Corny or Cool Swedish Teenagers Attitudes towards Australian and British English Accents

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Beteckning:

Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi Avdelningen för humaniora

Corny or Cool

Swedish Teenagers Attitudes towards Australian and British English Accents

Malin Blackmore April 2010

C-uppsats Engelska

Engelska C

Examinator: Tore Nilsson

Handledare: Erik Smitterberg

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction……….……3

1.1 Aim………...4

1.2 Previous Research………...4

1.2.1 The Varieties of Standard English in Focus...…...4

1.2.1.1 Australian English……….5

1.2.1.2 British English………...5

1.2.2 Stereotypes………...6

1.2.2.1 Australian Stereotypes………...7

1.2.2.2 English Stereotypes………...7

1.2.3 Speech and personality traits………...8

2. Material and Method……….….9

2.1 Matched Guise Technique………...…9

2.2 The Speakers………...10

2.3 The Text………..10

2.4 The Questionnaires………...11

2.4.1 The Students………....11

2.4.2 The Teachers………...12

3. Results and Analysis………...13

3.1 First Part: Assessing Each Accent………...13

3.1.1 Speaker A……….…...13

3.1.2 Speaker B……….…...15

3.1.3 Speaker C……….…...17

3.1.4 Speaker D……….…...19

3.1.5 Analysis of Assessing Each Accent……….…...21

3.2 Second part: Comparing the Accents………..…….22

3.2.1 Most Pleasant and Most Authority……….….22

3.2.2 Job Suitability……….….23

3.2.3 Likability……….….24

3.2.4 Analysis of Comparing the Accents……….…...25

3.3 Questions Concerning Respondents...…...26

3.4 Teachers attitudes to different English Accents………..…….26

4. Conclusion………...……27

References………..….29

Appendix……….…31

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1. Introduction

English accents have always, on one hand, fascinated me and, on the other hand, given me a headache as I have always found it really hard to adjust to them. The day I started travelling the world I was forced to interact with different accents; it was never easy. As the years went by I lived for longer periods of time in different English-speaking countries so I got used to the different accents. However, to this day, I find myself being prejudiced towards certain accents.

Attitudes toward accents have been evaluated and documented in a number of surveys through the years. Giles and Powesland (1975) had one speaker talk RP accent to a number of respondents and Birmingham accent to another group of respondents in a survey they called “Speech style and social evaluation”. They found that the “RP accent was rated higher than the Birmingham accent in terms of competence, intelligence and industrious”

(Kwary 2009). In another survey Giles and Ryan (1982) concluded that “a certain accent can change public opinion and show the speaker’s social class” (Kwary 2009).

One day I was watching Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter”, on TV. Listening to his broad Australian accent I wondered how young Swedish people perceived him. Did they think the accent was corny or cool? Would they associate Australian accents with adventurers like “The Crocodile Hunter” and “Crocodile Dundee” or an attractive

adventurous lifestyle in general? Or would the broadness of the accent be associated with a rural and conservative lifestyle? Furthermore, how would British accents stand in

comparison? I decided to conduct a survey to find out what Swedish teenagers think of Australian and English accents.

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1.1 Aim

The aim of this essay is to find out about Swedish teenagers’ attitudes towards Australian and English accents. By attitude I refer to Allport (1954) who, in a text by Gardner, describes attitude as “a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.” (Gardner 1982:132). The definition of accent used for this survey is “the characteristic mode of pronunciation of a person or a group, esp one that betrays social or geographical origin”

(Collins 2003:8).

Students will listen to recordings of native English speakers and fill out a questionnaire grading the accents in terms of psychological qualities, social significance, job suitability and likability.

1.2. Previous Research

1.2.1 The Varieties of Standard English in Focus

There are three different English accents to be evaluated in the survey. Two are from England, one from the northern part of England and one from London. There are also two speakers from Australia, one from Melbourne in the south-east and one from the more northerly situated Brisbane however they speak with the same accent. So how come the dialect areas are fairly small in England compared to virtually non-existing in Australia? The reason for this, according to Trudgill (2000:153), is that English has been spoken in England during the last 1500 years but in Australia only for the last 200 years or so. Any differences in the accents within Australia are more likely to be socially determined than geographically determined (Svartvik 1999:118).

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The accent that will be compared to when trying to explain the accents in focus in the following section is RP, Received Pronunciation, also known as the Queen’s English. It is globally known as being the accent that second language learners want to learn. Svartvik (1999:170) further explains the reason for that: The pronunciation of RP is socially accepted and is easy to understand all over the world. Additionally, most English course books use RP as a standard.

