Vietnamese EFL/ESL Learners’ Attitudes towards British English versus American English Accents

Abstract

This paper explored the attitudes of Vietnamese learners of English as a second/ foreign language (ESL/EFL) towards American English (AmE) accent versus British English (BrE) accent. Responses to a survey were collected from 70 ESL/EFL learners in Vietnam who were asked to rate Five-point-Likert-scale statements to explore their beliefs and attitudes about the two accents. The statements in the survey were classified into three dimensions Cognitive, Affective, and Conative. Results showed that Vietnamese ESL/EFL learners believed that BrE accent was an accent of higher social statuses while AmE accent was of more solidarity in terms of cognitive dimension. Regarding the affective dimension, those Vietnamese ESL/EFL learners had much more positive sentiments for AmE accent than BrE. Similarly, in the conative dimension, a higher percentage of those ESL/EFL learners preferring AmE accent as the target model accent for them to follow and practice when speaking English than BrE. Overall, despite the fact that the BrE variety is somehow biased than AmE by the language policy in Vietnam, AmE accent seems to be more preferred by Vietnamese ESL/EFL leaners.