens in their appointments. This is usually because of the assumption that if they do not employ their own people then nobody will employ them. However, this is an attitude of the past that should no longer be a basis of employing people.

Ellis (2002 pp 99-102) Liberalisation and Multinational Corporation encourages the free interaction of all nationalities. Different ideas can only be shared when such people as non-natives are allowed to teach English language to the natives.

Ellis, L 2002, ‘Teaching from Experience: A New Perspective on the Non-Native Teacher in Adult ESL Australian’, Review of Applied Linguistics , vol. 25, no. 1, pp71 – 107

Gass, SM & Selinker, L 2001, Second Language Acquisition , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London.

Llurda, E 2006, Non-Native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges and Contributions to the Profession , Springer, New York.

Phan, LH 2008, Teaching English as an International Language , Multilingual Matters, Bristol.

Rubdy, R 2006, English in the World: Global Roles, Global Rules, Continuum International Publishing Group, London.

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IvyPanda. (2019, April 25). Is a Native Speaker the Best Teacher? https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-a-native-speaker-the-best-teacher-essay/

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IvyPanda . 2019. "Is a Native Speaker the Best Teacher?" April 25, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-a-native-speaker-the-best-teacher-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Is a Native Speaker the Best Teacher?" April 25, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-a-native-speaker-the-best-teacher-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Is a Native Speaker the Best Teacher?" April 25, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-a-native-speaker-the-best-teacher-essay/.

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How to Write Like an English Native

4 Tips to improve your skills as a business English writer

Written English is the lingua franca of global business.

As world economies become ever-more interconnected, English has emerged as the standard for global communication. Even if you generally feel comfortable speaking English in conversation--perhaps you do so daily--writing it is something else entirely. While the spoken word soon disappears into thin air, the written word remains. In other words, a mistake in printed text has a far greater chance of being scrutinized or--in the age of social media--ridiculed.

How to develop writing skills in English.

English as a second language has its own particular difficulties, partly due to the nature of the language itself and partly because so many people in so many places speak it. Here are our top tips for improving your business English writing skills.

Understand that standard English is a strange beast.

Over the centuries, many languages have influenced the development of English. Thus, its grammar and spelling can be highly irregular. Idiosyncrasies are very hard to learn, except by constant exposure over a long period. Even native English speakers find it difficult to explain the numerous irregularities inherent to their language--they just know what sounds natural to their ears.

Tip: Does "Red little riding hood" make sense? In English grammar, it's important to keep your adjectives in the right order .

Call in an expert.

If you have any native English speakers in your office, ask them for help proofreading your text. Don't be offended if they provide many corrections. If time permits, ask your colleague to explain the changes to help improve your fluency in English.

If you do not have the opportunity to consult a native speaker, or if your text is too long for your colleague to check, it may make sense to turn to a professional editor .

Tip: Use an English language corpus to make your prose sound idiomatic.

Keep it simple.

English has an extremely rich vocabulary and a flexible structure, so it can be tempting to write creatively. But when writing in a non-native language, it's best to keep a steady hand on the throttle of creativity and write plainly and clearly . Keep your prose short, keep it straightforward, and say what you want to say as simply as possible. Whenever possible, get a native speaker or editor to check your writing before clicking send.

Tip: No one wants to hunt for meaning in a text. Stick closely to the principles of plain English .

The thesaurus is not always your friend.

A thesaurus is a tool for finding more interesting alternatives for boring or commonly-used words. When writing as a non-native, use this tool sparingly. Many words in the English language have a range of synonyms, but more often than not each has a nuance that could make it entirely inappropriate for your specific situation.

Take the following:

"I shall adore to articulate toward you apropos a neoteric hobbyhorse I am nursing for respective dealings inside the bunch."

This is a somewhat exaggerated example of thesaurus-abuse. What the author actually meant to say was:

"I'd like to tell you about a new idea I have for personal interaction in the team."

Tip: If you're not sure what combination of words to use, consult a collocation dictionary .

English grammar tips & tricks.

