English 345: Thursday, November 17

345 Blog: Thursday, November 17

            It is interesting that, often, the term “native speaker” is used as such a blanket term to refer to anyone who speaks a particular language as their first language. I have always found this to be interesting as the people under that umbrella term are so incredibly diverse. I cannot imagine attempting impose some sort of commonality on the English spoken by every single person in the United States. Yes, we are all native speakers, but the language spoken by large chunks of people is so different, encompassing particular social and cultural factors. That’s why I was glad to read about Shohamy’s problematization of that term in relation to the language testing or English Language Learners. Just who are these “native speakers” that these students are supposed to sound like? How “good” at speaking is a “native speaker”? What would this “native speaker” say in this particular situation? By considering that motif of “any native speaker in the United States” as an answer to any of these questions, one can see that eliciting one answer from all native speakers just isn’t possible. Shohamy echoes this point by mentioning a series of studies: “Specifically, they found that performance by native speakers was related to educational level and work experience, leading the researchers to conclude that the native speaker should be considered as the criterion for appropriacy” (209).

            On a somewhat unrelated note, Shohamy’s description of problems with reading comprehension tests called up my own experiences in testing reading comprehension through multiple choice questions. She writes that these tests don’t really test what they’re supposed to as all people bring their own experiences to passages being read (another example of both the reader and the text interacting with one another) and that there can never be one-text, one-meaning. I have always found this to be the problem with those standardized reading comprehension sections that all students must take. I remember studying for the ACT or another test of that sort. What I was doing during those reading comprehension passages was not reading and comprehending. Rather, it was knowing what the questions were beforehand and skimming, looking at key words, etc. in order to get out of that text what those testers wanted me to. A reason that I succeeded on those was that part of my prior knowledge was not just being able to read, but knowing how to take that particular type of test. However, most English Language Learners do not have that luxury. So likely, they are taking a reading comprehension test that doesn’t really measure what it should and do not have that prior knowledge of being able to subvert it as I could do. That’s a huge issue when the reading abilities of most students in this country—native or nonnative—are being tested in this way. It’s a very unfair playing field.