Innate Ability In Native Language

In the world of English language, the notion of native and non- native speaker is very prominent. The concept of native and non- native speaker is still important to some people, especially scholars because it shows the distinct features possessed by the speakers. However, as time passed and new varieties emerge, the distinction between these two seems to be less visible. The issue also becomes debatable as each scholar has different opinions on the matter. Some seem to stick to their believes that there are still differences that differentiate the two, native and non- native speakers while some believe that the distinctions are no longer visible, thus make the two speakers equal. Nonetheless, according to some studies carried out, there are

This is because innate is something that a person is born with. In linguistic field, it is like the set of rules a person has with him or her since they are born in helping them acquiring a language. Due to that, innate ability is one of the aspects that can be used as a benchmark to differentiate the features of the two speakers. In general, a native speaker is born with innate ability. According to Kalugampitiya (2013) in his journal where he cited Pennycook, “native speaker is an idealized person with a complete and possibly innate competence in the language”. Clearly, if a person has the innate competence in the language and acquires the language before he or she reaches their puberty, they are the native speaker of the language. The matters mentioned manage to distinguish them from the non- native speaker who probably learns the same language but do not possess the criteria

The pronunciation between the two speakers is distinguishable because it is said that most non- native speakers possessed foreign accent (Lev- Ari & Keysar, 2010). The reason behind it is that they speak nativised varieties; one that has the influence of local background which interfere with their way of pronouncing certain things. For example, the elision of consonant that happen in African English in word like “confident” where it is pronounced “conifident” instead proves that, indeed the non- native speakers’ pronunciation is greatly influence by their mother tongue or background. In addition, based on the “Three- Circle Model of World Englishes”, the native varieties are the “norm- providing” thus, resulted the native speakers to have the Standard English pronunciation. Due to that situation, the non- native speakers view the native speakers as a reference especially in terms of pronunciation of