Speak English natively?

[Torsten]

Hi,

I've come across the expression to 'speak English natively'. Although I understand what it means and I know that 'natively' is an adverb, the entire phrase still sounds strange to me. Do you share this feeling or is just me? To me, 'to speak like English like a native speaker' or 'speak English naturally' sounds better.

What about you?
Thanks,
Torsten
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[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

'Speak natively' sounds very weird to me. I agree that 'speak like a native' is far more acceptable.

Alan
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[Cerberus™]

According to the OED, the usage of natively in the sense "as the native language" is rare and obsolete; I guess it is very old fashioned, as the OED gives only one example, dating from 1612.

[Hieupt]

I would guess that "speak English natively" comes from the countries in which English is the 2nd language, such as my country Vietnam (I'm sure that there are some others out there). Our English teachers often asked us something like "please try to speak English natively"...
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Thank you very much,
Hieu Phan.

P/s: Please just correct if I'm wrong somewhere!