LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:9 September 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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A Study of English Accent: Attitudes of Chinese Undergraduate
English-major Students in Southwest Forestry University in China

Zhongyu Wang

Abstract

The development of World English (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in recent decades caused the attitudes towards English ownership, English standard and English teaching model to change. In the complicated English situation in China, it is worthwhile to investigate Chinese EFL learners’ English accent attitudes. This study explored 96 Chinese undergraduate English-major students’ attitudes towards English accents including their own English accents using listening test, questionnaire and semi-structure interview. The data were analyzed from learners’ knowledge, emotion and behavior about English varieties and their own English accents, as well as related factors. The results showed that even most participants were aware of the extent of English varieties. They had an ambivalent attitude to English accents and greatly influenced by standard English ideology. The findings also revealed some limitations of English teaching models and policies in China.

Keywords: World English (WE), accent, attitude, China.

Introduction

With the rapid improvement of the globalization in the fields of political, economic, cultural, academic, development or others, the significance of the role of English is increasing in the world. English is as an international language (EIL) which is used as a tool of international and intercultural communication. The emergence of paradigms of World English (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) caused the change of attitudes towards English ownership and English standards. It broke the prejudice and stereotyping of English accents of native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs). However, the NS ideology still exists in education and society, Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA) are the main English teaching model in China (Kung and Wang, 2018). Language attitude is a context-based personal emotion and shaped with the knowledge and experience with language varieties (Kristiansen, 1991). Given the situation in China, it is still worth to investigate Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ English accent attitudes.

Language attitudes can be as a representation of such English linguistic variation and change (Garrett, 2010). In addition, language attitude can reflect learners’ use of the language in current and in the future and influence their motivation (Galloway & Rose, 2015). Therefore, attitudes towards different English accents, especially Native Englishes (NE) and Non-Native Englishes (NNE) becomes the key aspect of sociolinguistic research (Jenkins, 2007). The research findings in recent decades showed that the majority of NNESs preferred NS accents and are still deeply influenced by standard English ideology (Holliday, 2005; Jenkins, 2007, 2009; Timmis, 2012; Fang, 2016). As for their own English accent, most of them showed a negative attitude (Jinkins, 2005; Bian, 2009; Fang; 2017).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Zhongyu Wang
Graduate Student of Human Sciences
Assumption University, Thailand
wangzhongyu55@gmail.com
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