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These example profiles of language users are adapted from Cheng et al. (2021) and "represent a snapshot of the diversity of experiences that cannot be captured by 'native speaker.'"
Ingrid, 65, grew up in The Netherlands and attended Dutch-medium schools. She learned Dutch from Dutch-speaking parents and spoke only Dutch at home, with friends, and in society at large. She learned written English and German in school, from ages 8–15, but does not use those languages in her daily life. While she can read in both languages, she isn’t comfortable speaking in either of them.
The written Dutch that she learned in school varies slightly from the spoken variety that she uses in her daily life at work. She is an avid reader of novels in Dutch and reads some news articles in English and German. She watches television and movies in Dutch and English, and uses Dutch subtitles for English media.
She considers herself to be a ‘native’ or ‘mother tongue’ speaker of Dutch.
Amy, 23, was born in Hong Kong and lived there until age 2 when her family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. She was first exposed to and began speaking only Cantonese. After moving to Canada, she began to hear English via immersion in a preschool setting starting at age 3, but still spoke only Cantonese otherwise.
After starting elementary school around age 5, Amy began to spend increasingly more time exposed to English. She continued to hear and speak Cantonese at home with family (including some media like TV and songs), with a couple of family friends, at certain extracurriculars (e.g., Saturday school for Cantonese) and in some places in the community that she went to with family (e.g., church, restaurants, grocery stores). Otherwise, English was heard and spoken at school, with peers and friends outside of school, at most extracurricular activities (e.g., sports teams, volunteering/work) and most places in the community. During this time, she gradually became less comfortable using Cantonese to communicate.
Currently, Amy uses English for almost everything other than speaking to her parents. She considers herself to not be fluent in speaking or listening to Cantonese. Due to some years of Saturday school as a child, she can read and write a small amount. Based on this, she considers English as her dominant, strongest and effectively only language. She doesn’t fully identify as a native speaker of either language, but she would say Cantonse is her mother tongue, while she speaks more like a (near-)native speaker of English.
Angel, 38, is deaf and was born in Manila, Philippines. She moved to San Francisco, CA, in her 30s and now lives in Boston, MA, with her wife, who is also deaf. Growing up, she spoke/signed Tagalog, English, and Filipino Sign Language at home. In school, she used Tagalog and English, as she was integrated into a class of hearing students (“mainstreamed”) on her own, with no interpreters or special support. Now, she primarily uses English and American Sign Language (ASL), and considers English to be her strongest language.
Angel attended school from the age of 5; in the 1980s and 1990s there was no organized educational interpreting system in the Philippines, so she was immersed in a spoken language environment. Some of her family is deaf, and they primarily communicate in Filipino Sign Language. At home, her family also used Tagalog, English, Bisaya, and Hokkien. Angel took courses in Nihongo (Japanese) at a language institute and took online courses in Japanese Sign Language, which she signs with a few friends. In college, she took a Castilian Spanish course. She learned ASL from her wife and YouTube videos, as well as from interactions in Deaf spaces in the United States.
In informal settings, Angel is most comfortable speaking Taglish (code-mixing of Tagalog and English), followed by ASL. ASL is the language that she uses the most with her wife, kids, friends, and coworkers at the university where she works. At home, she uses ASL, English, and Tagalog. At work/school, she uses ASL and English. She uses ASL with her friends. Angel uses English with strangers, but uses ASL if the stranger happens to know it. She considers herself a native speaker/signer of Tagalog, English, and Filipino Sign Language.
Leela, 27, was born in Kerala, India. The first language she was exposed to and spoke was a high contact variety of Malayalam, including elements from Tamil, Hindi, and English. She attended English immersion school, starting at age 4. While she learned to read and write Malayalam in school, Malayalam language classes ended at age 12. She also learned to read and write Hindi in school from ages 8–12.
Growing up, she heard and spoke Malayalam mostly at home with her family and in the community at large. She also heard and spoke English and Malayalam in school with peers and friends. She consumed mostly Malayalam and English media, but also sometimes watched Hindi and Tamil movies. Currently, she uses a high-contact variety of Malayalam at home, in social settings, and with greater society. She uses Malayalam and English at work (English with clients, superiors, and for all written communications; Malayalam with friends and in casual conversations); English when traveling outside of India; and English and Hindi when visiting family in North India. She also watches Hindi, Malayalam, English, and Tamil movies.
She doesn’t consider herself fluent in Malayalam both because she prefers to read and write in English (though she can read and write in Malayalam), and because she doesn’t feel like she can speak Malayalam without using English elements, especially depending on the semantic domain. She considers Malayalam her Mother Tongue, which is a locally relevant term, but states that she doesn’t feel proficient in any language.
Source
Cheng, L. S. P., Burgess, D., Vernooij, N., Solís-Barroso, C., McDermott, A., & Namboodiripad, S. (2021). The Problematic Concept of Native Speaker in Psycholinguistics: Replacing Vague and Harmful Terminology With Inclusive and Accurate Measures. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.715843
Adapted by
Lauretta Cheng