Here's a quick list of what to avoid when writing in a non-native language:

• Colloquialisms and slang: Best not to use these, especially slang, as they usually do not translate well. Even commonly used slang can sound absurd when used out of place.
• Similes, idioms and metaphors: Only use these if you check first with a native speaker.
• Long sentences: You may need to write a fairly lengthy sentence now and then, but keep in mind that errors in structure are more likely to occur in longer sentences.
• Phrasal verbs: Use of these also depends on common usage and intrinsic clarity. Only use them if you're very familiar with their usage.
• Humor: This is more of a gray area. While it may seem that some things are universally funny, many jokes or situations that seem funny in one language or to one culture do not travel well. Even jokes that are a hit in British English can fail with English-fluent audiences in the US or Australia. Use humor sparingly; its reception will depend greatly on your target audience.

If you can work with a native speaker, you may find the above types of language can improve your text and help you connect with local readers. That's why Lionbridge engages a massive community of native-speaking subject matter experts in 350+ languages, who can help create, edit, and translate your content.

Interested in learning more or starting a project? Reach out today.

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English Idioms: A Great Way to Write Your Essay Like a Native Speaker

Each language has special phrases native speakers use to express themselves. When you speak with English speakers , you will hear idioms in context. This will help you to use them like a native English speaker. You shouldn’t overuse idioms or use them in the wrong context. Learn and use the simple ones first if you want to connect in a more meaningful way. Using idioms in daily situations will make you sound more like a native speaker. 

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) focuses on how well you use idiomatic language . Knowing idioms and phrases for IELTS shows how well you speak English and helps you to improve your score. Learning how to write in English also involves using idioms in the right context. 

What is an idiom?

An idiom is a group of words that has a meaning different from the literal meanings of the words that make it up. “ I’m feeling under the weather today ” is an example of an idiom. The phrase doesn’t mention illness , but it tells the listener that you aren’t feeling well . There are many idioms in the English language. If you don’t understand and learn common idioms, it is hard to communicate like a native speaker. 

What is the purpose of an idiom?

Using idioms shows you are familiar with the English language . When you want to make your writing sound more informal, you can include idioms. Native writing of English often includes idioms because they add imagery and color to language. Most of them give some kind of advice, such as a good “rule of thumb” is to exercise for 30 minutes every day. A sentence like “ He said it was time for him to have a taste of his own medicine ” is memorable because you can imagine the bad taste. It means the person will get the same bad treatment he has given others. 

Common idioms

When you learn English idioms , you should focus on the ones that you are likely to come across more often. When a professor tells you not to “beat around the bush,” it means he wants you to get to the point. When other students say “ No pain no gain ,” they mean you have to work hard for what you want. I read the lesson word for word, but it is “ Greek to me ,” which means that you didn’t understand it.

Use idioms correctly in essays 

If you’re a non-native English student studying at university, you may find it difficult to use idioms correctly in your essays. Native English speakers can pick this up straight away. You can turn to an essay writing service if you are having difficulties. You can choose a professional writer to write a paper for you in native speaker style. EduBirdie is an essay writing service for students with many professional writers to choose from. It’s reputed and has positive reviews from every user.

More common idioms

To “hit the nail on the head” means to describe exactly what is causing a problem. “ You can’t judge a book by its cover ” means you can’t judge someone based on their outward appearance. To “ let the cat out of the bag ” is to reveal someone’s secret. To “add insult to injury” is to make something worse. “ To cut corners ” is to do something badly or cheaply just to get it done. To “ kill two birds with one stone ” means to solve two problems at once. 

Do idioms fit the subject and the audience?

Can you improve an essay by using idioms ? In a more informal essay, they can create a relaxed tone and add color. Is the audience well versed in English idioms? You don’t want people to take them literally. When you know what your audience prefers, you can decide whether using idioms is appropriate. Using idioms will be more appropriate in some subjects than others. Research the type of writing that is common for your subject.

