(Luận văn thạc sĩ) an investigation into non english major students’ attitudes towards english native speakers’ and non native speakers’ accents an example at spark english center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
---***---

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’
ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKERS’ AND
NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS’ ACCENTS:
AN EXAMPLE AT SPARK ENGLISH CENTER

NGHIÊN CỨU THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG
ANH VỚI GIỌNG BẢN NGỮ VÀ PHI BẢN NGỮ:
MỘT VÍ DỤ CỤ THỂ TẠI TRUNG TÂM ANH NGỮ SPARK

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60140111

HANOI – 2015


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
---***---

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’
ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKERS’ AND
NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS’ ACCENTS:
AN EXAMPLE AT SPARK ENGLISH CENTER

NGHIÊN CỨU THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG
ANH VỚI GIỌNG BẢN NGỮ VÀ PHI BẢN NGỮ:
MỘT VÍ DỤ CỤ THỂ TẠI TRUNG TÂM ANH NGỮ SPARK

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60140111

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Quang

HANOI – 2015


DECLARATIONS

I - Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Trang - hereby declare that the thesis entitled “An
investigation into non-English major students’ attitudes towards English
native speakers’ and non-native speakers’ accents: An example at Spark
English Center” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the
requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post Graduate
Studies - University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi and
this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or
institution.

Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Trang

Hanoi, September 2015

i


ABSTRACT
This study investigates the attitudes of non-English major students
towards English native speakers’ and non-native speakers’ accents. The
participants are 60 Vietnamese non-English major students who are studying
English at Spark English Center, Hanoi. The results reveal that: (1) students
are mostly able to identify the native and non-native accents. However, they
are not very good at recognize each variety of English; (2) the students
generally rate the native accents higher than non-native ones. The British
English seems to be the most favourite among all the accents. Remarkably,
Philippine English is also highly valued; and (3) the students have positive
attitudes to both native and non-native models of English.

ii

ABBREVIATIONS

AmE: American English
BrE: British English
GA: General American
InE: Indian English
JaE: Japanese-accented English
NS: Native speaker
NNS: Non-native speaker
PhE: Philippine English
SEC: Spark English Center
RP: Received Pronunciation
ViE: Vietnamese-accented English

iii


LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1. Distinguishing native and non-native speakers ........................................ 22
Table 2. Guessing the nationality of the speakers .................................................. 23
Table 3. Mean ratings (and standard deviations) of six speakers on five traits ....... 24
Table 4. Mean ratings of all five traits ................................................................... 25
Table 5. Statistics of Native speakers and Non-native speakers on five traits ........ 25
Table 6. Independent samples t-test: Comparison between Native speakers and
Non-native speakers for five traits ......................................................................... 26
Table 7. Mean ratings and standard deviations of six speakers as models of English
.............................................................................................................................. 27

Table 8. Statistics of Native speakers and Non-native speakers as models of English
.............................................................................................................................. 27
Table 9. Independent samples t-test: Comparison between Native speakers and
Non-native speakers for a model of English .......................................................... 28
Table 10. Mean ratings for Statements on the NS model of English ...................... 28
Table 11. Mean ratings for Statements on the NNS model of English ................... 28

iv


LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1. Kachru’s categorization of countries in which English is used ........... 8
(from Crystal, 1997: 54) ........................................................................................ 8
Figure 2. Participants’ agreement with statement 1 .......................................... 29
Figure 3. Participants’ agreement with statement 2 .......................................... 30
Figure 4. Participants’ agreement with statement 3 .......................................... 31
Figure 5. Participants’ agreement with statement 4 .......................................... 31

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DECLARATIONS ..................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................ii
ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................. iii
LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................ iv
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... vi

