I agree with Bhaswati. I think the real test of English (or for that matter, any language) proficiency is not whether you are a native speaker, but whether you are able to formulate ideas in it. In any case, in many Indian homes, English is used interchangeably with the native language, be it Hindi, Bengali or Malayalam. If education is about acquired learning, why suppose that native learners have an added advantage?
That said, there might be local dialects that a non-native speaker may take time to master, but that is more an occupational hazard of using the language than an anthropic deformity.
I agree with Bhaswati. I think the real test of English (or for that matter, any language) proficiency is not whether you are a native speaker, but whether you are able to formulate ideas in it. In any case, in many Indian homes, English is used interchangeably with the native language, be it Hindi, Bengali or Malayalam. If education is about acquired learning, why suppose that native learners have an added advantage?
ReplyDeleteThat said, there might be local dialects that a non-native speaker may take time to master, but that is more an occupational hazard of using the language than an anthropic deformity.