Students Perceptions of English Native Accents & Their Future Possible

Self-Image
Fuentes, Alejandro
Abstract
This focused ethnography aims to identify the impact English native accents
have on students beliefs and the perception of their future possible self-image as
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speakers. For this, a group composed by
adult learners in the course Ingls Bsico I was selected to be part of the
research. The instrument implemented on this research study was an acceptability
judgement test, which presented eleven open questions to be answered. These
answers were analysed through discourse analysis, using an open coding
technique. The results of the study demonstrated that the impact on students
beliefs are related to intelligibility, students likes, and the cultural effects presented
in the media. Finally, American English is the predominant accent within our
context; hence, students have direct contact with this variation of the language.
Keywords: accent, future possible self, EFL speakers self-image, acculturation,
American English preference, intelligibility, cultural closeness.
Introduction
The English language has become an international language, which is
employed for different purposes all over the world, e.g. reach new information
which is written in English, or even the different international business that
companies do. This fact, the internationalization of English, has made a difference
among the different speakers of this language, based on how English is used
within their own countries.
For this reason in 1991, Kachru established a difference among the
countries where English is spoken; this difference is explained in a concentric
three-circle model. In the centre of the model, it is located the inner circle, which

presents the countries where English is used as a first language, i.e. all the
countries where English is the native language belong to this category such as the
U.S. or the United Kingdom. Next, in the middle circle, all the countries where
English is used as a second language are included, such as India and Canada.
Finally, in the outer circle, English as a Foreign language is presented, this means
that all those countries where English is not an official language belong to this
category, for example Latin-American countries such as Chile and Argentina. In
addition to what was presented by Kachru, Quirk (1990) argues that there are
accentual variations in all language, but the important element which needs to be
maintained is the fact of being intelligible, feature only obtained when achieving a
native-like domain of the language.
In this sense, there are different facts regarding English teaching based on
the variation of the language. One of these is the accommodation process by
which all speakers unconsciously go through. Crystal (1997) established that this is
an unconscious situation, which affects people when they are part of the
communication process. In the light of what Crystal established, Ellis (2012)
claimed that within this process there are social factors influencing the speech of
both parts, generating a similar speech from the interlocutors speech, situation
which is understood as convergence.
From this issue, there has been different speakers of the language who
have adopted a native-like domain of the language, especially regarding accent.
This is connected with the idea of future possible self described by Leondary in
2007 as the cognitive process that enhances individuals to create selfrepresentations of their future. Furthermore, Markus and Nurius (1986, cited in
Segal, 2001) suggested that these self-representations work as a motivational tool
for people in order to accomplish different goals in order to achieve the future
representation.
In the year 2015, Tamimi Sad carried out a research study in Iran,
establishing different reasons why students present different attitudes towards the
foreign language. This study presents a current vision of how EFL is viewed by
learners, and foremost, how the perceptions provided enhanced students to build

their new identity. In addition, Matsushima and Ozaki (2015) established identity
plays a crucial role within language learning process because it enhances
motivation, and with it, students start to accomplish different goals they have
proposed in their academic development.

The present research study emerged from the basis presented on these
theories and the reality observed during the internship experience during the
second semester of 2015 at Universidad Santo Toms in Santiago, Chile. The
problem presented in this situation was the fact that the teacher presented two
English variations, American English and British English, generating students to get
confused with the language contents presented in the lesson. Based on this
situation, five students from the class were selected to be part of the research
study. Hence, the main objective of the research study was to identify the impact of
English native accent variations on students beliefs and in their perceptions of their
future possible self-image as EFL speakers. From this main objective three specific
objectives emerged, which are: (1) To identify the role of accentual variations in
students formation of a second language image. (2) To identify how self-identity is
presented in a foreign language users. (3) To determine the impact that accentual
variations may produce in the students development of foreign language speakers.
Finally, this research study aims to help English teachers by informing them that
variations of language may affect students, hence, their affective filter can be
influenced by the variation of English accent presented in the class.
Methodology
As it is aforementioned, this study is considered a focused ethnography,
hence, it shares most of the characteristics presented on ethnographies defined by
Atkinson & Hammersley (1998, cited in Higginbottom, Pillay & Boadu, 2013).
These characteristics are: (1) Scrutiny of specific social phenomena, as opposed to
deductive research that tests out hypotheses. (2) A propensity to elicit unstructured
data as opposed to pre-coded data. (3) Small sample sizes, which may include just
one case. (4) Narrative description as the product of analysis that includes an

unequivocal acknowledgement of interpretation of the significance and purpose of

human behaviour. (5) No quantification of data.
In 1977, Wilson proposed a series of steps to be followed by ethnographies;
therefore, this focused ethnography is subdivided into the following steps: (1) Entry
and establishment of role. (2) Data collection. (3) Objectivity. (4) Data Analysis.
Entry and establishment of role
This stage consists on knowing thoroughly the context where the study will
take place. The context of this research study was at Universidad Santo Toms,
campus Grajales, in Santiago, Chile. This institution is a private and accredited
university; hence, the students belong to different social status. Bearing in mind
this fact, it is important to understand that within the classroom there are different
social realities.
This study was carried out within a Basic English class, so the students
level of English was not superior to an intermediate or B1 level. Inside the
classroom, there were 28 students from different programs of the university, such
as agronomy or nursing.
During the first weeks of the internship, the class was observed and from
this observation two main activities were developed. First, the selection of the
object of study, which was mentioned at the end of the introduction. Second, the
selection of the subject of study, from the 28 students present in the class, only 10
students were selected to be part of the study, however, only half of them
participated on the present study. The selection process was based on their
listening skill level, which was superior to their classmates; this was an important
fact because the instrument presented four accentual variations, so the students
could have focused their attention on the message and the accentual variation
showed, rather than the meaning of words.

