Attitudes towards English as a Lingua Franca

Abstract

There are now more nonnative speakers of English than native speakers, and the number of nonnative speakers is growing rapidly. Together with the growth of nonnative speakers of English, the roles and functions of English have also changed, and along with this the emergence and growth of a variety of Englishes. One evident manifestation of the diversity of English t hat is spoken and exists in different parts of the world is the accent that is ascribed to the different speakers of English. The emergence of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has offered us an avenue to re-examine and reconsider the relevance and appropriateness of the traditional native speaker models in English language teaching. This paper examines, in general, the perception towards ELF or non native speaker (NNS) accents in relation to native speaker (NS) accents. Specifically, this study examines how a group of trainee teachers view ELF accents, i.e. if ELF accents are perceived to be inferior and deficient to non native speaker accents or as legitimate English accents for lingua franca communication. A questionnaire adapted from Jenkins (2007) was used. The respondents were a group of trainee teachers of English in a public institution of higher learning. The questionnaire elicited perceptions regarding ten pre-selected accents shown on a world map, comments regarding accents the respondents were familiar with, and selecting and ranking five English accents that the respondents felt were the best accents. The findings show that the respondents perceived the NS accents as being better and described them in more positive categories than the non NNS accents. The NS accents are preferred by the respondents. The findings here reveal biasness towards NS accents as being more correct and proper as opposed to NNS accents. Although there is a shift in the users and uses of English in recent times, these teachers still think and believe that ‘proper’ English still remains to be in the inner circle countries.