Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

5.1Participants

See Appendix I for an overview of the demographic information and language background of all the respondents and of the individual groups.

1. 
   
   1. 
      When you communicate in English (outside the classroom), is it with native speakers or other non-native speakers?
      
   Questionnaire
   

62.5 % of all respondents are communicating mainly with non-native speakers of English, and another 26.8 % communicate with both non-native and native speakers with no prevalence of one or the other. Only 10.7 % of the respondents use English for communication mainly with native speakers. The amount of native speaker interaction is the largest for the Group 3 (age 30+), which could be assigned to their frequent use of English at work. Those respondents in Group 3 who stated they used English mainly with native speakers, all of them indicated they use English every day at work (Q3). The findings confirm the general assumption that learners and speakers of English in the Czech Republic mainly use English as a lingua franca in interactions among NNS, speakers with different native language, excluding the NS of the Inner circle.

The most frequent nationalities with whom the respondents communicate in English are (from the most frequent): USA, UK, German, Czech, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Austrian, Russian, Croatian, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Mexican, Australian, and Indian. The other countries are geographically grouped, the most prominent group is “other European”. When the frequency of native and non-native speakers’ interactions are compared, 71 % of all interactions are with non-native speakers and 29 % with native speakers. These findings corresponds to the results from the previous question.

See Appendix VI for the results by group.

Almost everyone uses English when traveling. A majority of the respondents use English every day at school or in their studies, and also with their hobbies. These findings are based on the fact that a majority of the respondents were secondary school students. For a more accurate description, it is essential to look at the three age groups individually. See Appendix V for the English language use per group.

All of the respondents in Group 1 use English at least once a week at school, while a majority (75 %) don’t use English at work. 83 % of the respondents in Group 2 use


4. Evaluation of the speakers’ accents (highest rating = 10)
English with their hobbies at least once a week, and 50 % of them use English every day for their studies and at work. 62 % use English at least once a week at work. In Group 3, 33 % of the respondents use English every day at work and 25 % weekly. 45 % of them use English for their hobbies at least once a week, which is significantly lower number than in Group 2. Overall, there is a large number of respondents in Group 2 who use English every day in various situations.

The table above gives an overview of the accent evaluation from all the respondents together in the three categories – understandable (intelligibility of the speaker), trustworthy (perceived trustworthiness of the speaker), and pleasant (likability of the speakers’ accent). The findings illustrated above clearly show a preference for less foreign-accented speech samples. The Czech and Dutch accented speakers present an exception being non-native, perhaps for being more familiar than the other non-native speakers’ accents. A Dutch accent resembles a German accent, which is very familiar for Czech learners. The overall positive rating of the Czech accent shows a notable tolerance towards Czech-accented English. Those two accents were also perceived as the most easily understandable, preceding even the native speakers’ accents. From the opposite side, the Vietnamese accent was the least understandable for the respondents, which points to the unfamiliarity and a rather great difference of the two languages – Vietnamese and Czech. What is notable is that the ratings for each speaker don’t always correlate in the individual categories. While the Dutch accent is the most easily understandable, it is preceded by an accent of Louisiana, Scotland, Czech, and Wales in the category of pleasant. Notable is also the somewhat low rating of the Russian accent given its familiarity and closeness of the speaker’s native language with the respondents’.

When looking at the evaluations from the individual groups, we can see some variation among the ratings (for the accent evaluation per each group, see Appendix VII). While the Dutch accent was the most easily understandable for the respondents in the first group, it was the Scottish accent in Group 2, and the accent from a speaker from Louisiana in Group 3. In terms of trustworthiness, Scottish, Russian, and Louisiana accents received the highest ratings. The most pleasant were the Scottish, Russian, and Dutch accents. There seems not to be a gender preference, a preference for less accented speakers, or a significant preference for a native or non-native variety in regards of the three categories.

	Understandable	Trustworthy	Pleasant
Group 1	↑ Dutch, 8.85 ↓ Vietnamese, 5.6	↑ Scottish, 7.9 ↓ Welsh, 5.31	↑ Scottish, 7.42 ↓ Spanish, 4.79
Group 2	↑ Scottish, 9.43 ↓ Vietnamese, 6.08	↑ Russian, 7.98 ↓ Czech, 5.4	↑ Russian, 7.78 ↓ Czech, 4.1
Group 3	↑ Louisiana, 9.29 ↓ Vietnamese, 6.58	↑ Louisiana, 7.42 ↓ Welsh, 6.17	↑ Dutch, 7.21 ↓ Spanish, 5.0

Figure : The highest and lowest mean ratings per category
Following is an overall rating of the individual accents (speakers). The speaker from Louisiana received the highest mean rating in the three categories altogether (7.81), closely followed by a Czech speaker, then Welsh, Dutch, and Scottish. The Vietnamese speaker received the lowest rating. There are again variations between the ratings in each group. A Scottish speaker received the highest mean rating (7.85), and the Spanish received the lowest (5.46) in Group 1. The French speaker received the highest mean rating (8.08), and the Vietnamese the lowest (5.33) in Group 2. In Group 3, the speaker from Louisiana received the highest rating (7.9), and the Spanish speaker received the lowest (6.25). It should be noted that the respondents in Group 3 were giving higher ratings to all the speakers than the respondents in Group 2 and Group 1. The mean rating for all the speakers was 6.5 in Group 1, 6.9 in Group 2, and 7.1 in Group 3. This could signify a correlation between an increasing tolerance and acceptance, and age or experience.

