A survey on the difference of accents of english learners from different countries

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FALCULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE A SURVEY ON THE DIFFERENCE OF ACCENTS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES Supervisor: Dang Thi Hanh,MA Student’s name: Nguyen Trung Thanh Class: English Student’s code: 14D220201111 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I want to express my thankful toward my supervisor, Ms Dang Thi Hanh, MA This research could not have been completed without her enthusiastic She instructed, commented and provided me useful references and materials so I could complete my research Moreover, she spent her valuable time on guiding and encouraging me during the time I was conducting the research Secondly, I want to show my special thanks to all lectures in the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature of TDU for their teaching and helping me widen English knowledge over the past four years Finally, I also would like to extend my special thanks for giving me the opportunity and permission to carry out the research A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries Table of Contents CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of study 1.3 The organization of study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The definitions of language 2.2 The definitions of accent 2.3 The importance of accent 2.4 Factors affecting accent 2.4.1 Age of Learning (AOL) 2.4.2 Length of residence (LOR) 12 2.4.3 The effect of pauses 13 2.4.4 Mother Tongue 13 2.5 The relationship between cultural identity and accent 14 CHAPTER RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTIONS – HYPOTHESIS 16 3.1 Research Aims 16 3.2 Research Questions 16 3.3 Hypothesis 16 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17 4.1 Design 17 4.2 Participants 17 4.3 Instruments 17 4.3.1 4.4 Questionnaire 18 Procedure 19 CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOME 20 5.1 Mother Tongue 20 5.2 The pauses 20 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries 5.3 Solutions 20 REFERENCES APPENDIX A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries ABSTRACT In areas such as business and education, many English language students will need the ability to communicate with English speakers possessing a wide range of both native and non-native English accents This paper will give you an example between Korean students and Vietnamese students about the reasons when they are both speaking English but have totally different accents By using questionnaire to understand what obstacles are actually causing the difference of accents, this paper will answer for the question “Why English learners from different countries have different accents?” A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries CHAPTER INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we state the problem, give background information and organize the study 1.1 Rationale An accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation An accent may be identified with the locality in which its speakers reside (a regional or geographical accent).Accents typically differ in quality of the voice, pronunciation and distinction of vowels, consonants and stress Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word "accent" may refer specifically to the differences in pronunciation A widely recognized problem of people who learn English as their second language (L2) is that they have different ways of pronunciation and theyare often perceived to speak with a foreign accent There are various factors which affect L2 foreign accent apparently and potentially They include certain common factors and individual factors as well In these two articles, linguists are attempting to find the common and representative reasons for explaining the L2 foreign accent In the first one, Flegeal (1995) provided a specific example by doing certain research with a group of Italian speakers of English, comparing to English native speakers in Canada; Piskeal (2001), in the second article, summarized a few main factors on a basis of the results done by Flege et al and other linguists Therefore, four common factors can be found from both articles as prominent reasons for L2 foreign accent, although they may still cause disagreement A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries 1.2 The significance of study Due to the limited amount of research on the difference of accents of English learners, the results of this study may contribute to the literature by providing insights into a different perspective of L2 learning Furthermore, this study will also contribute to the few studies that investigate the relationship between identity and accent as well factors affecting accent On a wide scale, this study may contribute to the debate regarding teaching pronunciation with a goal of achieving a native-like accent by providing some different perspectives At a local level, the results of this study will provide information about the reason why English learners from different country have different accents; therefore, giving them another issue to consider when formulating their beliefs about pronunciation 1.3 The organization of study The study consists of five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Research Aim – Research Questions – Hypothesis Chapter 4: Research Methodology Chapter 5: Expected Outcome A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the definitions of language as well accent, its importance and factors affecting accent It also includes the relationship between cultural identity and accent 2.1 The definitions of language It is interesting that words as commonly used as language and dialect, prove quite difficult to define adequately The Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary (Miriam-Webster 2005) defines language in part as: "1 a: the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community b(1) : audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the vocal organs (2) : a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings " This definition includes the concepts of grammar, vocabulary and the expression of such grammar and vocabulary in any systematic form Wardhaugh (1998) notes the ability of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish speakers to understand each other's languages to a reasonable extent, however by the definition above all three should be considered the same language Using the same reasoning, while a number of what are commonly