‘I like my accent but…’: EFL teachers’ evaluation of English accent varieties

Abstract

In this study, we investigated Turkish EFL teachers’ level of recognition of English accent varieties and their attitudes regarding three common domains, status (e.g. educatedness, intelligence), solidarity (friendliness, kindness), and dynamism (confidence, talkativeness). We also explored the English teachers’ choices of English accents in various language-using contexts. Through the verbal-guise technique, we were able to evaluate the teachers’ language attitudes towards accents, yet we also integrated a questionnaire to further examine the issue for teacher attitudes and ideologies concerning language education. The findings revealed that recognition of English accent varieties was greater with American English and the local accented English. The ratings of status, solidarity, and dynamism showed that speakers’ accents had a strong effect on how the language teachers treated them. Few teachers reported to include various English accents in language courses due to the teachers’ strong preference for L1 accent varieties in the class. Similarly, the L1 accents were ranked significantly higher in the formal contexts, the teaching model in particular. In sum, the accent matter remains to be a meaningful variable for the production of normative language ideologies in the language education market.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2021.1965153 .

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