192012 Cheung Pak Him

ENG 450 Phonology Studies in World Englishes

Dr. Grace Leung

13th March 2023

Summary of Language Learners' Perceptions of Accent

Introduction

This article explores the perceptions and attitudes of non-native language

learners towards different accents in the English language, such as General American,

British English, Chinese English, and Mexican English. By conducting listening task,

accent survey, and interview questions. The participants of 37 English language

learners and 10 American undergraduate students are required to recognize the various

accents and express their preferences. The study aims to investigate how language

learners perceive different accents in terms of their comprehensibility, intelligibility,

and overall preference. And the findings of the study point to the necessity of giving

accents in ESOL programs more careful consideration. (Scales et al., 2006)

Literature Review

The article raises the idea of English as an international language, by including

the previous studies on language teaching, which are related to the study itself. Scales

et al (2006, P. 716) mentions the significance of global intelligibility in the world’s

communication emphasised by numbers of scholars, where achieving a particular

native accent is not that essential as the global intelligibility (Crystal, 1997; Jenkins,

2000, 2006; Kachru, 1997). The author also mentions the suggestion of Jenkins

(2005), where a lingua-franca cored English is more practical for pronunciation

teaching.

The article also covers the previous studies on learners’ perceptions towards

different English accents. The study of Chiba, Matsuura, and Yamamot (1995) over

learners’ perceptions towards various English accents is discussed in the article.

Where most Japanese undergraduates positively rate the inner-circle speakers rather

than the speakers in the South-East Asia countries. Timmis (2002) also conducts a

study which points out that the majority prefer to strive for native English standards.

Methodology

Participants

The participants volunteer to take part in this study are divided into 2 groups.

The first group consists of 37 English learners in total where they all take class in the

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. All participants are

English as a second language (ESL) learners from diverse linguistic and cultural

backgrounds. They are ranged from intermediate to advanced in terms of English

language proficiency level. While the second group consists of 10 American

undergraduate students, and all of them are native English speakers.

Data Collection

The study adopts a mixed-methods approach with 3 tasks to collect data of

participants’ perceptions of accents. First, an accent survey based on a listening task is

conducted to collect participants’ attitudes towards different English accents and

examine their abilities to identify the accents. Participants are required to listen to a
short lecture read by speakers with 4 different accents, then finish a survey to rate

these accents with their personal preferences, and to judge the accents of the speakers

by the intelligibility. They are also required to provide their linguistic backgrounds

and goals.

Second, a statistical analysis is conducted by using the Chi-squared tests to

compare intelligibility and accent preferences between the English learns and the

American undergraduates. The tests are also able to compare the variables between

Spanish and Chinese learners. The Pearson correlations are used to examine the

participants’ ability of identifying accents.

Lastly, the follow-up interviews are conducted, where 11 Spanish speakers are

interviewed orally after finishing the tests, to thoroughly recognise the participants’

language targets and attitudes.

Discussion

Accent Identification

The findings of the accent survey indicate that the English learners struggle to

identify respective accents from 4 speakers. However, the American participants can

identify the American and Mexican accents more successfully, because of their

Spanish learning experiences. Both Chinese and Spanish can identify the accents of

speakers from their language backgrounds more accurately. Familiarity of language

seems to be the important element for the non-native speakers to identify the accents

from their own language backgrounds. When distinguishing native and non-native

accents, it is rather straightforward for American undergraduates but not for the

English learners, which might because of perceptual sensitivity to the native

language’s subtlety. Therefore, these evidence points that it is harder for language
learners to identify accents. And those who can identify accents correctly might

because of their personal backgrounds, like linguistic ability, travel experience,

friendships et cetera. For the Spanish speakers, only 6 out of 11 can correctly identify

the American accent, as their English proficiency might not be able to predict their

ability to identify native English accent.

Accent Preferences

The findings of the accent survey shows that most English learners aim to

achieve native accent. Over half of participants prefer the American accent, and the

Mexican accent as the least preferred. Factors include speech rate, familiarity, and

comprehensibility of the accent. For Spanish speakers, both American and British

accents are preferred by few of them, due to the high speech rate, while Mexican

accent is not preferred due to unclarity.

Conclusion

To conclude, leaners prioritise comprehensibility of the accent for their

preferences, and few of them can identify the accents.

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