Attitudes of Korean English Teachers and Learners towards English Varieties: Focusing on Pronunciation

English varieties;Pronunciation;EIL;Non-native English teachers;Korean English teachers;Korean English learners;Language attitude;영어변이형;발음;세계어로서의 영어;비원어민 영어교사;한국인 영어교사;한국인 영어 학습자;언어 태도;420

사범대학 외국어교육과(영어전공) ;

University:서울대학교 대학원

关键词: English varieties;    Pronunciation;    EIL;    Non-native English teachers;    Korean English teachers;    Korean English learners;    Language attitude;    영어변이형;    발음;    세계어로서의 영어;    비원어민 영어교사;    한국인 영어교사;    한국인 영어 학습자;    언어 태도;    420;   

Others  :  http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/127563/1/000000025670.pdf

美国|英语

来源: Seoul National University Open Repository

【 摘 要 】

As the English language became an international communication tool and non-native English speakers outnumbered native English speakers, English varieties have recently received an increasing amount of attention in the English Language Teaching (ELT) profession. Nevertheless, much attention was not paid to the English varieties in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). Even most studies on EFL learners’ and teachers’ attitudes towards English varieties were conducted simply by surveys or interview questions without any auditory stimuli provided. The current research investigated the attitudes of Korean English teachers (KETs) and Korean English learners (KELs) towards issues on EIL (English as an International Language) such as ideal pronunciation and ownership of English. It also examined KETs’ and KELs’ perception about English varieties (American-accented English, Indian-accented English, Chinese accented-English, and Korean-accented English) with auditory stimuli provided, and their own non-native English pronunciation. 64 secondary school English teachers and 103 high school students in the 12th grade participated in the study. In order to investigate the participants’ attitudes towards English varieties, questionnaires including semantic differential scale and Likert-type scale were employed. The results showed that the attitudes of KETs and KELs were highly dominated by native speaker (NS) norm. Both groups preferred American English most and Korean-accented English least. KETs perceived the American pronunciation as the most similar one to their own of four English varieties whereas KELs regarded it as the second most similar pronunciation. KETs and KELs also preferred to change their own pronunciation into native-like one. Notably, both groups expected an English teacher to have native-like pronunciation, and that KETs set higher standards for an English teacher’s pronunciation than KELs did. This deeply rooted NS norm in the English education fields of Korea was discussed in terms of its pedagogical, social, and historical contexts. On the other hand, KETs tended to understand that there is no ideal English pronunciation, and that the owner of the English language can be anyone who speaks English, not native speakers. They were also not dominated by the dichotomy of native and non-native English accents. These results implied that KETs influenced by the EIL perspective could act as a mediator to help the learners to raise the consciousness of the English varieties. As KETs are in the position of affecting the learners’ attitude in every aspect, they need to have lenient attitudes towards non-native English varieties including their own Korean-accented English. This change of KETs’ attitude can be a first step into KETs and KELs becoming as equally rightful and legitimate English users as English native speakers. Furthermore, this study has important implications for the Korean ELT profession, specifically in terms of the student learning, teacher education, and EFL testing market and English teacher recruiting market.