Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions
This paper investigates ESL learners’ perceptions and awareness of four different native English accents through an accent perception and survey task conducted on 66 Malaysian students who were enrolled in an English programme at a university in Trengganu. The participants responded to a questionnai...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Proceeding Paper |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2015
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/1/45189.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/2/45189_ppt.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848782745513230336 |
|---|---|
| author | Pilus, Zahariah Zakaria, Nur Shahida Zakaria, Muhamad Khairul |
| author_facet | Pilus, Zahariah Zakaria, Nur Shahida Zakaria, Muhamad Khairul |
| author_sort | Pilus, Zahariah |
| building | IIUM Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper investigates ESL learners’ perceptions and awareness of four different native English accents through an accent perception and survey task conducted on 66 Malaysian students who were enrolled in an English programme at a university in Trengganu. The participants responded to a questionnaire that was designed to examine their perceptions of British, American, Australian and New Zealand English accents and their abilities to identify them while or after listening to a recorded passage read by four male speakers, each speaking in one of the four accents. The participants were also asked to rate the speakers in terms of being an ideal English language teacher. In general, it was found that the participants rated the speakers whose accents were perceived to be more familiar more favourably than those whose accents were perceived to be less familiar to them. Compared to the rest of the speakers, the British English speaker was rated significantly higher as an ideal English language teacher. The participants also often misidentified the accents of the speakers and this finding supports that of previous studies (Scales, Wennerstorm, Richard & Wu, 2006; McGee, 2009) that accent identification is a complex task involving many factors such as past experiences. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T16:10:20Z |
| format | Proceeding Paper |
| id | iium-45189 |
| institution | International Islamic University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T16:10:20Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | iium-451892018-05-21T01:43:51Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/ Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions Pilus, Zahariah Zakaria, Nur Shahida Zakaria, Muhamad Khairul PE English This paper investigates ESL learners’ perceptions and awareness of four different native English accents through an accent perception and survey task conducted on 66 Malaysian students who were enrolled in an English programme at a university in Trengganu. The participants responded to a questionnaire that was designed to examine their perceptions of British, American, Australian and New Zealand English accents and their abilities to identify them while or after listening to a recorded passage read by four male speakers, each speaking in one of the four accents. The participants were also asked to rate the speakers in terms of being an ideal English language teacher. In general, it was found that the participants rated the speakers whose accents were perceived to be more familiar more favourably than those whose accents were perceived to be less familiar to them. Compared to the rest of the speakers, the British English speaker was rated significantly higher as an ideal English language teacher. The participants also often misidentified the accents of the speakers and this finding supports that of previous studies (Scales, Wennerstorm, Richard & Wu, 2006; McGee, 2009) that accent identification is a complex task involving many factors such as past experiences. 2015 Proceeding Paper PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/1/45189.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/2/45189_ppt.pdf Pilus, Zahariah and Zakaria, Nur Shahida and Zakaria, Muhamad Khairul (2015) Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions. In: International Conference on Languages (ICL 2015), 10th-11th Oct. 2015, Seri Pacific Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. (Unpublished) |
| spellingShingle | PE English Pilus, Zahariah Zakaria, Nur Shahida Zakaria, Muhamad Khairul Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions |
| title | Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions |
| title_full | Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions |
| title_fullStr | Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions |
| title_short | Listening to the accents of male native English speakers: ESL learners’ perceptions |
| title_sort | listening to the accents of male native english speakers: esl learners’ perceptions |
| topic | PE English |
| url | http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/1/45189.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/45189/2/45189_ppt.pdf |