De Beoordeling Van De Uitspraak Van Het Engels Van Nederlandstaligen

Abstract

Dutch students of EngHsh at the tertiary level will usually have to pass a pronunciation test of some kind or other if they are to obtain their degree or certification. It is not entirely clear what factors determine their success of failure on these tests. In this study three groups of judges were asked to assess the pronunciation of Dutch lst-year students of English: - British lst-year university students of linguistics; - Dutch lst-year college students of English; - Dutch college teachers of English. They were asked to assess the pronunciation on five 7-point scales: pleasant-unpleasant; ugly-beautiful; broad-cultured; strong accent-no accent; monotonous-melodious. The results of the three groups were compared. The results were also compared with the marks that the students had actually been given after an oral interview test at the end of their first year. It was found that: - the three groups of judges agree on the question whether the pronunciation is monotonous or melodious; - Dutch students are much more positive than the other groups in their judgments on the scal stron accent-no accent; - for the British stude s there is a strong correlation between the three scales unpleasant-pleasant, ugly-beautiful, and monotonous-melodious as well as between the two scales ugly-beautiful and broad-cultured; - there was very little correlation between the British students' judgments on the scale strong accent-no accent and the marks the students had actually been given; - the Dutch students' judgment on the scale broad-cultured correlated most strongly with the actual mark after the lst-year interview test.