Native Speakers

[Valentina Zaitseva]

I think the problem Katya Krivinkova raised is important in more then one way.

While the cheap labor is obviously beneficial for Slavic departments,
hiring  educated native speakers (often, prominent Slavists) from Russia
and other Slavic countries on a short-term basis seriously contributes to
the disintegration of the field:
        a) if a system can't accommodate for it's own graduates, it will
eventually die;
        b) succession of one-semester "visitors" IN PLACE OF a permanent
faculty does not allow for a coherent program, which also undermines the
quality of students' competence and thus, to reasons for not hiring them
later on when "near-native" competence is needed.

This also translates into an unpleasant fact that such an arrangement often
treats a prominent Slavist  as a cheap laborer... And the fact that a great
expert in a certain field is often entrusted with the work below his/her
qualifications does not ensure the best result at all: to hammer nails with
a microscope could also mean poorly hammered nails. This supports the
point made by  Ben Rifkin:

"I believe that we must all recognize the importance of pedagogical
training for all instructors of Slavic languages, whether native speakers
of a Slavic language or of English, precisely because such training is one
of the best ways for our profession to overcome the enrollment crisis."

 Let's face it: there are very few AM and Ph.D. programs out there that can
actually use the native Slavic experts as "microscopes" because of the
insufficient linguistic competence of our students. And I believe that even
most rigorous  pedagogical training is not the cure. Let us ask ourselves
why the term "near-native competence" has lost its original meaning, or
what is it that a native speaker can do that a non-native product of our
grad. schools (with some exceptions) usually can't? We'll quickly discover
that it is the part of a linguistic competence mostly neglected in our
undergraduate  curriculum (and seriously under-represented in many graduate
programs), i.e.,  pragmatics, discourse and sociocultural aspects of
language.
        Sorry, it came out longer than I expected. I better stop here.

Valentina Zaitseva,
NYU