Remembering the Positives of Being a Non-Native Speaker

After five years of teaching French at the university level, I have been asked some variation of the same question countless times: “Are you French? How can you teach French if it’s not your first language?”.  Disregarding the fact that a large number of French speakers are not actually French, this question is flawed at a systemic level.  It implies that as a non-native speaker, I am somehow less qualified to teach a language because I am not a native speaker. At the beginning of my teaching career, I bought into this theory and often felt like a fraud. Fortunately, I have recently realized all the advantages of being a non-native speaker, especially in my role as a language teacher.

Firstly and I believe most importantly, I can relate to my students.  I was once in the exact same position they were learning French. I sat in the same classes they are currently taking, I participated in the same activities they do. This insider vantage point gives me perspective that I can utilize to inform my teaching. Secondly, as a student of French, I have spent 15 years studying the language from a scientific point of view. Native speakers, in general, do not need to do this of course. A complicated syntactic form comes natural to them, but for me, in-depth study has enabled me to more fully understand the underpinnings of the language in a way most native speakers will never be able to grasp.

Being multilingual is a wonderful achievement that one should be proud of.  As a non-native speaker, one’s accent will never be perfect and one might have trouble finding le mot juste, but one should still be proud of the amazing accomplishment one has made in becoming a fluent speaker in a foreign language.

About the Author: 

Ryan Gallant is a 2nd year PhD student studying French Linguistics in the Department of French and Italian. More information about Ryan can be found at his webpage, regallant.wix.com/ryangallant.