Attitudes, Awareness, and Comprehensibility of ASEAN English Accents: A Qualitative Study of University Students in Thailand

Name: Korakote Natiladdanon

Name: Chayada Thanavisuth

keyword: ASEAN English Varieties

; Intelligibility

; Accent Identification

; Comprehensibility

Abstract: Though several studies examined the linguistic features of ASEAN’s diversity of English, not many have looked at how and to what extent ASEAN speakers perceive and comprehend the English variety spoken in their own and/or outside their countries within the same region. This qualitative study aims to explore awareness, attitudes, and the level of comprehensibility of a small group of ASEAN speakers towards ASEAN English accents. Twenty students enrolled in a Thai international university participated in this study. They were asked, in a questionnaire and interviews, how they perceived each variety of ASEAN English and if they had difficulty in comprehending it. To examine the participants’ ability to identify ASEAN English accents and their levels of comprehensibility, each participant was asked to listen to ten different short articles, which were read and audiotape-recorded earlier by a university student from each of the ten ASEAN countries. The results indicated that the participants’ previous experience of being exposed to a certain English variety was a significant factor in determining levels of intelligibility and comprehensibility of a variety. Finally, this study proposes a pedagogical implication for the teaching of English to promote an awareness of and familiarity with ASEAN Englishes.

สำนักวิทยบริการและสารสนเทศ มหาวิทยาลัยนานาชาติเอเชีย-แปซิฟิก

Address: สระบุรี

Email: dirlibr@apiu.edu

Modified: 2015-03-18

Issued: 2015-03-18

eng

ใช้เวลา

0.010343 วินาที