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SUMMARY:Accent and identity in `English as a lingua franca'-communication 
 - Bettina Beinhoff\, University of Cambridge\, RCEAL PhD student.
DTSTART:20080311T160000Z
DTEND:20080311T173000Z
UID:TALK10357@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Napoleon Katsos
DESCRIPTION:English is the global lingua franca and as such it is increasi
 ngly used for communication among non-native speakers (NNS) of English whi
 ch outnumber native speakers (NS) of English by far (cf. Crystal 2003). In
  this lingua franca context NNS of English need to establish their identit
 y through the medium of their L2. Additionally\, most NNS speak English wi
 th a ‘foreign’ accent which causes certain attitudes in speakers as we
 ll as listeners and can have profound social consequences (cf. Jenkins 200
 7).  \n\nThe emergence of attitudes towards specific accents can be regard
 ed to be mainly an issue of social identity\, which originates from group 
 membership and is established by self-categorisation (Tajfel 1978\; Turner
  1987). Accents and language are considered to be major determinants of so
 cial identity for NS of any given language\, however\, its is not certain 
 whether the same mechanisms apply for NNS (Derwing 2003).  \n\nPrevious st
 udies focused on the expression of social identity through people’s NS a
 ccents and their attitudes towards other NS accents (e.g. Coupland & Bisho
 p 2007\; Hiraga 2005). Similarly\, there has been a lot of research on att
 itudes towards NNS accents of English by NS of English (e.g. Bresnahan et 
 al. 2002\; Rubin & Smith 1990). Research on attitudes of NNS of English to
 wards their own (ingroup) NNS accent and other (outgroup) NNS accents of E
 nglish has been largely neglected.  \n\nThe present study looks at NNS’ 
 attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup NNS accents and NS accents of Engli
 sh\, with particular interest in the solidarity dimension (i.e. how much a
  person identifies with an accent) and status dimension (i.e. how much pre
 stige is assigned to an accent). A further aim is to find out whether vari
 ation in specific sounds – especially consonants – directly influences
  the perception of NNS accents of English\, makes them sound more ‘forei
 gn’ and evokes certain attitudes. The results will help to discover whet
 her there are links between certain attitudes and phonetic detail and thus
 \, will help to understand the impact of the phonetics/phonology and socio
 linguistics interface in communications in English as a lingua franca. \n\
 nReferences\n\nBresnahan\, M.J. \, Ohashi\, R.\, Nebashi\, R.\, Liu\, W.Y.
  & Shearman\, S.M. (2002) Attitudinal and affective response toward accent
 ed English. Language & Communication 22\, 171-185.\n\nCoupland\, N. & Bish
 op\, H. (2007) Ideologised values for British accents. Journal of Sociolin
 guistics 11/1\, 74-93.\n\nCrystal\, D. (2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia o
 f the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2nd edition
 .\n\nDerwing\, T.M. (2003) What do ESL students say about their accents? C
 anadian Modern Language Review 59/4\, 547-566.\n\nHiraga\, Y. (2005) Briti
 sh attitudes towards six varieties of English in the USA and Britain. Worl
 d Englishes 24/3\, 289-308.\n\nJenkins\, J. (2007) English as a Lingua Fra
 nca: Attitude and Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.\n\nRubin\, D.
 \, Smith\, K.A. (1990) Effects of accent\, ethnicity\, and lecture topic o
 n undergraduates’ perception of nonnative English-speaking teaching assi
 stants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 14\, 337-353.\n\n
 Tajfel\, H. (1978) Social categorization\, social identity and social comp
 arison. In: Tajfel\, H. (ed.) Differentiation between Groups. London et al
 .: Academic Press\, 61-76.\n\nTurner\, J.C. (1987) Rediscovering the Socia
 l Group – A Self-Categorization Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
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