See the overall ratings per each group in Appendix VII.

The respondents neither agree nor disagree with the statement – they don’t believe everyone should try to sound like a native speaker. The results from the three groups individually revealed a very small tendency towards agreement in Group 2 (-0.28) and Group 3 (-0.19).

The respondents rather strongly agree that an accent is an important part of the speaker’s identity. The results from the three groups individually are: an agreement in Group 1 (1.08), a strong agreement in Group 2 (1.5), and a rather strong agreement in Group 3 (1.33).

The respondents agree with the statement that learners of English should be familiarized with all kinds of accents including non-native accents during their education. There is a slightly stronger agreement in Group 2 (1.23) than in Group 1 (0.98) and Group 3 (1.08).

The data gathered through this open-ended question revealed some additional information behind the respondents’ choices. After a thorough analysis, the results revealed that the respondents generally don’t find it very important to have a native-like accent. The results in the individual groups slightly varied – while there was no preference among Group 3 (0.0) and Group 2 (0.08), the respondents in Group 1 slightly disagreed with the statement (0.65). It is important to note here that there were great variations among the responses from the respondents in each individual group.

These responses were valuable primarily because they provide further explanation behind the respondent’s choices. Many respondents expressed their regrets that even though they would like to sound like native speakers, they realize that it is an unattainable goal:

I think that is very important to have a good accent, but I know that I will never have accent like this.

Important, however, impossible.

Ano, člověk by se o to měl snažit, i když je to v podstatě nedosažitelné. [Yes, one should make an effort, even if it is essentially unattainable]

It is important to me. I do not want to sound stupid or ridiculous.

Ano je to důležité, protože pak nevypadáte jako hlupák. [Yes, it’s important, so that you don’t look like a fool]

Ano, působí to profesionálněji. [Yes, it appeals more professional]

Ano, doufám, že mi to dodá na důvěryhodnosti a srozumitelnosti a mimo to mě pokusy o anglický přízvuk baví, líbí se mi a mluvení se silným českým přízvukem vnímám jako flákání až buranství. [Yes, I hope that it will add to my trustworthiness and intelligibility, besides, making an attempt at an English accent is fun, I like it, and I perceive speaking with a strong Czech accent as one being lazy, even uncivilized]
There were also some respondents with a strong preference for NS models:

Ano, pokud možno co nejčistčí a co nejangličtější. [Yes, as clean and as English-like as possible]

Yes, for me it is. At least to be very close to it.

For me, it is important to have a native-like accent. I think that it sounds better and more trustworthy. Why don't speak like native speaker of English?

It’s better for using English.
Some respondents exhibited a more tolerant view towards non-native accents, and referred to a general understandability:

I think it helps, but it is enough if the concept of comfortable intelligibility is present. I mean, it is not very pleasant to the ear if they have a strong foreign accent, but that is not entirely the point of learning to communicate in English.

The respondents generally believe that they are taken more seriously and treated more as equals if they speak with a native-like accent. Some of them indicated so in the previous question. The response in Group 2 and Groups 1 and 3 are slightly contrasting. The results from each group are very similar (0.56, 0.73, and 0.54, respectively). A native accent is connected with higher status, professionality and trustworthiness for the majority of the respondents.

This section of the questionnaire provided the respondents with a space for optional commentaries. 21 respondents provided a comment. Of those, a majority expressed their interest in the topic of non-native accents or a regret that enough attention is not given to them during language instruction. Some respondents expressed curiosity to find out which nationalities were the speakers in the recordings. There were also comments regarding the integrity of speaker’s accent and their identity:

Language is a tool for communication, hence it has to be understandable. In my experience it is not vital for a person to have a ‘perfect’ native-like accent, but it is necessary to stick to certain rules, (…) and sticking to stress patterns. While native-like pronunciation in all aspects is not vital, some form of universal standard is if we want to understand each other. (female, 20-29 years, Advanced)
A common conception of an accent as a measure of status and professionality was mentioned in a comment from another respondent:

When I speak the way I usually speak English in a foreign country, Croatia for example, I often feel like I was looking down on people who speak with worse accent, although that is not the case. I just think that they might think that. (male, 20-29 years, Advanced)

In my opinion, it's way easier to speak with non-native speaker. Because he's focused about speaking in another language, so you can understand him better. The native speaker is speaking faster and few times I can't understand him. (15-19, Intermediate)