called dialects of Chinese are mutually intelligible in written form, they are unintelligible in spoken form, and thus could be argued to be different languages A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries 2.2 The definitions of accent One definition of accent provided by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is “a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region.” Accents in the context of sociolinguistics not only define people but also perform as a way of showing their belonging to a particular speech community Therefore, accent is a symbol of social identity Becker (1995) states that “An accent is the part of a person’s language that serves to identify the speaker’s regional origin or national identity no matter what language the person is speaking” Accent, as one of the most effective indicators of identity (Seidlhofer, 2001; Sifakis and Sougari, 2005), not only influences communicative fluency but also has a role in judgments of social belonging and identity (Moyer, 2007) Southwood and Fledge (1999) define a foreign accent as: “Non-pathological speech produced by second language learners that differs in partially systematic ways from the speech characteristics of native speakers of a given dialect” As Moyer (2004) points out, there are indications that language fluency of a non-native speaker can be positively developed by long term residence in the target country; therefore exposure to high frequency contact with native speaker (e.g., Flege & Fletcher, 1992; Flege, Takagi, & Mann, 1995) However, there are also studies that have shown contradictory findings of the significance of the long term residence factor (e.g., Flege & Liu, 2001; Piske, MacKay, & Flege, 2001) Moyer (2009) argues that length of residence is an unreliable predictor of L2 phonological attainment because there are immigrants in many countries with many years residence who never came close to native like proficiency in accent A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries 2.3 The importance of accent As mentioned above, accent is a manner of pronunciation Almost people agreed that accent plays an important role in daily communication and it is one of the most important things that students have to master in order to communicate appropriately and fluently In fact, it is important to pay attention to pronunciation since it results in whether or not someone's message can be passed or not by other people More over, if someone cannot hear English well, she or he is cut off from the language And if someone cannot be understood easily, she or he is cut off from conversation with native speakers We can conclude from the statements above that pronunciation gives a significant effect to the meaning of what someone says For students learning English, to be able to understand others and communicate intelligibly, a language learners need to come into contact with different accents and be sensitised to the differences in pronunciation, so that they can be able to respond in the real world where they will constantly be coming into contact with different accents 2.4 Factors affecting accent In learning English as a second language (L2), it is not easy to master speaking skill For those who study L2, having accents of native English speakers is a tough challenge because of effects of many different elements In this research, we would like to analyze four basic factors affecting accent 2.4.1 Age of Learning (AOL) Accent acquisition is one component of second language learning that learners sometimes may not feel comfortable with Research on accent acquisition is A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries observation that in the same situation, young immigrants are more likely to be accent-free while their parents usually speak with strong accent although they have accuracy and fluency in their speech 2.4.3 The effect of pauses The oral interview test used by the Foreign Service Institute to assess foreign language proficiency makes use of five variables: grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, accent, and fluency "Accent" is likely to be related to details of segmental articulation, intonation, and rhythm These are all dimensions along which an L2 learner's performance might be compared to L2 phonetic "norms." The term "fluent" is often used to describe L2 production (e.g., Elman et al., 1977) It is uncertain upon what acoustic dimensions the perception of degree of fluency depends, but the dimensions are likely to include the number, location, and duration of pauses, prolongations, and repetitions in sentences Non-native speakers seem to produce sentences containing more, and perhaps longer, pauses than native speakers (James, 1988) Removing pauses might make sentences spoken by non-natives sound more fluent, and thus lead to higher global foreign accent scores This hypothesis assumes that, as implied by the nominal components of the Foreign Service test, accent and fluency represent separate (or separable) perceptual dimensions However, that the perceived degree of fluency does not contribute to foreign accent judgments, or that accent and fluency judgments interact in some complex fashion so that removing pauses from sentence spoken by nonnative speakers would not improve the foreign accent scores accorded to their sentences 2.4.4 Mother Tongue The importance of pronunciation in communication cannot be denied In fact it is as important as grammar and vocabulary Yet, the evidence of mother 13 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries tongue influenceon English is very obvious This manifests in the form of incorrect pronunciation Pronunciation error may be due to many issues Guesswork or vagueness of the correct form of a word or sentence, or a general ineptness of the language could be the reason of mispronunciation The most common reason is transfer or interference from the mother tongue Generally, errors made in pronunciation are due to difference in the sound system and spelling symbols between the mother tongue and English.The variables in mother tongue that hinder effective communication in English are caused by differences in phonetics Most languages, for instance, not use, or pronounce, the combination in the same way as it is pronounced in the English language 2.5 The relationship between cultural identity and accent A study by Miller (1999) examined the relationship between the acquisition of English as a second language by migrant students and the expression of social identity, particularly in the context of school Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) students had gone to an on-arrival intensive ESL program at a purpose-built school and then for a while attended an ESL class within a normal high school followed by full integration into the high school mainstream Miller (1999) found that each contextual change affected the NESB students’ language use as well as identity The researcher concluded that in order to be a recognized member and partaker in an institution the students needed to be audible to mainstream groups In relation to NESB students, being audible means being accepted and acknowledged as an English speaker, and this acceptance and acknowledgment impacts the degree to which a student can take part in institutional activities and the way they represent themselves 14 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries Marx (2002) conducted a unique study in which she examined second language and second culture acquisition by focusing on identity, and a particular aspect, the appropriation of accent She provided a first person account of the formation of identity that she went through over a three year period of living in Germany, and as her accent in her second foreign language (German, learned after French) became a factor of identity transformation Marx experienced changes in her identity, varying from American, Canadian, and German As a result of her English accent in her German she was viewed 22 as American by her German interlocutors, which caused her to feel out of place and identify herself as Canadian as opposed to American After two years she formed her L2 identity with a native-like German accent and signs of loss of L1 identity emerged At the end of the three year period, after returning to the L1 environment, she had developed a German accented English and this resulted in her identifying herself as not just Canadian but a foreigner However, after three months her Canadian identity was reconstructed and the foreign accent in her English disappeared Ultimately, as the aforementioned studies reveal there is a close link between identity and accent The way a person speaks, including their accent, is a significant social power in representing their identity (Cargile & Giles, 1997; Cargile, Giles, Ryan, & Bradac, 1994) An accent represents a persons’ manner of pronunciation (Giles, 1970) and makes up an important part of a speaker’s social identity as well as revealing a substantial amount of social information (Edwards, 1999) 15 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries CHAPTER RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTIONS – HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Research Aims This research focuses on finding the difference of accents The most important purpose of this research is to find out the reason why Vietnamese students and Korean students have different accents although they are both speaking English as their L2 3.2 Research Questions The research is required to answer the following questions: What problems are affecting their accents when speaking English? What they need to to improve their accents? 3.3 Hypothesis According to the literature and research questions, it was hypothesized that two groups of student shown their struggling problems which affecting their accents when speaking English on the questionnaire 16 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this chapter, we present the process of the study Research method includes: design, participant, instrument and procedure 4.1 Design The research is carried out to define the difficulties that English learners (in this case are English majored students of TDU and exchange English majored students from Korea) have faced and what makes the difference of their accents as well testing the hypothesis presented in the previous section The validity of the research results are based on the instruments To achieve these purposes, the English majored students of Vietnam and Korea are chosen for the survey The questionnaire will be used to collect the data from each participant The collected data from this instrument will be analyzed to show what problems affecting their accents 4.2 Participants The participants of the research are English majored students of TDU and exchange English majored students from Korea They both speak English as their second language They will be given questionnaires to collect information about the obstacles affect their accents so we can be able to go to a conclusion on the difference of accents 4.3 Instruments Questionnaires are used as the instrument in this research The students’ opinions are very essential in this research 17 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries 4.3.1 Questionnaire The questionnaire includes questions and 10 statements and it is classified into the following groups: Group Summary of the content of question From to Students’ background 7, Students’ attitude toward speaking From The problems students are facing in speaking to 14 15, 16 The solutions to improve accent 18 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries 4.4 Procedure Duration (12 weeks) Study process - Step 1: from the 1st week to 4th week - Step : from the 5th week to 7th week Step : from the 8th week to 12th week 19 Designing the framework of the research Designing research instruments - Asking teacher for the permission of delivering questionnaire - Delivering the questionnaire to students - Collecting the data - Analyzing the collected data - Completing the research A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOME Accent plays an important role in understanding the meaning in a language Both Korean and Vietnamese English majored are struggling to achieve the foreign accent 5.1 Mother Tongue Most of students agreed on the questionnaire that their mother tongue was causing trouble on their accents They understand the reason that their sound system is different from English and that decides their voices when speaking English 5.2 The pauses The participants seem to produce sentences containing more, and perhaps longer pauses than native speaker Removing pauses might make sentences spoken by non-natives sound more fluent but students will not achieve the foreign accents 5.3 Solutions Communicating daily with native speaker helps students widen general knowledge as well learning their word stress, pauses and their native accents Most of participants don’t have any ideas whether watching English programs can improve their accents 20 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries REFERENCES Asher, J J., & Garcia, R C (1969) The optimal age to learn a foreign language Modern Language Journal, 53, 334-341 Becker, P (1995) The etiology of foreign accent: Towards a phonological component of identity Unpublished Carbondale master’s thesis, Southern Illinois University, Bongaerts, T., Mennen, S., & Van den Slik, F (2000) Authenticity of pronunciation in naturalistic second language acquisition: The case of very advanced late learners of Dutch as a second language Studia Linguistica, 54, 298-308 Bongaerts, T., Planken, B., & Schils, E (1995) Can late starters attain a native accent in a foreign language: A test of the critical period hypothesis In D Singleton & Z Lengyel (Eds.), The age factor in second language acquisition (pp 30-50) Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Bongaerts, T., Van Summeren, C., Planken, B., & Schils, E (1997) Age and ultimate attainment in the pronunciation of a foreign language Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 447-465 Cargile, A C., & Giles, H (1997) Understanding language attitudes: Exploring listener affect and identity Language and Communication, 17, 195-217 21 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries Cargile, A C., Giles, H., Ryan, E B., & Bradac, J J (1994) Language attitudes as a social process: A conceptual model and new directions Language and Communication, 14, 211-236 Edwards, J (1999) Refining our understanding of language attitudes Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18, 101-110 Elman, J., Diehi, R., and Buchwald, E (1977) "Perceptual switching in bilinguals," J Acoust Soc Am 62, 971-974 Flege, J & Fletcher, K (1992) Talker and listener effects on degree of perceived foreign accent Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 91, 370-389 Flege, J., Takagi, N & Mann, V (1995) Japanese adults can learn to produce English /r/ and /l/ accurately Language and Speech 38, 25-55 Flege, J., Frieda, E., & Nozawa, T (1997) Amount of native language (L1) use affects the pronunciation of an L2 Journal of Phonetics, 25, 169-186 Giles, H (1970) Evaluative reactions to accents Educational Review, 22, 211-227 James, A (1988) "Phonological structure and the contextual variability of interlanguage segments," in Further Insights into ContrastJoe Linguistics, edited by J Fisiak (Benjamins, Amsterdam) Klein, E C (1993) Toward second language acquisition Toronto: Kluwer Academic Publishers Lennenberg, E (1967) Biological foundations of language NY: Wiley Publishers 22 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries Long, M (1990) Maturational constraints on language development Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12, 251-285 Miriam-Webster (2005) Miriam-Webster Online: The Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary (www) http://www.m-w.com/ (11 February 2005) Moyer, A (2007) Do language attitudes determine accent? A study of bilinguals in the USA Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 28(6), 502-518 Moyer, A (2009) Input as a means to a critical end: Quantity and quality in L2 phonological attainment In Young-Scholten, M.and Piske, T (eds) Input Matters Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Moyer, A (1999) Ultimate attainment in L2 phonology: The critical factors of age, motivation and instruction Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 81108 Miller, J (1999) Becoming audible: Social identity and second language use Journal of Intercultural Studies, 20(2), 149-165 Marx, N (2002) Never Quite a ‘Native Speaker’: Accent and Identity in the L2-and the L1 Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 59(2), 264-281 Oyama, S (1976) A sensitive period for the acquisition of a nonnative phonological system Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 5, 261-283 23 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries Pallier, C., Bosch, L., & Sebastian G (1997) A limit on behavioral plasticity in speech perception Cognition, 64, 9-17 Pursel, E T., & Suter, R W (1980) Predictors of pronunciation accuracy: A reexamination Language Learning, 30, 271-287 Piske, T., MacKay, I & Flege, J (2001) Factors affecting degree of foreign accent in an L2: A review Journal of Phonetics, 29, 191-215 Riney, T., & Flege, J (1998) Changes over time in global foreign accent and liquid identifiability and accuracy Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 213244 Seidlhofer B (2001) Pronunciation In R Carter and D Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp 56-65) Cambridge: CUP Sifakis, N.C., Sougari, A.M., (2005) Pronunciation issues and EIL pedagogy in the periphery: a survey of Greek state school teachers' beliefs TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 467-488 Scovel, T (1981, May) The recognition of foreign accents in English and its implications for psycholinguistic theories of language acquisition Proceeding of the Fifth International Association of Applied Linguistics, 389-401 New York Southwood, M H., & Fledge, J E (1999) Scaling foreign accent: Direct magnitude estimation versus interval scaling Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 13(5), 335-349 24 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Student’s full name:………………………………………Age………… Gender Male Female Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question How long have you studied English? … Years Where you come from? Vietnam Korea Which subject did you learn when you were in high school? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing Which subject you like best? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing 25 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries What you think about accent in speaking English? a Important b Normal c Not important What you think about your speaking skill? a Very good b Quite good c Average d Bad e Very bad 26 A survey on the difference of accents of English learners from different countries Please read the following statements and mark  in suitable column to express your opinion Statements Agree Speaking English is not easy for you You have faced difficulties when speaking English Your mother tongue affects your accent when speaking English 10 The sound system and spelling symbols between your mother tongue and English are different 11 You don’t know where to pause when saying a sentence 12 You usually make pronunciation errors 13 The phonetic system of English is difficult 14 There are some syllables which not exist in your language 15 Communicating daily with native speakers helps you on your accent 16 Watching English programs helps you on your accent 27 No ideas Disagree