what does "native English speaker" mean?

Question

Does it mean some one who learned english as there first lang.?

Answer 1

The first language a human being learns to speak is his/her native language. He/She is a native speaker of this language according to Leonard Bloomfield.

A first language or native language is a basis for sociolinguistic identity. In linguistics first language can be referred to as arterial language, mother tongue, or L1.

Terms not standardised
The usage of these terms is far from standardised, however.

Sometimes the term first language is used for the language that the speaker speaks best (his second language then being the language he speaks less well than his first language, etc).

Sometimes the terms first language, second language and third language are used to indicate various levels of skill in a language, so that it can be said that a person knows more than one language at first or second language level.

Sometimes the term native language is used to indicate a language that a person is as proficient in as a native inhabitant of that language's base country, or as proficient as the average person who speaks no other language but that language.

Sometimes the term mother tongue or mother language is used for the language that a person learnt at home (usually from his parents). Children growing up in bilingual homes can according to this definition have more than one mother tongue.

Terms can be misleading
The terms first, native, and mother can also be misleading, regardless of their definitions. It is quite possible that the first language learned is no longer a speaker's dominant language. Young immigrant children, whose families have moved to a new linguistic environment may lose, in part or in totality, the language they first acquired.

Good skills in one's native languages are essential for further learning, as a native language is thought to be a base of thinking, however, this is highly controversial. Incomplete first language skills often make learning other languages difficult. Native language has therefore a central role in education.

Answer 2

The rest of the answers are close, but not entirely correct. FWIW, I'm a native English speaker.

A "native" speaker of any language is a person who has learned the language as a child. The human brain is built to learn a language. Children learn a language without instruction- they don't memorize vocabulary, study verbs and modifiers, etc. They just learn and speak the language like natives. Parents speak, the child listens and understands. This is the comprehension and performance part of any language. (Reading and writing are a different matter.)

Linguistically, the age of maturity is about fourteen. Let's say a child learns a language well enough to learn to read and write. Most linguists agree that children know a language like a "native speaker" by the time they start school. They understand the structure, phonetics and morphemics. When a child starts school, it's to learn to read and write, not learn the local language.

Let's also say you take a first grader and move him/her in another country where different language is spoken. He/she'll be in innumerable situations where the second language is available. Fortunately for him/her, he hasn't yet hit his linguistic maturity, so his/her brain has the ability to learn this language in the same manner as he/she did the first time- by listening and putting the sounds in context. Since this kid has already internalized one language, the concepts of language are already in his head, but his/her brain is capable of learning yet another.

Let's keep this kid in country two for a few more years. Move him/her to a third country (as long as he/she's not yet fourteen) and he/she will learn a third language as any child does.

So, IMHO, though most children learn their native language as their first language, this isn't necessarily so. I think a child could learn several languages, and be a "native speaker" in each.

This contrasts with adults who become fairly proficient, but only by memorizing vocabulary, finding verb tenses, etc.

One informal but widely-accepted test of which is your "native language" is to see what language you curse in, as when you smack your finger with a hammer.

Answer 3

A person who has English as a first language

Answer 4

Oh NO, my dear...a Native English speaker is an American Indian or any indigenous person that has learned to speak the English language...sort of like that African guy in the Jungle Book movie...I thought EVERYONE knew that.

Answer 5

A person who's first language is English.

Answer 6

It means someone who learned english as their first language.

Like someone born and raised in America.

Answer 7

Yes pretty much...it means those who have it as their mother tongue...There are those that learn English as their first language but they have their own native language

Answer 8

Yes...someone who lives in a country where English is the official language, and so learned English as their first language...as opposed to someone who learned English as a second language; probably elswhere.

Answer 9

any one who who was born in the UK would be a native english speaker, americans dont speak english they speak an americanism of the english language which is quite different!

Answer 10

it means first language. at our school we have ell students. english language learners. those are different from native speakers.


edit.......they guy above me has made one mistake, it isn't a person from an official english speaking nation. i'm from the united states and english isn't our official language. yet. we don't have one.