Transcending the nativeness paradigm

Abstract

This study suggests that identity‐formation is related to the social process of identity‐assignation in the mother tongue context. The case studies of four English speakers are summarized in this study. The four English speakers, who were all born outside the mother tongue context, bend categories in various ways. This uncovers the ways in which mother tongue speakers situate other English users and how such social attitudes help shape the identities of those users. The findings support the contention that nativeness and nonnativeness among English users constitute non‐elective socially constructed identities rather than linguistic categories.

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