Bresnahan, M. J., Ohashi, R., Nebashi, R., Liu, W.Y., & Shearman, S. M. (2001). Attitudinal and affective response toward accented English. Language and Communication, 12, 1-15 (original) (raw)
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Attitudinal and affective response toward accented English
Language & Communication, 2002
The study evaluated attitudinal and affective responses toward accented English based on variation in role identity and intelligibility. While American English was preferred, intelligible foreign accent resulted in more positive attitude and affective response compared to a foreign accent that was unintelligible. In addition, friends were viewed more positively for affect and attitude compared to teaching assistants regardless of accent. The study also assessed whether the strength of participants' ethnic identity had any effect on attitude or affect. As predicted, people exhibiting strong ethnic identity preferred American English while people with weak ethnic identity were more accepting of foreign accent. These results suggest that greater intelligibility of foreign accent appears to be related to both more positive attitudes and affective responses especially for people who identify strongly with their ethnic group. #
Student attitudes toward accentedness of native and non-native speaking English teachers
2013
My goal for this study was to examine participants' familiarity with specific accents, whether participants were able to identify if a speaker was a native speaker (NS) or a non-native speaker (NNS), and what accent the speaker had. I also examined how the participants rated speakers on four Likert-scales of comprehensibility, intelligibility, accentedness, and acceptability as a teacher (the four dependent variables). I included 38 NS and 94 NNS participants from a range of first-language backgrounds. The participants listened to three NSs (Midwestern U.S., Southern U.S., and British) and two NNSs (Chinese and Albanian) and completed the identification and Likert-scale tasks outlined above. Results showed that NNSs were significantly less able than NSs to identify a speaker's nativeness and accent. Results
TESL-EJ, 2019
Previous research has shown that there is a relationship between language and identity, and thus the present study focuses on ethnic group affiliation (EGA) as a part of one's ethnic group identity and its association with speech constructs (i.e., intelligibility, comprehensibility, accentedness, and acceptability). EGA scores were collected through an online questionnaire and the speech data were evaluated globally using a 9-point Likert scale. Contrary to the findings of previous research on the relationship between EGA and the aforementioned speech constructs, the present study did not find any significant correlations between speakers' EGA scores and their ratings on the four speech constructs at least in a non-conflictual college context. Furthermore, there was also no relationship between the nonnative speakers' daily use of language and their EGA scores. Similarly, the listeners' EGA scores also did not correlate significantly with the way they evaluated the speech samples. The only exception in this correlation was the relationship between language-related EGA and the accentedness scores. Finally, the study also points to a trend where a new generation of native speakers of English tend to score non-native speech less harshly especially as regards accentedness.
The Role of Attitudes and Identity from Nonnative Speakers of English towards English Accents
English as International Language Journal, 2009, 110-128
The present study looks at role of attitudes and identity from nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English from Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Korea and Iran towards their English accents and of other NNSs concerning their English accents and how the results fit into Jenkins’ (2005) ideas of lingua franca English which focused on their attitudes to identification with NNS and native speaker (NS) English accents, their perceptions of others’ attitudes and identification, and their beliefs about teaching these accents. From the ten participants, six of them are English teachers or tutors while four are non English teachers. The results of this study suggest that two participants did not like their own accents, while eight of them did not have any problems with theirs. Five participants favored the British English accents while others prefer the American and Scottish English accents; one even chose to like her own NNS English accent. Regarding other group’s accents; four participants accepted th...
Language Teaching Research
The rapid spread of English medium instruction (EMI) across the globe has led to a growing number of non-native lecturers teaching in English to student populations that are increasingly international. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent lecturers with slight or moderate Dutch accents or native British English accents are evaluated differently in terms of intelligibility, comprehensibility and attitudinal impressions by non-native and native English-speaking listeners. In an experiment, 189 Dutch listeners, 175 international non-native listeners and 158 native English listeners evaluated fragments recorded by moderately accented Dutch, slightly accented Dutch and native English speakers. Findings showed that the moderately non-native accented lecturers were evaluated more negatively than lecturers with slight or native accents by both Dutch and international non-native listeners, but not by native English listeners. This suggests that non-native listeners ...
Journal of Foreign Languange Teaching and Learning
This study intends to identify the perceptions of English Language Education students from a predetermined private university in Yogyakarta regarding the English language and its accents. Many English Language Education students prefer accents from English-speaking countries to accents from countries that use English as a second or foreign language. However, many of them may not be able to speak in accents from the former category. The current study aims to find the reasons for this phenomenon, and whether or not having a preferred accent helps them learn the English language. The research uses qualitative design to search for more detailed answers and uses a custom-made interview as a research instrument. To that end, the researcher enlists five students of English Language Education from this private university as participants in this study, where they receive questions about their accents, view on accents, and whether or not having an accent has helped them learn English. The results of the research indicated that while the students have a mixed view of accents and use various accents themselves, having a familiar accent to use when learning English has helped them learn the language better. Being familiar with an accent and mimicking the source of language input) gives the participants an easier time when learning the English Language.
The Role of Accent and Ethnicity in the Professional and Academic Context
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2013
Language learning may be affected by a language instructor's accent. Many studies have been carried out to investigate whether accent has an influence on learners' perceptions toward their instructors or whether accent can affect employability. This overview links studies on accents through an empirical literature review on native and non-native accents, summarizing the most significant studies conducted to investigate learners' attitude toward accents. The learners as participants are both non-native and native speakers of a language. The results of the review demonstrated that speakers who use the standard language are preferred for prestigious jobs, whereas the nonstandard accented speakers are preferred for low-status jobs. Moreover, British and American accents are the most preferred by learners of English. Thus, the learners tended to show positive attitudes toward American and British accents and also adopt these varieties as models of pronunciation for their learning of English. In this review, limitations of some studies are highlighted and some implications for future studies related to accents, language learning at tertiary level and employability are discussed.
Language attitudes towards the non-native accent in the United States
The intrinsic relationship between language and society has a great influence on how native English speakers evaluate the non-native ones. Such evaluation may lead to language discrimination, prejudice or other types of exclusion (BAGNO, 2007; CAMACHO, 2001; CALVET, 2002; GNERRE, 1985). In light of this perspective, this bibliographic study aims at investigating which non-native speaker tends to be more downgraded in the United States. For such purposes, a literature review was carried out and 11 studies, on the topic mentioned above, were selected. Taking that into consideration, data were contrasted by the Meta-analysis approach. The results show that the majority of the studies point to a negative attitude towards non-native speakers (more specifically regarding accent). Additionally, Black and Hispanic people have been more downgraded on account of social factors whereas Asians due to linguistic issues.
Journal of World Languages , 2018
The study examines perceptions of nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English toward accented speech and its relation with identity from the perspective of English as an international language (EIL). The data were collected from 51 Iranian EFL learners by means of questionnaires and interviews. The findings revealed the participants' considerable uncertainty concerning the relationship between accent and socioeconomic and educational status as well as their reluctance to display their L1 identity through L1-accented speech. Furthermore, the results indicated that the participants are highly appreciative of NS accent, hold negative stereotypes of NNS accents and judge NNSs unfavorably. They exhibited a marked tendency to sound similar to NSs, regarding them as the best model of English accent to follow. The participants' negative evaluations of NNSs' accents of English are evidence of the dominance of Inner Circle speakers' norms among the Expanding Circle speakers with implications for learning and teaching English as an international language.