Who is Likely to
Handle Grammar better:
Native or
Non-Native Teachers?
By Carmen Hurtado
There is a lot of interesting research
in this area, specifically comparing the grammar skills of native speakers’ vs.
the ones of non-native speakers of a given language. You have probably heard
expressions like, ‘If you really want to learn a language you’d better be
taught by a native speaker,’ or ‘There’s nothing like learning a language from
a native speaker,’ or so. Well, the truth is that is not necessarily truth. You
can learn either from a native or an assimilated speaker as long as they are
well prepared or had become specialists; that is, someone who had studied the
language properly as a career, for instance.
Alternatively, you might have noticed
some unthinkable expressions such as: ‘I
didn’t see nothing’, ‘There’s many people around here,’ ¿There
were less than 20 people in the show last night’? ‘I’ve went to Brazil
two times’, and the list goes on. Indeed, these expressions belong to
native English speakers, or to those who have acquired the language and still
lack grammar accuracy when using their mother tongue to convey messages orally
or in the written form. So, where’s the mistake? What prevents natives from
becoming proficient in managing their own language? Why is it hard for natives
to be aware of those common mistakes? Let’s review briefly what Noam Chomsky
states in his research which has contributed to linguistics, and especially to
language acquisition, establishing four key concepts that support the objective
of the article.
Noam Chomsky is acknowledged
as the best known and influential linguist of the second half of the Twentieth
Century, who has made a number of strong claims about language. In
particular, he suggests that language
is an innate faculty -- that is to say that we are born
with a set of rules about language in our minds, which he refers to as
'Universal Grammar.'
The
‘Universal Grammar’
The Universal
Grammar is the basis upon which all human languages are formed. If a Martian
linguist were to visit the Earth, he would deduce that there was only one
language, with a number of local variants. He would be able to study the
language and determine the rules based on the patterns he hears and the
patterns of other languages.
Children do not
simply copy the language they hear around them. They deduce rules from it,
which they can then use to make sentences that they have never heard before. They
do not learn a repertoire of phrases and sayings, as the behaviorists believe,
but a grammar that generates an infinite number of new sentences. Have you ever
been around a toddler as they are acquiring new language? They suddenly change
from “I play.” to “I’m playing.” without any formal instruction. Children are born, then, with
the Universal Grammar wired into their brains.
Language Acquisition
Language rules are
complex. If there is not a Universal Grammar, how do children make sense of it
all? When a child begins to listen to his parents, he will unconsciously
recognize which kind of a language he is dealing with, and he will set his
grammar to the correct one -- this is known as 'setting the parameters.' It is
as if the child were offered at birth a certain number of hypotheses, which he
or she then matches with what is happening around him. The child knows
intuitively that there are some words that feel like verbs and others that
sound like nouns; and there is a limited set of possibilities to fit them
within any sentence. This is not information that the child is spoon-fed
directly by adults, but rather offered to the child to interpret. That set of
language learning tools provided at birth is referred by Chomsky as the “Language
Acquisition Device”.
Generally, this
disparity challenges linguist Noam Chomsky’s theory of a Universal Grammar by suggesting
that being a native
speaker does not mean that you’re automatically a master of your own grammar.
Why aren’t some
native English speakers good at grammar?
Over the years, we
have noticed this as a common aspect among native English speakers. Very often, they disregard the simplest rules, or lack the
essential/appropriate usage of their own language. The opposite is seen among
people who learn the language as a foreign one, they usually strive to master
these aspects better than native speakers do. One reason for doing it might be
the need to study the language to master its use either for educational or
professional purposes. Nonetheless, these learners will frequently have the
same problem in their own language, particularly when using it in everyday
conversations and for communicative purposes.
What do YOU think?
If you are thinking of learning another language:
If you are thinking of learning another language:
Would you like to learn it with a native or non-native speaker?
What would be the advantages and disadvantages in one or the other scenario?
Leave your comments
and keep following us… more to come to the fascinating world of languages in
the next articles.
References:
Noam Chomsky and Language Acquisition Theory
4.1 child language acquisition theory – Chomsky,
Crystal, Aitchison & Piaget
Noam Chomsky on Universal Grammar and the
Genetics of Language with Captioning
What is language acquisition device?
Biodata
Carmen Hurtado, graduated in the educational
field; she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Science, and the title of
Licenciada en Educación by Universidad Nacional de Educación. She has also
finished her master’s studies in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at
Universidad de Piura, and taken some specializations in the EFL and Spanish
fields. She has taught English and Spanish for over 20 years. She currently
works teaching fully online courses. A lecturer in the late Annual Congresses
at CIDUP, she works as a Pedagogical Specialist, Teacher Trainer and is a member of
the Research Area at Universidad del Pacifico Language Center.