PART A. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale ......................................................................................................... 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study ...................................................................... 3
3. Research questions .......................................................................................... 3
4. Scope of the study........................................................................................... 3
5. Method of the study ....................................................................................... 3
6. Significance of the study .................................................................................. 4
7. Design of the study .......................................................................................... 4
PART B. DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................. 6
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................. 6
1.1. What is accent? ........................................................................................... 6
1.2. Varieties of English accent .......................................................................... 7
1.2.1. English native speakers’ accents .......................................................... 8
1.2.2. English non-native speakers’ accents .................................................. 9
1.3. Attitudes towards accents of English ....................................................... 10
1.3.1. Language attitudes ............................................................................. 10
1.3.2. Studies on attitudes towards accents of English ................................ 12
CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 16
2.1. Restatement of research questions ........................................................... 16
2.2. Research approach .................................................................................... 16
2.3. Context of the study .................................................................................. 16

vi


2.3.1. Setting of the study ............................................................................. 16
2.3.2. Participants ......................................................................................... 17
2.4. Research materials .................................................................................... 18
2.5. Data collection procedure ......................................................................... 20
2.6. Methods of data analysis ........................................................................... 20

3.1. Results........................................................................................................ 22
3.1.1. Part A: The verbal guise test .............................................................. 22
3.1.2. Part B: Statements with a five-point Likert scale ............................. 28
3.2. Discussion .................................................................................................. 32
3.2.1. Research question 1: How is the ability of the SEC non-English
major students to identify the speakers’ accents? ...................................... 32
3.2.2. Research question 2: How do the SEC non-English major students
rate the varieties of native and non-native accents? ................................... 33
3.2.3. Research question 3: How do the SEC non- English major students
think about NS and NNS models? ............................................................... 35
PART C. CONCLUSION.................................................................................... 36
1. Overall findings ............................................................................................ 36
2. Limitations of the study ............................................................................... 37
3. Suggestions for further studies .................................................................... 37
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 38
APPENDIX A – QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................... I

vii


PART A. INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
Nowadays, numerous studies and journals have found the paramount
importance of students’ attitudes in foreign language learning and their
learning achievement. Students’ attitudes is considered as one of the key
factors in motivating the learners to learn the language. Positive attitude could
facilitate language learning while negative attitude may hinder it.
Consequently, it is worth doing research on students’ attitudes and factors
affecting such attitudes in order to enhance their learning success and

achievement when teaching a foreign language.
Moreover, it is undoubtful to find the importance of pronunciation in
learning English. When people communicate, they can use simple words,
simple grammar structures, but there is no such a thing as “simple
pronunciation”. Good pronunciation is one of the first things that someone
learns in English. However, that is also one of the most difficult problems
facing non-native speakers of English. In relation to teaching and learning
English pronunciation, questions about models for pronunciation have been
raised. Many non-native speakers worry about their accents when they speak
English. According to Anastasia Koltai (2013), many people feel that having
a pronounced mother tongue accent may mark them out as being a non-native
speaker, or “they worry that their natural accented English speech is
unintelligible to others”. Thus, they try to learn the accents that help them
sound more native. In Vietnam, people seem to take it for granted that they
only learn American or British English. In students’ minds, American or
British English have been considered to be authentic and these accents help to
sound native as well as best aid them in English learning. There is a story in
the researcher’s pronunciation class. When she asked her students which
1


English accent they wanted to learn, all of them chose between American and
British accent. However, having been asked what they knew about American
or British accent, why they liked and wanted to learn those accents, many of
them could not give the teacher their answers. They chose those accents just
because they heard about them, they found most of English learners wanted to
sound like British or American people, and the students thought those two
accents were the ideal ones in learning English. However, there are still many
kinds of English native speakers’ accents. Moreover, non-native speakers’
and local accents have also been promoted in recent literature (Kyle McGee,

2009). Thus, the researcher wonders if the students still like the ones that
they chose when they have a chance to know other accents.
Furthermore, there has not been any research on non-English major
students’ attitudes towards English native speakers’ and non-native speakers’
accents. Unlike English major students, non-English major ones do not have
much knowledge about English varieties of accents. The researcher would
like to do a research on their attitudes to find out more about their
understanding, reactions and feelings. Thus, the reseacher chooses her
working place – Spark English Center to be an example for the reseach in
Vietnam.
To conclude, the study proceeds from three main reasons, the first lies
in the decisive role of students’ attitudes in their learning success and
achievement. Next, among the issues in teaching and learning English
pronunciation are the models for pronunciation. The researcher wants to let
her students have a chance to know more about English native speakers’ and
non-native speakers’ accents, then sheds light on their attitudes to those
different varieties of English. Lastly, the researcher has found that there has
not been any research on students’ attitudes towards English native speakers’
and non-native speakers’ accents at any training institutions.
2


2. Aims and objectives of the study
The main purpose of the study is to investigate the attitudes of nonEnglish major students towards English native speakers’ and non-native
speakers’ accents.
With the above aim, the objectives of this study are to:
- Test students’ accent perception ability.
- Assess students’ reactions to varieties of English native and non-native
accents.
- Examine how students think about NS and NNS models.

