Medgyes (1992) also attempts to differentiate between Native English Speaking Teacher and non Native English Speaking Teacher, arguing that “non Native English Speaking Teacher can never achieve a Native English Speaking Teacher’s competence” because they “can never be as creative and original as those whom they have learnt to copy” (pp. 342- 343). Similarly, Cook (1999) asserts that only a small percentage of second language (L2) users may pass for Native English Speaking Teacher, comparing the feat with becoming an Olympian athlete or an opera singer. However, the sheer number of highly articulate expert non-native speakers in the ELT profession and in the academic field of applied linguistics refutes this notion. We contend that once an L2 learner reaches what Cook (1999) calls the “final” stage of language acquisition (which Cook notes is very difficult to define), the difference between native competence and advanced non-native competence is negligible