Investigating Hungarian EFL learners’ comprehension and attitudes pertaining to English speech varieties

Abstract

Spoken communication in English has an increasing role in the lives of people due to the global role of the language. Because of the diversity characterising English in different international contexts, speakers are likely to be exposed to a wide range of English speech varieties, which makes this issue relevant to language learners as future users of English. The aim of the present research project is to investigate Hungarian secondary school EFL learners" comprehension of and attitudes towards English speech varieties.The investigation, characterised by a mixed methods approach to research, comprises three consecutive studies built on one another. Study One is a quantitative questionnaire study with an accent-comprehension task, conducted on a sample of 62 secondary school EFL learners studying in Budapest, Hungary. Study Two includes a follow-up interview study with 5 participants from the previous sample and 3 additional learners from the same population.Study Three is a replication of the first study with methodological refinements based on the findings of the previous studies, conducted on a sample of 94 learners from the same population as the previous studies.The findings show that learners are most successful at comprehending Received Pronunciation which they are familiar with from ELT materials, while unfamiliar accents often pose a considerable challenge to their comprehension of spoken English. It has been found that comprehension is related to a set of intertwined factors, including proficiency, phonological awareness, exposure to English speech and the perceived comprehensibility of an accent. To cope with difficulties in comprehension, which can be caused by a variety of phonological and non-phonological features, learners may use top-down and bottom up listening strategies.Regarding attitudes, learners show a favourable disposition towards native English accents and attribute positive stereotypes to native speakers, while they show uncomplimentary attitudes towards non-native speech varieties and attach negative stereotypes to ESL and EFL speakers based on their English pronunciation, which suggests that learners" attitudes are based on a restricted, native-speaker-centred view of English. The findings of the research project offer implications for language pedagogy, which can be used to inform local language teaching in Hungary to cater for the future needs of learners.