This article presents a cognitively-oriented account of the qualitative differences between ENL (English as a native language) and ELF (English as a lingua franca) users. Based on the declarative-procedural model of second language acquisition, it examines the linguistic and sociolinguistic implications of ELF users' dependence on their declarative memory system, with its corresponding explicit knowledge and controlled processes of cognition subserving the production of their output in English. In contrast, it points to ENL speakers' output being sustained by both their procedural and declarative memory systems, with their corresponding implicit and explicit knowledge types that interact through automatic and controlled processes. Given the differences in the underlying cognitive resources and processes in output production, it concludes that the prevailing practice of assessing ELF users' output in relation to ENL norms is simply irrelevant. (Contains 4 endnotes.)