Accent, Identity, and a Fear of Loss? ESL Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

Because many theorists propose a connection between accent and identity, some theorists have justifiably been concerned about the ethical ramifications of L2 pronunciation teaching. However, English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students often state a desire to sound like native speakers. With little research into ESL students’ perceptions of links between their accents and identities, including whether students fear loss of identity from L2-pronunciation learning, it is difficult to understand how these links affect language learning goals. In this mixed-methods study, ESL university students (N = 78) took a survey of 23 Likert-scale questions, with selected individuals participating in a semi-structured interview. Results show that participants desired a native accent, attributing benefits and positive emotions toward developing a native accent. Further, students did not recognize any fear of loss of identity due to their achieving a native accent.

Developing primary school students’ foreign language learner self-concept

“…). Finally, with regard to identity-related issues/competing languages, the results of this study help to address the questions advanced recently byMcCrocklin & Link (2016), and the general gap in the literature highlighted in their study, by showing how learners' fears of loss of identity can indeed affect language learning and language learning goals.Overall, the findings indicate that self-efficacy levels in the domain of FLL, and learner attributions explaining these levels, have a direct impact on young learners' emerging FLLSCs. The learner attributions identified during the pre-intervention stage reveal the presence of negative factors (FLA, avoidance behaviour, self-limiting positions, debilitating beliefs and assumptions, defensive and antagonistic positions) which, if not addressed, could prevent the emergence of FLLSCs.…”

Engaging learners in pronunciation: Developing learner autonomy via an action research approach

“…Learner goals also reflected the fact that intelligibility was valued in both NS and NNS contexts. For research question 1a, an initial questionnaire and class discussion did not, as predicted on the basis of previous research findings, identify a strong preference for 'native-like' pronunciation goals (as identified by Timmis, 2002;Qiong, 2004;Kang, 2015;McCrocklin and Link, 2016). In a question adapted from Timmis (2002), "Who would you like to sound like when you speak English?…”

Navigating the London-French Transnational Space: The Losses and Gains of Language as Embodied and Embedded Symbolic Capital

“…Given this prominence and my own participant observations of widespread translanguaging, in this subsection I investigate its varying symbolic weight according to the situatedness of its expression. I argue that, despite some participants experiencing their spontaneous London-French vernacular negatively, due to the status awarded to standard French in the premigration field (Doran 2004;Harrison and Joubert 2019) and to the identity loss translanguaging can represent for them personally (Marx 2002;McCrocklin and Link 2016), it should not be apprehended in dispositional hysteresis terms. On the contrary, in keeping with much of the literature (MacSwan 2017, p. 191; Cacciatore and Pepe 2019; Seloni 2019), I contend that participants' pre-reflexive translanguaging practices typically play a positive symbolic role in London, where they enhance in-group belonging and contribute to the construction of a community identity.…”