3. Research questions
With given aim and objectives, the study implies three research
questions:
1. How is the ability of the SEC non-English major students to identify the
speakers’ accents?
2. How do the SEC non-English major students rate the varieties of native and
non-native accents?
3. How do the SEC non-English major students think about NS and NNS
models?
4. Scope of the study
The study is conducted at SEC, Hanoi. Because of limited time, it only
focuses on the attitudes of non-English major students towards English native
speakers’ and non-native speakers’ accents. The participants are students from
classes at SEC.
5. Method of the study
The study is carried out by some steps as follows:
First, the survey questionnaire for students is employed to find out
students’ accent perception ability, reactions to varieties of native and nonnative accents.
3


Then, the data are collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively to obtain realistic results.
To end with, the discussion and implication will be given based on the
results found from the data.
6. Significance of the study
The study has been conducted with the expectation that the findings
will help teachers and educators have a closer look at the need and taste of
students when learning English. When finding the students’ degree of
awareness of varieties of English, the kind of accent they want to learn or find

easy to understand, English teachers can give their students the suitable or
favourite materials, which makes them have more interest when learning.
Exploring the students’ perceptions and opinions of different accents also
helps teachers guide their students towards the specific goals. The students
through the learning process may choose the target accents which they like
the best. Then the proper materials could be used further to help students
obtain these specific accents. Moreover, the centers or schools can find some
improvement for their teaching course books to offer different English
varieties.
7. Design of the study
The study consists of three main parts:
Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale of the study, the aim and
objectives, the research questions, the significance, the scope, the method and
the design of the study.
Part B is Development that includes three chapters:
Chapter 1, Literature Review, gives an overview of previous studies on
accents, discussing varieties of English and reporting work on attitudes
towards accents of English.
Chapter 2 is Methodology, which restates the research questions,
4


presents the research approach, describes the setting of the study and the
participants. Moreover, this chapter shows how the researcher applies the data
collection instrument and her procedure of conducting the study. The
researcher also presents the methods to study and analyze the information
collected.
Chapter 3 is Results and Discussion, in which the researcher reports the
main findings and discusses them in relation to previous studies.
Part C is Conclusion, which summarizes all findings explored and

brings out useful suggestions for the teachers to find the suitable accents to
interest the non-English major students when learning English. The
limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies are also included in
this part.

5


PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter aims to provide a theoretical basis for the study by a
review of the relevant language attitude studies. At first, there is a brief
introduction of the concepts related to accent, varieties of English accents and
language attitude studies. After that, the previous studies on attitudes towards
native and non-native accents are examined both in and out Vietnam.
1.1. What is accent?
As defined in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, an accent is a
“way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the
natives or residents of a region”. According to that, an accent is the indication
of a person’s way of speaking and is a manifest feature of speech. This feature
helps to determine the similarities and differences in speech between
speakers.
Becker (1995: 37), in terms of sociolinguistics, defines “An accent is
the part of a person’s language that serves to identify the speaker’s regional
origin or national/ ethnic identity no matter what language the person is
speaking”. It can be inferred that an accent can define people and is a means
of pointing their speech community.
According to Carter & Nunan (2001), as cited in Lam (2007), an accent
is a social and/ or regional variety of a language which differs from others in
pronunciation.

From the above definitions, it can be drawn that accent is the way that a
person or large group of people which generally grouped by a nationality or
specific area speak.
Although an accent can be used as a fairly reliable predictor of a
speaker’s origin, it can also carry pejorative stereotypes. Abercrombie (1956:
42) argues in this issue: “Accent (…) is a word which, in its popular use,
6


