Perceptions on the relevance of the native-like accent among foreign language teachers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32870/vel.vi11.105Keywords:
Perceptions, discrimination, pronunciation, accent.Abstract
In the past, it was thought that the native-like accent in speakers was a synonym of appropriateness, since it fulfilled the need to be close to the ideal of talking like a native speaker. In relation to that, it seemed that teachers of English, who displayed a strong accent influenced by their L1, could generate negative perspectives or low expectations in teachers of the same field in a Mexican context, which could easily be transformed into prejudices. That is the reason why this study tries to analyze the perspectives of 19 middle school teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The instruments used to carry out this research were an open questionnaire, an intensity scale and a Likert scale. Results showed that the identification of the non-native accent influenced, meaningfully, the EFL teachers’ perceptions on their knowledge and necessary traits to carry out a professional development (PD) course for teachers of English, even if they did not know anything
about the speakers’ linguistic background, professional preparation or experience using the English language in a real context of communication.
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