Students’ attitudes towards accents in English-medium instruction: The role of cosmopolitan and motivation orientations

Abstract

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become a key aspect of internationalisation agendas in higher education, which are also increasingly promoting cosmopolitanism and global citizenship. Within EMI programmes, however, lecturers' non-native English accents can pose challenges for students' content understanding and influence their evaluations of lecturers and education quality. Motivation, whether instrumental or integrative, can also be crucial for EMI and students' (language) learning. Despite this, limited attention has been given to how students' cosmopolitan and motivation orientations may shape their attitudes towards English accents used in EMI. This quantitative exploratory study, conducted at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands, therefore aimed to gain insights into 1225 students' attitudes towards Dutch-English and standard English accents in EMI, and the potential predictors of these attitudes. The findings revealed that students had more positive attitudes towards standard English accents, but those with higher cosmopolitan orientations also had more positive attitudes towards Dutch-English accents. To further investigate these attitudes and understand changes in students’ motivation and cosmopolitan orientations, future studies should employ longitudinal and mixed-methods research designs. The findings from such research, along with this study, can guide higher education institutions in adjusting their policies to create more meaningful and inclusive EMI experiences.