Носитель языка - literally 'language carrier". This term could originate in linguistics (I'm not sure though) , judging by its literal meaning... or at least I first met in the context of linguistics.
It also became widely used in the context of language education: advertisments of language courses with "занятия ведут носители языка" are familiar to everybody since 90s.
But if I speak about my friend, I'd avoid this term, unless I speak in the context of linguistics: sounds too much as a _term_. You may reword it as
"французский — её родной язык" (French is her mother tongue), "её родной язык - французский" (her mother tongue is French) etc.
Personally I would not use it is speaking about myself too, in a résumé or job application... and I wouldn't say so about my language teacher (or any specific person in the context of education)...
But I'm sure many people would use it. It is matter of taste.