ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Rivers contends that while the idea of the native speaker remains highly contentious both practically and theoretically, it remains central to daily discursive practices within the domains of applied linguistics and foreign language education. It also focuses on Hashimoto echoes Rivers' point that the embedded notion of the inseparability of nation, language and people will probably persist in Japan, where being a "native speaker" of Japanese is equated with being a Japanese national, and bilingualism is not the dominant social norm. Having presented an overview of the study itself, shifts needed in foreign language teacher attributes and educational activities is presented. The chapter details the interviews that follow, then, the interviewees were not specifically asked to make connections with unfolding social trends related to the potential social impact of automated, aging and dementing societies upon foreign language education.
