FOREIGN USER

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FOREIGN USER. A term in LANGUAGE TEACHING and APPLIED LINGUISTICS for a non-native user of a language, in either or both speech and writing, as opposed to both foreign learner and NATIVE SPEAKER and particularly in contrast to NATIVE USER. It is common in discussions of English as a foreign language: ‘What most learners really want is to be competent foreign users of the language, not cheap imitation native speakers’ ( John Shepherd, EFL Gazette, Oct. 1990). See TEFL.

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