• Corpus ID: 2053739

Exploring ESL Learners' Attitudes Towards English Accents

@inproceedings{Pilus2013ExploringEL,
  title={Exploring ESL Learners' Attitudes Towards English Accents},
  author={Zahariah Pilus},
  year={2013}
}

• Z. Pilus
• Published 2013
• Linguistics, Education

Among the issues that have been raised in relation to the teaching and learning of English pronunciation are the norms and models for pronunciation. This paper discusses these issues based on a study on the attitudes of 34 English as a Second Language learners towards British, American and Malaysian English accents. The study found that the learners seemed to show a preference for British English. Despite their admiration of the native accent, the learners were comfortable with their Malaysian accent. Considering the lack of a standard non-native spoken English variety in Malaysia, the paper concludes that choosing a native accent as a model for pronunciation learning seems to be a more viable option at the moment. The paper, however, emphasises the need for the native accent to be regarded merely as a model that is a source of reference for the learners and not as a norm that should be rigidly adhered to. In this way, learners are provided with the opportunities to attain a native-like accent if they have the ability to do so while at the same time given the freedom to approximate accordingly.