It is not easy to interpret what the native speaker is since some experts view it differently. Both Davies (1991, 2003) and Coppieters (1987) stress that to be a native speaker, the L1 is best acquired in early childhood even though there is still a possibility for the L2 post puberty learners to be the native speakers. Does this indicate that the L2 post puberty learners are likely to be the native speakers-like rather than the native speakers?
In expanding circle country like Indonesia, the role of English increases rapidly every year. I wonder whether this means that the local languages will be replaced by English. If yes, what sort of preventive actions should be implemented concerning with this condition? Phillipson’s (1992) notion about the growth of English speakers that results in the elimination of local languages reminds me to a friend of mine who teaches in one of the primary schools in Indonesia. She informed me that most of the teaching and learning materials and methods are adopted from Western educational system. More surprisingly, English is used as a medium of instruction while the proportion of Indonesian language is as equal as other subjects. It is important to note that none of the teachers is native speaker and only two of them who studied overseas several years ago. Is there any possibilities for those students to be the native speakers while they never have taught by native speaker teachers?
In fact, what Philipson (1992) says about the lose of native speakers’ identity is right. It is clear that there will be the degeneration of local languages since it’s role has been taking by the L2. However, I am still questioning about Davies’ (2003) statement that Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden are examples of countries which succeed in both maintaining their L1s and attaining English. Who are the L2 learning models? Are they NESTs or non-NESTS? How about their curriculum requirements of L2 teaching?
Reference
Davies, A. (2004). The native speaker in applied linguistics. In A. Davies & Elder, C. (Eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 431-449). Blackwell, Oxford.
