Re-positioning Accent Attitude in the Global Englishes Paradigm by Fan (Gabriel) Fang;

Author:Fan (Gabriel) Fang;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Table 5.1 Respondents’ self-evaluation of English accents and their desired accent

Evaluation Response count (%) Accents to aspire to Response count (%)

Not satisfied at all 34 (11.0%) Sounds like an NSE 245 (79.3%)

Not very satisfied 186 (60.2%) Keep my own English accent 33 (10.7%)

Uncertain 36 (11.6%) I do not care about my English pronunciation 3 (0.9%)

Satisfied 49 (15.9%) Others 28 (9.1%)

Very satisfied 4 (1.3%)

The influence of the respondents’ own local L1s or local Chinese accents on their English was viewed as a negative aspect of their accent. Some believed that having a Chinese accent when speaking English is negative, which led to another debate and struggle over whether CE can be regarded as a variety of English (see Chapter Three). From the comments, it seemed that two concepts had been entrenched when the students judged their own English accents – the superiority of standard English accents (or NE accents) and the importance of intelligibility (see also Chan, 2017; Sung, 2014; Wang, 2015). The respondents felt satisfied with their own accents because they believed that either they could be understood during communication or they spoke with a standard accent. For example, some comments were as follows:

Does not matter when communicating with Chinese or foreign people; my accent doesn’t impede their understanding.

I feel comfortable when I listen to my own English accent, whilst I can also communicate without any difficulty.

When a word is pronounced, it’s close to standard English.

I think my accent is easy for others to understand (originally in English).

Having communicated with people from around the world, I think my accent can make listeners feel comfortable without strong accents (originally in English).

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