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Volume 4
August 2009
Article 5.

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Title
Diana Fauzia Sari and Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf

Author
. The Role of Attitudes and Identity from Nonnative Speakers of English towards English Accents

    

Biodata
DIANA FAUZIA SARI is an English Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics,Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where she teaches General English, Business English, English for Communication, and Grammar. She is currently an MA student majoring in TEFL in the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Her research interests are global English, teaching methodologies, business English and language in the media.

YUNISRINA QISMULLAH YUSUF is a Lecturer at the English Department in the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where she teaches Psycholinguistics, Writing, Reading and English Pronunciation. She is currently a PhD (Linguistics) student in the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a research on a comparative study of vowels from two varieties of Acehnese, a study in Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Kampung Aceh, Kedah, Malaysia. She has an MA in Linguistics also from the University of Malaya. Her research interests are global English, phonology, syntax, second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, language and culture.

Keywords: NNS English accents, attitudes, identity, perceptions, variety of English accents, Jenkin's lingua franca English, Standard English.

Abstract
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 the different accents as they are familiar with the situation due to the fact that they are nonnative speakers as well. However six participants did considered the variety of accents were a bit difficult to understand. For participants who were English teachers and three non teachers, they considered that accent and pronunciation should be close to “the original and correct English” or “Standard English.” Nevertheless for two other participants who were non teachers believed that accents should not be a problem in teaching the language.

Key words: attitudes and identity from nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English