carries a stigma: speaking without an accent is considered preferable to
speaking with an accent (…). The popular, pejorative, use of the word begs an
important question by its assumption that an accent is something which is
added to, or in some other way distorts, an accepted norm.” According to this,
English is more likely to be subjected to accented speech than any other
language not only because of the significant number of its speakers in the
world, but also by virtue of the varieties of its accents (American, British,
Indian, French, etc.). This fact will be discussed more in the following part.
1.2. Varieties of English accent
From the 17th to the 21st centuries, the number of English speakers has
grown from 5-7 million to 1.5 to 2 billion (Jenkins, 2003). Since then, several
models for the spread of English have been created to show the position of
English in the world. It is widely accepted that English is now the primary
lingua franca, that is, “the language used to communicate among speakers of
different native languages throughout the world” (Dauer, 2005). There are
many varieties of English, and it has different kinds of foreign accent.
The global spread of a simplified form of English was foreseen by
Follick in 1914 (Daniel, 2000). Today, his vision has been enormously
surpassed: English is used as the global language - spoken in all fields which
require international contact and co-operation (Crystal, 1997: 8). The global
spread of English has resulted in different varieties of English. For grouping

the varieties of English in the world, the well-known Kachru’s three-circle
model of world Englishes (1985) should be applied:

7


Expanding Circle
Outer Circle

Inner Circle
e.g. USA, UK,
Australia
320 – 380 million

e.g. India, Philippines,
Singapore
150 – 300 million

e.g. China, Japan, Germany
100 - 1000 million

Figure 1. Kachru’s categorization of countries in which English is used
(from Crystal, 1997: 54)

(a) The Inner Circle: where English is used as a native language, which
refers to the language of those who speak English as a mother tongue in
countries which are historically related to English such as America, Britain or
Australia.
(b) The Outer Circle: where English is used as a second language.
English is spoken by people whose countries were once colonized mainly by

Britain or America such as India, Philippines or Singapore.
(c) The Expanding Circle: where English is used as a foreign language.
In these countries, English is not used as the main language for
communication such as China, Japan or Germany.
1.2.1. English native speakers’ accents
According to Kachru’s categorization, English native speakers are from
countries in the Inner Circle where English is used as a native language. Their

8


native accents are often regarded as standard accents. The two prominent
standard accents are Received Pronunciation and General American.
Received Pronunciation (RP) is an accent at the top of an accent prestige
hierarchy in Britain (Edwards, 1982). Wakelin (1977: 5) points its high
position as a learning model, commenting that this accent is “usually
associated with a higher social and educational background”, at least in the
UK. It is also argued by Steward, Ryan and Giles (1985) that RP is the
prestige accent not only in the UK, but also throughout the Anglophone
world. Along with RP, General American (GA) is one of the two bestdescribed accents of English. It is the prestige accent in America. Though
these two accents are regional ones, they are used over a wide geographical
area. They are not just the accents which are associated with a small area, but
are used by people in many countries. These accents are also the ones
transcribed in dictionaries, and well-known all over the world. Thus, they are
seen as being suitable to teach to foreign learners of English. They become
the ideal models for many people from countries when learning English.
1.2.2. English non-native speakers’ accents
Traditionally, native English speakers in the Kachru’s “Inner Circle”
are considered to be the first, standard-providing users of the language.
However, this perception may not explain properly for the massive numbers

of non-native English users worldwide the impact these speakers may have
toward spreading linguistic change within the language.
Non-native speakers can be separated into two groups basing on
Kachru’s categorization. The first group is “Outer Circle”. English in the
countries of this circle is an institutionalized or historical language of the
government or other national entity or class, for example India and other
former British colonies (Kachru, 1982). The second group is “Expanding
Circle”, the outermost of the Three Concentric Circles. This circle includes
9


speakers from countries such as China, Russia, Japan, and many of Europe.
Moreover, as suggested by the circle’s name, it includes a rapidly increasing
number of other countries where English is widespread in the media, and is a
required foreign language that students have to learn when reaching
secondary school.
Non-native speaking populations make an incredible change about the
usage of English as a world language. Thus, non-native speakers’ accents are
also examined more and more by many researchers. According to the
Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics of Crystal (1997: 3), a non-native
accent is characterized as: “The cumulative auditory effect of those features
of pronunciation which identify where a person is from, regionally or
socially”. In this sense, a non-native accent is a perceivable unit which is
noticeably differentiated from the native speaker’s way of speaking.
This study will focus on both native and non-native accents of English
and find out the attitudes of students towards these two kinds of accent.
1.3. Attitudes towards accents of English
1.3.1. Language attitudes
Attitudes could be viewed as a tendency to respond positively or
negatively towards a certain thing, idea, person, situation, etc. Gardner (1995)