Keep your writing simple

When writing English essays , it is best to use a clear, simple style. Keep sentences short and say what you want to say in a simple way. If you include idioms, make sure to use them in the right context. Don’t include them in a forced way to try and make the reader think you are fluent in English. Getting a native speaker to check your writing can help you to improve. Practice and more practice is the best way to learn. 

Learning English idioms will help you to better understand native English speakers. The only way to speak English like a native speaker is to keep talking and practicing. Learning how to include idioms in your writing will make it sound more natural. Make sure you understand the idioms you use and include them in the right context to make you sound more like a native English writer.

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ha first comment

I am an English teacher 7-9 grade and I always try to introduce my students to idioms as a way to understand both the language and the culture. I always find a song, a movie, or something to show them whatever I´m teaching. For example, I was teaching the word BREW and and show them the song STRANGE BREW, abviously you can teach many other words or expressions from the lyrics.

The language gap: Hidden struggles of the non-native speaker

My first experience of education in the U.S. was a two-week English as a second language course at the University of Chicago. There I learned that "clothes" was pronounced "close" and squash is a kind of vegetable. I was told that I use too many redundant words that are hardly necessary (yes, like that). After two weeks, our international cohort was informed that we were good to go. But were we?

Every year, about half a million students travel to the U.S. to study science, technology, engineering and math subjects. An overwhelming majority of these students are non-native speakers of English, the lingua franca of the scientific enterprise. This is the same group that ultimately will comprise half of the country's postdoc pool and one-fourth of the STEM faculty in a few years' time. These favorable outcomes suggest that the system really works for international students, but does it?

Concerns about the gender gap, race gap and wealth gap in STEM have permeated public consciousness in recent years thanks to efforts by universities, funding agencies and scientific bodies, but the language gap for non-native speakers hardly is discussed.

Louder than actions

Classes were taught in English in my school back in India, but all my interactions outside those few hours in school were in my mother tongue, Bengali. When I got to the University of Chicago to work on a Ph.D. in chemistry, my adviser's job was to train me in scientific research; I was expected to be proficient in English. In my early years in grad school, I had a hard time penetrating the dense scientific literature I had to read for my research.

When it came time for my first research paper, I realized how difficult scientific writing could be. The research was done, and we were satisfied with our results, but preparing the manuscript took close to a year. Like most Ph.D. students, I had no training in technical writing, so my first draft was a mess. Because English is not my first language, I had a hard time finding the right words to describe my results, and my sentences were awkward and long-winded. My adviser, busy with other priorities, edited the draft heavily. The edited manuscript read better, but I didn't know why. Even when I finally could bask in the glory of my publication — we had discovered the structure of an RNA molecule that also behaves as an enzyme — a nagging inner voice reminded me that the process would be almost as tedious the next time around.

With my paper submitted, I registered for my first scientific conference. While preparing, I soon realized that, unlike writing, my talk would not be edited. In my first poster presentation, my interactions with others were less spontaneous than the American presenters', even after considerable preparation. I have become a more confident speaker since then, but at every conference I attend I meet non-native presenters struggling to convey their hard-earned results. Student talks rarely last more than 15 minutes, which calls for precise communication. As a listener, I don't know how many times I've given up on a talk because I couldn't understand the speaker's words or I found their monotone soporific. Though I use a script, I aim to write a talk that sounds spontaneous by using short, direct sentences, pausing to emphasize important points and keeping my tone conversational. I also have found that using questions as segues increases audience engagement.

Bridging the gap

Like most non-native speakers who join the U.S. academic workforce, I was aware of the language gap before I came here. And I don't think the solution lies in critiquing the linguistic hegemony of English over the sciences. It lies in rethinking graduate training.

Universities should offer a semester-long course on science communication to first-year grad students, with special attention to non-native speakers. The writing component should include exercises in summarizing scientific findings or reviewing scientific literature. Students should be introduced to the phrases and terminology commonly used in scientific writing, taught how to synthesize related ideas into concise sentences, and provided with a primer on technical writing. Impromptu group discussions, flash presentations and practice talks could be included in the oral component. Through mutual critique and suggestions, all new grad students soon would gain the confidence to approach scientific communication with excitement instead of unease.

