Postgraduate Students’ Perception of the Language Varieties on Dialect Among Their Classmates

Abstract

Language variety can be something beyond a single language and something less than a dialect. A specific variation of a language is a unique collection of 'linguistics items' or human speech patterns-sounds, words, and grammatical features related to external factors-a geographic region or a social group. It is a qualitative investigation employing synchronous internet interviews. This online synchronous interview study investigates the perspectives of linguistic variants among postgraduate students of a university in North Sumatra. Findings are comparable to previous research that sought to identify contributors to the achievement gap. Differences in linguistic backgrounds may substantially impact speech and academic performance. The findings show that the achievement gap may be partially attributable to differences in task complexity: children from outside the city who speak a different dialect are more likely to struggle with English learning. This study concludes that the respondents' perceptions are as follows: dialect influences the learning process, hinders learning spoken English, and speaks the language as they mature. Consequently, dialect might cause listeners to be perplexed when they hear an English speaker utilizing it.