Data Collection and Objetivity

The process of data collection for this research study consisted mainly of
three steps considering the instrument applied. Since the instrument was an
acceptability judgement test, it was necessary to validate it before applying it, the
validation process went through two steps, first the validation of an expert, and
second apply it or pilot it with a similar group. The third step is the implementation
of the final test, which is going to be explained thoroughly during this section.
The first step consisted on validating the instrument, this means that an
expert on the field of linguistics analysed the instrument and provide feedback in
before being applied. After the instrument went through the validation process, all
the corrections were considered in order to create the pilot test.
The pilot instrument consisted of nine open questions, where students had
to provide their opinion regarding four different audios presented during the test.
The speakers of the audio were from different nationalities, U.S.A, England,
Australia and Canada, and the audios were presented in the order listed above.
The pilot instrument, on a first instance, was applied to five students, who
have a similar level of English in terms of skills and knowledge. The results of the
instruments provided incomplete information because some of the questions were
not well explained and the test was not appropriately structured. For that reason, it
was decided to improve the test, adding two new questions and re-write some
questions.
The week after piloting the test, the final instrument was applied to the
research studys subjects, which are part of the same course Basic English II,
hence they demonstrate having an equal level of English in the same areas, just as
the subjects for the pilot testing.
The process of data collection started by asking the subjects to participate in
the study. During this phase, 10 students were contacted in order to be part of the
research study, but when implementing the test only five students actually took the
test. When taking the test, the students were asked to sit in different parts of the

classroom, and also, looking to the wall so they were not able to see the projection
of the notebooks screen due to the fact that the name of the countries appeared,
hence, one question would be affected. Furthermore, before starting with the test
itself, the researcher asked students to look at the transcript of the audios so they
understood the message, avoiding students to be interested in vocabulary issues.
In addition, since at the beginning of the audios the name of the country was
mentioned, the audios were moved forward directly when the speakers started to
speak.
While the participants were listening the audios the researcher carefully
observed them in order to maintain a record on their reactions to the audios. In
addition, the researcher monitored the subjects while they were answering the
questions of the test so he could record their reaction towards the different
questions. The audios selected were presented only once because students
claimed they did not need to listen the audios again, although the audios were
going to be repeated once. This test was aimed to last one hour, but it took 40
minutes.
Since the objective of this research study is to identify the impact of English
native accent on students beliefs and in their perception of their future possible
self-image as EFL speakers, it was necessary to implement an instrument, which
gathered information about students perceptions; hence a test with open questions
provided an appropriate instance for students to express their opinion. Moreover,
since one of the main topics of the study is English varieties, the implementation of
English native Accent was necessary. One of the biggest advantages of the data
collection procedure was that students were provided with the transcript; therefore,
their attention was on the speakers speech. Besides, the implementation of a pilot
testing provided the necessary feedback to understand the participants viewpoint,
hence, when rewriting it, all the elements of the pilot test were considered so a new
final and improved test emerged. Finally, another advantage was the provision of a
transcript so students could focus their attention on the speech instead of the
meaning of the different lexicon presented on the audios.

Nonetheless there were different caveats during the process such as the
participation of students, which decreased the number of participants. In addition,
since the objective of the study is focused on the impact of English native accent
on students beliefs, the answers provided could have suffered a misdirection
because students are not asked about actual knowledge of the language, but in a
specific feature of speaking instead. Moreover, based on the initial plan, students
were not willing to listen to the audios more than once, hence, they did not pay all
the attention on the speakers speech features as they might have.
Analysis of Data
Once the data was gathered, it was essential to identify the process to
follow during the data analysis stage. First, the data analysis implemented study
was discourse analysis, although there is not just manner of implementing this data
analysis technique.
Based on Van Dijk (1997), there are different disciplines where discourse
analysis has been used, following this line; the author presents Social Psychology
and Discursive Psychology as one of the types of areas of study. He claims that
discursive

psychology

focuses

on

psychological

phenomena

such

as

understanding, explanation, opinions and ideologies. Since the study aims to

identify the impact of Native Accent on students beliefs and their perception of their
future possible self-image, information about the impact and perceptions needed to
be collected, being both psychological processes, and foremost, since it dealt with
language, it deals immediately with culture and the different transactional
processes.
Potter and Wetherell (1987), established a list of steps when doing
discursive psychology research, (1) Decide the research question. (2) Select the
sample of data. (3) Collect records. (4) Apply instruments. (5) Transcribe (if
necessary). (6) Coding. (7) Analyse. (8) Go through the data again. (9) Validate.
(10) Write the study.
For the coding step, it was decided to follow the criteria proposed by Strauss
and Corbin (1987), specifically open

Open coding is the first step that aims at expressing data and
phenomena in the form of concepts. For this purpose, data are
disentangled (segmented). Units of meanings classify expressions
(single words, short sequences of words) in order to attach
annotations and concepts (codes) to them. (Strauss and Corbins,
1987, cited in Flick, 2009, p. 307)
This process of analysis is aligned with the research question because, as it
was aforementioned, the research question aims to identify the psychological
process that students suffer when facing an English accent variation. Furthermore,
it deals with their future perception of EFL speakers, hence, it is widely
recommended to use discourse analysis when facing these types of studies due to
the fact that through discourse it can be noticed the different opinions, points of
view and ideologies behind ideas.
After the coding step was finished, the analysis of the information collected
was the next step to follow. This process and its results will be further explained in
the following section.

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