Advice for Native English Speakers

Whether or not you think learning a language other than English is valuable, it's true that English has become the language of international communication. But that doesn't let native English speakers off the hook. In order for them to really benefit from the status of English as a global lingua franca, they still have linguistic investments to make.

It helps to learn how to hear around accents, word choices and grammatical patterns.

Namely, they could learn from instruction in linguistics and the history of English, which would expose them to the varieties of English that are spoken by people with another mother tongue. At any given time, the vast majority of English used on the planet is spoken and written by people who aren't native speakers and who may have learned it as adults. It may be their second or third language. Their interactions will tend to be with other non-native speakers. They'll say things in ways that you don't say them in your version of English.

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