Loading...

Attitude Toward World Englishes Among Iranian English Language Learners

Mottaghi, Zahra | 2016

412 Viewed
  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: English
  3. Document No: 49064 (31)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Languages and Linguistics Center
  6. Advisor(s): Rezaei, Saeed; Khosravizadeh, Parvaneh
  7. Abstract:
  8. According to Yook and Lindemann (2012), attitudes play a significant role in motivation and in the quality and quantity of acquiring a specific language. Moreover, the worldwide spread of English demands a more rigorous focus being directed toward the attitudes of users of English in the group which Kachru (1997) has referred to as the Expanding Circle. Yet, scant attention has been devoted to the issue of World Englishes in Iran. In addition, a dearth of large-scale studies on attitudes toward different varieties of Englishes in Iran has led to deficient theoretical and methodological bases. To niche this gap, the current study tried to shed light on some dark sides of this subject by investigating attitude toward World Englishes among Iranian English language learners. The Verbal-Guise technique was utilized, as the main instrument in this study, which has been employed along with a questionnaire. The questionnaire required the participants to listen to recordings of the same natural speech from a series of speakers with different accents; henceforth, the participants were requested to evaluate each speaker - mostly on a bipolar semantic-differential scale on different traits. While the study benefits from a mixed method design, initially a population of 140 learners of English, from upper-intermediate to advanced levels of proficiency, was randomly selected from three contexts namely Sharif University of Technology, an English institute in Tehran, and Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch. Secondly, 25 participants were interviewed to shed light on some hidden points of the quantitative part. The results showed that the participants had a more positive attitude toward American English (Am EN) and British English (Br EN); on the other hand, African American Vernacular English (AAVE) received the lowest level in attitude, Persian English (Per EN) and Australian English (Aus. EN) were in the middle of this scale. While Am EN was socially the most attractive one and AAVE received the least social attractiveness, Br. EN has the highest social status according to the participants’ opinion and AAVE received the least social status. In participants’ opinion, both varieties have high quality; interestingly Aus. EN is exactly in the middle level while Per EN and AAVE are at the end of the scale respectively. The qualitative data, obtained through the interviews, showed that the participants have stereotyped EN. In addition, the recognition ability of the participants was very low and by putting mixed method results together, it was inferred that lack of exposure to different varieties of EN was the main source of this low recognition ability. The next investigated topic was suitability of accent for a teacher in the participants’ opinion, which was in line with attitude results by placing Per EN after Br EN and Am EN, confirming the qualitative findings in that comprehensibility and familiarity were given as the reasons by the interviewees. The findings of this study can provide valuable pedagogical implications for teachers, language educators, and policymakers
  9. Keywords:
  10. Attitudes ; Language Attitude ; Verbal-Guise Technique ; World Englishes

 Digital Object List

 Bookmark

No TOC