Reactions to foreign accents in the English language

by: Nicole Brand

The study of foreign accents and their acceptance of native English speakers has become the favourite topic for this scale study. Therefore, the purpose is to find out if there are differences between the reactions of British and American English nativespeakers towards foreign accents. An accent is linguistically known as “a method of pronouncing words common to a certain region. It can also refer to the stress on a certain syllable” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent, cited 11th November 2005). Consequently, a foreign accent in a different language is a method of pronouncing words common to the speaker’s mother tongue. The British and American nationalities were chosen because they both have English as their first language. Thus, ten questionnaires were prepared which contain questions regarding the age, gender and nationality, whether the participants like or dislike foreign accents in general and their reactions to special foreign accents. Altogether, five British and five Americans of similar age and of equal distribution in terms of gender were asked to complete the questionnaire. The German, French and Indian accents were chosen because all three are very different regarding their intonation, rhythm and pronouncement and can therefore easily be differentiated.

Hence, the remainder of this scale study is divided into four sections, the procedure and the reasons behind the structure of the questionnaire, the results of British and Americans respondents including a comparison and analysis of the results, a discussion of the findings in relation to former research and finally, the conclusion. The questionnaire can be separated in four different types of questions. First, general questions which deal with demographic information such as gender, age and nationality, to categorise the respondents in different groups and possibly identify different tendencies in their reactions. Second, a specific question concerning the attitude towards the foreign accents German, French and Indian. Two answer possibilities are provided which allow the respondent to indicate whether he likes or dislike the three accents. In this question only the possibility to answer with like or dislike is given to receive clear results. Third and fourth, two sets of open-ended questions follow where the respondent is given space to formulate an answer in his own words. The third type of question asks for the reaction of the respondent towards the German, French and Indian accent. Finally, the last type of question deals with other foreign accents in the English language which the respondents like or dislike. This questionnaire is designed in such a way as to investigate whether British and Americans differ in terms of preferences and repugnance towards foreign accents in their own language. It simplifies the scale study to ask volunteers with nearly the same age and gender to clarify tendencies underlying their reactions.

After the pilot provided good results the questionnaires, which can also be found in the appendix of this scale study, were given to British and American volunteers. In Britain the questionnaire was handed to a random group of five members providing each with the time necessary to complete the questionnaire before handing it back. In addition, the questionnaire was sent to an Australian who in turn chose five Americans at random who completed the questionnaire and sent it back via mail. Finally, no follow-up interview was conducted to supplement the questionnaire.

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