defines attitudes as “an evaluative reaction to some referent, inferred on the
basis of the individual’s beliefs or opinions about the referent”. The Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English (2001) defined attitudes as “opinions
and feelings that you usually have about something”. In social psychology,
the concept “attitudes” has a great meaning. According to Lambert (1967),
“attitude has cognitive, affective and conative components and consists of an
underlying psychological predisposition to act or to influence behaviors in a
certain way. Attitude is linked to a person's values and beliefs and promotes
or discourages the choices made in all realms of activity, whether academic or
10


informal”. Thus, attitudes could highly influence how individuals approach
many situations in life, including foreign language learning.
Crystal (1992) defines language attitudes as the feelings people have
about their own language or the language of others. It is essential to study
language attitudes because of its substantial power. On one hand, language
attitudes have an influence on the development of languages. As Crismore
(1996) says, positive language attitudes contribute to the acceptance and
growth of language variations in a speech community and it improves literacy
levels. On the other hand, behaviors can be influenced by attitudes (Lambert,
1967).
As argued by Episcopo (2009: 9), research on language attitudes
presents several quantifiable difficulties, and designing a study that reveals
precise data can be problematic. First, it is nearly impossible to construct a
study that is naturally interactive and conversational between subjects when
there is only researcher observation or mono-directional communication.
Second, language attitudes are based upon numerous factors such as
appearance, ethnic affiliation, cultural and social context, sociological and
ethnographic background, pragmatic cues, and many others. Accordingly, it is

hard to evaluate one of these variables without considering all of the others.
Third, because of the social stereotypes and prejudices, attitudes are also
uncomfortable for subjects to discuss. In spite of its various methodological
difficulties, the qualitative data retrieved from language attitude studies reveal
interesting generalizations about a speech community’s standards and
expectations.
In this study, attitude is defined as awareness, reactions and opinions
that non-English major students at SEC have towards varieties of English
accents. The researcher tries to minimize the limitation of a research about
language attitudes and adapts the verbal guise technique and questionnaire to
11


measure participants’ attitudes most effectively.
1.3.2. Studies on attitudes towards accents of English
From the first studies of Lambert and his colleagues (1967, 1960), there
have been more and more studies about language attitudes, especially on the
measurement of language attitudes toward varieties of English. This study
will mainly concentrate on reviewing the pieces of research on non-native
speakers’ attitudes towards varieties of English, as the subjects on the
research are Vietnamese, who are non-native ones.
Alford and Strother (1990) conducted a study to capture native and
non-native students’ attitudes towards regional U.S. accents. They showed
that non-native speakers were able to detect differences between the accents,
which was contradictory to research by Scales et al. (2006) and Mousssu
(2010), who demonstrated that English learners had difficulty in
distinguishing between native and non-native accents.
A study by Dalton-Puffer, Kaltenboeck, and Smit (1997) analyzed
Austrian’s attitudes to varieties of English. This research examined whether
the varieties of English spoken influenced subjects’ judgements of accented

speech, as well as analyzed how participants judged different English accents.
The findings clearly revealed that non-native speakers were rated lower than
native speakers. More specifically, preference was indicated for standard
accents (particularly RP) with the Austrian accents judged to be of low status.
Participants also showed strong ability in identifying the country of the
speakers. Researchers linked the preference for the RP accent with its
common use as the model for Austrian students when learning English.
The study of Ladegaard (1998) which investigated the attitudes of 96
secondary and university students in Denmark showed similar results. Five
accents were examined including RP, GA, Cockney, General Australian, and
Scottish Standard English. The RP accent was selected as the most prestigious
12


and favoured choice as a model. Students found RP and GA accents the
easiest to identify.
In a quantitative study by Mugler (2002), non-native speakers’ attitudes
towards four different accents of English were investigated. The participants
were ESL learners from Fiji and other Pacific nations. The findings of this
study revealed that respondents only rated highly the British English accent
on status. On the other hand, American English was shown to be one of the
most easily recognizable accents. According to the authors, British English
was perceived high in status mainly due to the fact that it was regarded as a
prestige accent. There was also a suggestion that attitudes, cultural influence
and exposure to the media could be factual reasons that made American and
Australian accents receive positive attitudes by Pacific listeners.
The above reviewed studies are about the attitudes of participants from
the Western business world. In this study, the researcher also wants to review
some studies of Asian people’s attitudes.
Fraser (2006) undertook a study with two groups of high school

