Abstract

Linguists, applied linguists and language teachers all appeal to the native speaker as an important reference point. But what exactly (who exactly?) is the native speaker? This book examines the native speaker from different points of view, arguing that the native speaker is both myth and reality.

Alan Davies has taught and researched English and Applied Linguistics in Kenya, Nepal, Australia, Hong Kong and the U.K and is now Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics in the University of Edinburgh. In the 1960s he developed the English Proficiency Test Battery, which the British Council used prior to ELTS and IELTS. A former editor of the journals Applied Linguistics and Language Testing, his publications include Principles of Language Testing (Blackwell 1990), An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (Edinburgh U.P. 1999) and Dictionary of Language Testing (Cambridge U.P. 1999).