Of the six courses I took in graduate school, only two were even remotely related to my Ph.D. work, whereas a communication course would have been useful to the entire entering class, irrespective of their field of research. Such courses probably don't exist because university administrators are unaware of the difficulties I've outlined. After joining a lab, most students have little communication with the department administration. We don't like to complain, so our struggles remain siloed.

From the student's perspective, I can see how fitting such a course into an already packed first year might be difficult. In most schools, including mine, teaching assistant duties take up most of the week. My primary concern in the first year was to find a suitable research group. Busy students may not consider such a course a priority, but I think this initial time investment would pay high dividends in a few years.

A course would be an excellent starting point, but I have found that self-improvement is the only way to level the playing field. A healthy reading habit has done wonders for my language skills. I have benefited especially from science writers such as Richard Dawkins and Paul Davies. When my busy schedule does not permit additional reading, I find that listening to narrative podcasts, even those that have nothing to do with science, is a great way to learn effective sentence construction. I suggest podcasts by the Parcast network as examples of effective storytelling.

Non-native speakers have been and continue to be successful because we power through uncomfortable experiences. That's what learning is. I present my story as an example of countless stories. I believe universities can do much more to empower one of the most productive groups in American science and technology.

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Saurja DasGupta is a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital.

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Native Speaker Essay Questions

By chang-rae lee, essay questions.

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Written by people who wish to remain anonymous

Summarize Chang-Rae Lee's perception of Americans?

Lee writes, “Americans, one of them would say, are wonderful and exuberant people. They dance, they play-fight, they puff up the lips and blow out their chests. They enjoy using their hands. They seem to live always at a football match. They stand in broken columns and flurry with both arms and both legs and they are not afraid to make a mess of themselves. They don’t so much sing as they do chant. Chanting is more satisfying, at least how they do it. Their calls first start all together and slow and then pick up speed and volume until they finally dissipate to spate voices and rounds of hand clapping and cheers.” Here, Lee depicts Americans are cheerful people who delight in carnival. Their liveliness is evident when they are chanting and using their body parts. Observing the Americans’ merry-making confirms that they shy from indulging themselves in pleasure. Consequently, the Americans are mostly happy and they show their gladness.

Explain Henry Park's ideology of marriage.

Henry Park asserts, “But then marriage must be the willingness to walk the blind alleys. Maybe I know that now. You don’t tempt fate you ignore it completely. During the two months she was gone in the Italian Islands I walked the streets of the city with my back blind. I was matching the steps of my soloist wife at the other end of the world. At times I found myself moving to her own ambling, driven gait, round on the heels, nearly race-walking, breasts forward in guidance, my life’s ballasts. I mimicked her high, but never shrill voice. I felt the blush of anger on rise on my neck. I could even see myself, maddeningly centred as usual, hunched at the far end of our empty too large apartment, sipping easy liquor.” The path of matrimony is not straightforward: the ‘blind alleys’ are emblematic of unseen eventualities such as temporal separation which Park is enduring. Henry Park’s attempts to imitate his American wife surmise that their marriage is grounded on insincerity. Park is not genuine with his wife and himself. He strives to emulate Americanness with the aim of matching his wife which backfires eventually. Striving to change himself from Korean to American is futile for it does not supplement any value to their matrimony.

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Native Speaker Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Native Speaker is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Native Speaker

Native Speaker study guide contains a biography of Chang-Rae Lee, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Native Speaker
• Native Speaker Summary
• Character List

Essays for Native Speaker

Native Speaker essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee.

• “Necessary Fictions”: Negotiating Identity Through Storytelling in Chang-Rae Lee's Native Speaker
• The Relinquishing of Roots
• Manipulation of the Spy Novel in Chang-Rae Lee's Native Speaker
• The Similar Effects of Audience Reception in Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity-Narrative and Equiano’s Slave-Narrative.
• Attempted Assimilation: Immigrant Inclusion and Outsiderness in Native Speaker

Wikipedia Entries for Native Speaker

• Introduction
• Major themes
• Awards and nominations