Intercultural Communicative Competence and Attitudes towards English Accents: Exploring the Nexus among EFL speakers

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to explore the interplay between intercultural communicative competence and attitudes toward English accents among L2 English speakers at the tertiary level. Additionally, the study sought to examine the impact of self-rated proficiency and the year of enrollment in the degree program on the results. The participants were freshmen and sophomore students enrolled in the English Translation and Interpreting Department at a Turkish state university. To gather data, the students were asked to complete a survey in which they self-assessed their intercultural communication competence and rated four English accent varieties on a 7-point Likert scale, considering status-related, and solidarity-related characteristics as well as language-focused qualities. The findings indicated that there was no direct relationship between the self-rated intercultural communication competencies and perceptions of different English accents among EFL speakers. These findings held true for when excluding ratings of the American English variety from the analysis, but significant findings emerged, especially in regard to individual speech samples. Furthermore, the self-reported proficiency level of EFL speakers and their status as second-year students in the degree program showed a positive correlation with intercultural communicative competence.