The Native Class:
Relating Native Speakers' Languages to Social Class
INTRODUCTION:
This research is to focus on the connections, if any, between one's native language to one's social class. Drawing on my own experiences as well as those recounted in "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, I hypothesized that being a native speaker of a language would place you in a separate social strata, a higher niche, if you will, where only the natives can go. After examining the research of Alan Davis and Susan Frekko, however, I have found that there is far more to one's social status than just skill in a language. Frekko examined the interactions between students in a Catalan for adults class and found that non-native speakers of Catalan who were native speakers of the higher class Castilian were still treated like higher class individuals, while the native Catalan speakers deferred to them even in matters of their own native tongue. Through many angles, Davies looks to define the native speaker and find out what it is that sets him or her apart. His conclusion? There are certainly many communicative advantages to being a native speaker of a language. One's social status in connection to language is a far more tenuous concept to grasp. Like Frekko, Davies looks to the social standing of the language itself, rather than the skill of the non-native speaker. Being a native speaker is not enough. We are all native speakers of some language of another. The social aspect comes in considering what language you are a native speaker of.
This research is to focus on the connections, if any, between one's native language to one's social class. Drawing on my own experiences as well as those recounted in "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, I hypothesized that being a native speaker of a language would place you in a separate social strata, a higher niche, if you will, where only the natives can go. After examining the research of Alan Davis and Susan Frekko, however, I have found that there is far more to one's social status than just skill in a language. Frekko examined the interactions between students in a Catalan for adults class and found that non-native speakers of Catalan who were native speakers of the higher class Castilian were still treated like higher class individuals, while the native Catalan speakers deferred to them even in matters of their own native tongue. Through many angles, Davies looks to define the native speaker and find out what it is that sets him or her apart. His conclusion? There are certainly many communicative advantages to being a native speaker of a language. One's social status in connection to language is a far more tenuous concept to grasp. Like Frekko, Davies looks to the social standing of the language itself, rather than the skill of the non-native speaker. Being a native speaker is not enough. We are all native speakers of some language of another. The social aspect comes in considering what language you are a native speaker of.
Works Cited:
Davies, Alan. "Communicative Competence Aspects of the Native Speaker." The Native Speaker: Myths and Reality. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2003. 97-117. Print.
Davies, Alan. "Sociolinguistic Aspects." The Native Speaker: Myths and Reality. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2003. 52-76. Print.
Frekko, Susan E. "Social class, linguistic normativity and the authority of the 'native Catalan speaker' in Barcelona." The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects. Ed. Neriko Musha Doerr. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009. 161-184. Print.
Nagel, Madeline. "Literacy Narrative." Left at the Dancing Skeleton. n.p, 2013. Web. 29 Sep 2013.
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. Print.
Davies, Alan. "Communicative Competence Aspects of the Native Speaker." The Native Speaker: Myths and Reality. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2003. 97-117. Print.
Davies, Alan. "Sociolinguistic Aspects." The Native Speaker: Myths and Reality. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2003. 52-76. Print.
Frekko, Susan E. "Social class, linguistic normativity and the authority of the 'native Catalan speaker' in Barcelona." The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects. Ed. Neriko Musha Doerr. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009. 161-184. Print.
Nagel, Madeline. "Literacy Narrative." Left at the Dancing Skeleton. n.p, 2013. Web. 29 Sep 2013.
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. Print.
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