In his inciting plea, Ten Thije calls for the rejection of the notion of ‘non-native speaker’. As a member of the group of researchers who subscribe to the term ‘non-nativeness in communication’, I cannot help but feel addressed. In my reaction, I shall discuss the concept of non-nativeness and innovation in language acquisition research, which is getting off the ground partly thanks to research that in the Netherlands is typically called ‘taalbeheersing’.