Identity and Accents: Do Students Really Want to Speak Like Native Speakers of English?

Abstract

There is a growing recognition of diverse settings and different varieties of English and accents. However, there seems to be a lack of research on the investments and views of Expanding Circle students who relocate to study in Asian Outer Circle countries, especially on the identities of proficient speakers and/or teachers of English. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the perceptions of Korean secondary school students in Malaysia through online questions and face-to-face interviews. Among others, findings suggest that the students had investments not only in English but also in their own sociocultural identities which were connected to their own accents. The students also felt that proficient English speakers and/or teachers should have pronunciation and accents that they could understand and that they were familiar with. Since they could not understand some of their native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), they did not feel that a person needed to be a native speaker in order to be a proficient speaker of English. Neither did they have any desire to imitate native speakers’ accents in learning to be proficient speakers because their own accents could be understood. The findings of this study suggest that NESTs may not necessarily be ideal English speakers with accents that need to be imitated. Instead, teaching and learning English should focus on communication between interlocutors from various contexts.