Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

1.2Background and Need

In the area of English language varieties, Braj Kachru’s work is considered fundamental. He has been fighting for the recognition of world Englishes as varieties on their own, independent on the native model. Although his views have been challenged by many authors since, the terms he used for description of the complex phenomena remain still in use. Among many names connected with the Global Englishes and ELF research and its implications for TESOL, Jennifer Jenkins stands out as one of the major contributors to the debate in the present time. In her work, she defends the position of non-native speakers as a major moving force of the expansion and shaping of the language since English is now used primarily in international contexts.

The notion of a Standard English norm and its relevance for the ESL and EFL instruction has been challenged by several authors since around 1980s. Widdowson was among the first ones to address the issue of the ‘ownership’ of English. A change of position towards standard models is also illustrated by the changes in the revised version of Gimson’s Pronunciation of English by Cruttenden (2008, 2014). An alternative model for pronunciation in ELT was described by Modiano and Jenkins. In return, Sung conducted a research exploring the learners’ attitudes and beliefs regarding alternative pronunciation models in place of native speakers’ norms.

In the research focused on the non-native speakers’ accents, Moyer’s, Jenkins’, Munro and Derwing’s, and Smith’s findings stand out as crucial in the future development of methods suitable for language pedagogy.

The theoretical base and empirical research findings mentioned above will be presented in the chapter dedicated to the review of literature.

1.3Purpose of the Study

English was first taught as a second language as a tool for communication with the native speakers from the English speaking countries for the purposes of international trade. As the British Empire expanded, English was taught for the purposes of business and governance of the colonies; later, immigrants were fleeing to the USA in the pursuit of liberty and better life, so However, non-native speakers of English have outnumbered the native speakers and they are now more likely to communicate with other non-native speakers using English as a lingua franca. Non-native speakers of English make use of the language for their own needs; coming from various backgrounds, they are carrying their own culture and beliefs, different from those of the native speakers. Researchers have been very productive in describing the spread of the language, its use among NNS, and about the implications of such phenomena on the local cultures, individual identities of its speakers, and on the language instruction. Nevertheless, general awareness of the issues connected with the status of the language as ELF or EIL remains very low outside the academic circles. This, in effect, causes learners to feel pressured into adopting norms unfit for the circumstances of their English use. They set unattainable goals which might constrain their ability to interact with other non-native speakers. Relatively little research has been conducted to document how language learners in the Czech Republic respond to the changing status of English as a language for international communication, and subsequently to find out if they are prepared for the shifting changes in language instruction implied by the suggestions of the current research in applied linguistics.

To find out the position of the learners on how they construct their aims for pronunciation, what the settings of their language use are, to what extent they want to achieve a native accent, and how they perceive individual non-native accents, a survey through a questionnaire has been selected as a suitable method for the research. To explore how learners as non-native speakers perceive the foreign accents of other NNS, evaluations of recordings of ten speakers of diverse English accents were analyzed.

The goal of the study conducted by the questionnaire was to examine attitudes towards non-native speakers’ accents from the point of view of learners of English in the Czech Republic. By considering their position on the issue of non-native accents, we will be able to better understand their needs as learners of the language for the purposes of ELT, rather than insensitively imposing unsuitable language standards on them. Moreover, by giving the learners an opportunity to consider other users’ accents, they might reevaluate their beliefs and judgments towards them, and adjust their goals affected by standard language ideology. Another goal of the study is to consider how learners might respond to the introduction of multiple accents in classrooms and how useful they find it.

1.4Research Questions

The goal of the research is to find out to what extent would the proposed changes of orientation towards more global representation of the language suit the English language learners’ objectives (in the Czech Republic) regarding their accent. Following are the research questions aimed to be answered by the study:

1. 
   To what extent do learners in the Czech Republic use English as a Lingua Franca?
   
   1. 
      How important is for the learners to understand English spoken with differing English accents? (differing = non-standard, non-native)
      
   2. 
      How does an unfamiliarity of an accent affect its intelligibility?
      
2. 
   How does the standard language ideology affect the learners’ attitudes towards accents?
   
   1. 
      Are non-native accents perceived with negative prejudices towards their speakers?
      
   2. 
      Are learners less critical towards non-native accents which are more familiar to them?
      
   3. 
      How do attitudes towards non-native speakers’ accents differ from attitudes towards non-standard native speakers’ accents?
      
   4. 
      Which is the preferred accent in terms of “trustworthiness” and in terms of “likability”?
      
3. 
   How might learners respond to the introduction of multiple accents in the classroom based on their attitudes?
   

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