[Publication] Prof. Detey published an article about “The native speaker’s pronunciation and plurilingualism”

In December 2025, Professor Detey published an article in French entitled “La prononciation du locuteur natif au prisme du plurilinguisme : poncif sur la production versus enthymème sur la perception (The pronunciation of the native speaker through the lenses of plurilingualism: cliché in production versus enthymeme in perception).

This article is linked to JSPS Kaken (B) n°24K00093 (S. Detey).

Reference:

Detey, S. (2025). La prononciation du locuteur natif au prisme du plurilinguisme : poncif sur la production versus enthymème sur la perception. Status Quaestionis 29, «Galaxies sonores : études phonético-phonologiques en hommage à Enrica Galazzi», (Eds) Oreste Floquet & Michela Murano, 99-121.

Open Access: https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/status_quaestionis/article/view/19294

Abstract:

In this article, we critically examine some ongoing debates around the concept of “native speaker” in applied linguistics, through the lenses of plurilingual pronunciation education, with a special focus on French. We argue that some of the recent attempts to discredit the functional value of the concept are misled and misleading. We contend that corpus-based variationist linguistics can help us to reconcile research and teaching standards with linguistic realities without mixing up socio-ideological issues and pedagogical or linguistic necessities. We explain why the confusion between “native”, “standard” and “normative” speakers makes little sense, neither from a linguistic viewpoint, nor from a classic anthropological perspective, and why ideological stances may prove hazardous in the field of language education. At a time when AI-based “artificial” speech is about to flow into our pedagogical material and overfill our audiovisual channels, the “native speaker” might turn out to be the last hope for those who cherish “authenticity”.