CHAPTER 8: The applied linguistics challenge

By: Flor González, Grace González, Yudelca Jiminián.

THE NATIVE SPEAKER AND THE STANDARD LANGUAGE

In this chapter, the writer considered current issues in applied linguistics, suggest
connections between them and look ahead to future developments. Preston remarks that
nativeness is almost the entire question of SLA. The survey of the writer begins with the
central and bigger issue of the native speaker (Davies 2003a). The cognitive ‘‘being’’
approach must emphasise the individual, but individual variation is such that for
representative purposes an idealised social model is needed. Cognitive research
investigates ‘the native speaker’, paying no attention to variation among native
speakers. This is the major issue treated in this part of the chapter in terms of the major
issue of SLA.

TWO NATIVE SPEAKERS

During this part of the chapter, we have the opportunity to read about the novel Native
Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (1995). In this classic novel the protagonists see themselves
between two worlds, the immigrant insider-outsider. Lee himself was born in Korea in
1965 and emigrated to the USA at age three. Like him the protagonist of the novel,
Henry Park, is a Korean American, equally proficient in English and Korean. When
Park first meets the American woman who becomes his wife, he tells her about his
accent and he complains a bit about it because he thinks that there are some words not
properly pronounced by himself, however, his wife says that he actually is so
deliberately. He tried not to but he was taking in the sound of the syllables. He was very
careful.

PROTOTYPE THEORY
This part of the chapter is based on Escudero and Sharwood-Smith thoughts about
native speakers, in which, they have themselves recognised the problem they face in
achieving the best way of introducing the necessary precision. It is, as they say, that
‘precise definition of the term “native speaker” is extremely difficult and therefore
usually avoided even though the concept is vital in SLA as in many other domains
dealing with language ability. The term native speaker is used in different ways which
may in part explain why definition is difficult.
MAGNITUDE ESTIMATION
Sorace uses a number of NNS, which she also calls near speakers in order to show the
essence of her approach, judgements of grammatical acceptability using magnitude
estimation. Her conclusion, based on experiments with a number of languages, is that
‘even learners who are capable of native-like performance often have knowledge
representations that differ systematically from those of native speakers. In other words,
there is an absolute distinction between NSs and NNSs, a gap that can never be bridged.

BARTH ON BOUNDARIES
Here is introduced the anthropological approach, by Frederik Barth, in which he
discusses the ethnic groups and boundaries. For Barth, ethnic groups are categories of
ascription and identification by the actors themselves and, have the characteristics of
organizing interaction between people.
According to Barth, social categories are defined by their boundaries, not by what they
contain. It is also mentioned that boundaries are mantained and the assumed norms
within the followed, national, gender and religious. Sorace also made an investigation
with some native speakers in which NS variation was ignore.
A SOCIOLINGUISTIC VIEW
From a socio linguistic point of view, variation is so central that there’s no interest on
pursuing or defining NS, but Frudgil defines the NS as a speaker who has a language as
their first language. However, From the psycholinguistic view, this definition is not
about an idividual, since no individual has a language as their first language, but an
idiolet which distinguishes us from everyone else.
DIFFERING VIEWS
This chapter talks about that we cannot distinguish NSs and NNSs because there are
different views of what a native speaker is. That is to say that someone who did not
learn a language in childhood cannot be a native speaker. There are many different
opinions because it can be interpreted in different ways.
SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY
In general, we can say that you don’t become a native speaker on your own, you need
the adult participation to negotiate through zone of proximal development. According
to Vygotsky, learning has its basis in interacting with other people. Once you have this
interaction, the information is then integrated on the individual level. Sociocultural
theory focuses not only how adults and peers influence individual learning, but also on
how cultural beliefs and attitudes affect how learning takes place.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND RESPONSIBILITY
One of the problems about the responsibility that the applied linguists have is if they can
prevent the death of other languages because of globalization.
What scholars such as Shohamy, Pennycook, McNamara and Roever want to do is to
persuade colleagues that they need a reform that tells what the responsibilities of
applied linguists are, just what role they should adopt and what limits to put on the
research and development areas they should be involved in.

ETAL 1 OVERVIEW
The author of the book made researches and introduces the ETAL SERIES. And
attempted to give a definition on applied linguistics. ETAL (the Edinburgh TESOL and
Applied Linguistics research group) is a space for interdisciplinary scholarship. It
connects researchers across the University of Edinburgh and beyond, working on a wide
range of issues related to language, education and global mobility.
The Applied Linguistics Dilemma
What is the professional or scholarly duty of applied linguists? We can say that is to
investigate, analyze and offer recommendation to improve the problems that language
involves. A dilemma that the applied linguistics are involved is that they should suggest
ways of changing so as to overcome the language problems they have investigated.