students in Japan. The chosen accents in the study were from Inner Circle
(England, America, and Scotland), Outer Circle (Zimbabwe), and Expanding
Circle (Taiwan, Japan) countries. Students were judged on their ability to
identify the country of origin for each accent. They also did a test on
comprehension and were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their
opinions of accents. While students displayed limited ability to identify Inner
Circle speakers, they were generally able to identify the origin of the Japanese
speaker. That indicated Japanese students’ awareness of their accent. In terms
of preference and prestige, the American was judged highest. It was
considered the most desirable goal and model for the classroom. While the
local Japanese accent was judged to be most familiar and most likeable, it was
rarely chosen as a goal or model.
13


The study by Kim (2007) investigated 43 Korean adults’ attitudes
towards native and non-native varieties of English in relation to the
perspective of English as an international language. In order to examine
participants’ language attitudes, this study employed both a verbal guise test
as an indirect approach and a qualitative questionnaire as a direct approach.
The main findings pointed out that Korean adults preferred American English
as a model for guidance and did not discriminate between native and nonnative varieties of English. They also regarded English as an international
language to communicate not only with native speakers but also with nonnative speakers of English, and showed positive attitudes to non-native
varieties of English. However, they were not well aware of varieties of
English.
Yang (2011) investigated a study on the attitudes of 30 Chinese
postgraduate students toward native and non-native varieties of English. In
order to examine the attitudes, this study employed the verbal guise
technique, in which seven varieties of English were selected for evaluation in
the dimensions of status and solidarity: New York English, London English,

Edinburgh English, Singapore English, Japanese English, Indian English, and
Chinese English. The overall findings suggested that native varieties of
English were favored by Chinese respondents, especially the New York
English and London English. In terms of the solidarity dimension, the
respondents held positive attitudes towards Chinese English. Moreover, the
majority of the respondents in this study were able to identify whether the
speech samples were native or non-native, however, the recognition rate of
each variety of English was relatively lower.
In Vietnam, there are very few studies on learners’ attitudes towards
varieties of English. One of those is Ton and Pham’s (2010) study on
Vietnamese teachers’ and students’ perceptions of global English. They found
14


out that the students and teachers believed students used English more with
non-native speakers than with native speakers outside the classroom, but
British and American English tended to be the preferred models, at least in the
classroom.
From all of the previous studies, it can be concluded that the native
accents were often preferred more than non-native ones. However, in some
dimensions such as solidarity, familiarity, likeableness, etc., the participants
showed their positive attitudes towards non-native accents. Furthermore,
participants still had difficulty in distinguishing between different accents.

15


CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. Restatement of research questions
In this study, the researcher tries to acquire a deeper understanding of

student attitudes towards English native speakers’ and non-native speakers’
accents by testing how they can be aware of an accent and by assessing their
reactions to varieties of English accents. The first research question is “How
is the ability of the SEC non-English major students to identify the speakers’
accents?” The answer for this question gives comprehension of students’
ability to distinguish between English accents (including native and nonnative accents), and also helps to shape the explanation for the results of the
second research question, which focuses on students’ evaluation of each type
of English accent as related to their experience to a given accent. The second
research question is “How do the SEC non-English major students rate the
varieties of native and non-native accents?” After that, the third research
question – “How do the SEC non- English major students think about NS and
NNS models?” - is given to have a deep-rooted insight into the attitudes of
students towards native and non-native models of English.
2.2. Research approach
A survey research is a study of a large group through direct study of a
subset of that group. Surveys are widely used to gather data at a particular
point in time to describe the nature of existing conditions. Survey is a quick,
inexpensive and efficient way of getting information from a large group of
people. A survey is also proved to be a powerful tool in collecting information
about the opinions, attitudes, perceptions of respondents. For these reasons,
the researcher believes that a survey research design will fit her purpose.
2.3. Context of the study
2.3.1. Setting of the study
Spark English Center is a center in Hanoi and has operated for 2 years.
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