1.2.1.1 Australian English

As previously stated there are not different accents throughout Australia despite it being the sixth largest country in the world. However, Australians as a whole, speak with a distinct accent. Typical features of the Australian accent are related to cockney, mainly due to the first settlers or prisoners who for the most part came from the London area. For example, a word like “say” is pronounced like /aɪ/ where in RP it is pronounced like /eɪ/ (Svartvik 1999:120).

Further examples from Svartvik (1999:120) are:

Table 1: The differences between RP and the Australian accent.

1.2.1.2 British English

There are many different accents and dialects on the British Isles but in this survey the focus is on Northern English and Estuary English.

Word RP Australian accent

father /fɑ:đə/ /fa:đə/

see /si:/ /səɪ/

do /du:/ /dəƱ/

now /naƱ/ /næƱ/

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Around half of England’s population speaks with a northern accent. The most defining feature of the Northern England accent, compared to the southern accents, is the use of /u/ when pronouncing words like “love” and “dozen” instead of RP /ʌ/. Thus the Northern English accent does not distinguish between the pronunciations of certain words like put and putt, could and cud (Svartvik, 1999:186). Other examples of the Northern England accent

from Svartvik (1999:186) are:

Table 2: The differences between RP and the Northern England accent.

One of the Southern England accents is called Estuary English. It is spoken mainly in the area surrounding the mouth of the river Thames in the south eastern corner of England however it is rapidly spreading beyond the south eastern corner of England.

According to Svartvik (1999:182) Estuary English is in between RP and Cockney some believe it will become a common ground where people from all social contexts can meet as it is spreading socially and geographically. Some typical features include a glottal stop instead of /t/ in words like “airport”, “lot” and “about”. (Svartvik 1999:182) Some more of Svartvik’s examples include a short /u/ replacing the /l/ in words like “bill”, “fault” and “tall”. When pronouncing a word like “enormous” Estuary English speakers will say /w/ instead of /r/.

1.2.2 Stereotypes

For most of us it is enough to find out the nationality of a stranger, to get an opinion about the person. That preconceived perception of somebody is called a stereotype, as Ronowitz further

Word RP Northern England accent

bath /bɑ:ɵ/ /bæɵ/

ham /hæm/ /hɑm/

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explains: “all societies, groups and individuals have tendencies to create stories, interpretations and clichés about their own and other cultural groups, which are not

necessarily true or only partly true.” (Ronowitz 2007:10). Furthermore, Ronowitz stresses that myths and cultural stereotypes are generalizations (Ronowitz 2007:11). Despite the fact that stereotypes are generalizations that are not true or only partly true there seems to be a need for them. One theory for their existence is that “people love their stereotypes since they give structure to life and are reassuring.” (Sharwood-Smith 2007:45).

1.2.2.1 Australian Stereotypes

Ronowitz claims that, based on their history and traditions, the typical Australian male has got an image internationally “as a tough, suntanned resourceful adventurer” (Ronowitz 2007:10).

He continues that it may have been true some 150 years ago but hardly today. Another stereotype worldwide is that “Australians do not like hard work” (Ronowitz and Yallop 2007:89). This perception of a typical Australian is likely to be based on the belief that everybody can be lazy on the beach all day, every day. In fact, it takes quite a lot of hard earned money to be able to enjoy the beach life from time to time. There are also many hard- working Australians on low income (Ronowitz and Yallop 2007:89). A final example of an Australian stereotype, as seen by other nationalities, is that “Australians are crude and primitive when it comes to what is sometimes called high culture.” (Ronowitz and Yallop 2007:94). There are surveys conveying a different result. A majority of Australians are interested in the development of the Australian cultural life (Ronowitz and Yallop 2007:95).

1.2.2.2 English Stereotypes

Based on the old days of colonialism and the new English-speaking countries mother England left behind, there are conceptions of England as “old (perhaps negatively as staid and old-

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fashioned, perhaps positively as solid and stable)” (Sharwood-Smith 2007:52). However, the most striking quality of the English is that Englishmen “are amazingly polite and perhaps artificially so.” (Sharwood-Smith 2007:67). Despite differences in class and other barriers, English people in general are well-mannered. Whether it is genuine politeness or not, one theory explaining the phenomena is that with that many people on the island there have to be strong social rules to be able to coexist (Barkman and Hedin, 1996:13). Other perceptions of the English are that they are private, as one should not “wash one’s dirty linen in public”

(English proverb from the 19^th century). That is one reason why the English tabloid press has caused so much damage when they, for instance, have exploited the privacy of the royals (Gerlitz and Gerlitz, 1997: 100). Not only is the Englishman a private person but also an individualist. A typical English proverb from the 17^th century is “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself” (Gerlitz and Gerlitz, 1997: 100). Finally a proverb to sum up the English stereotype as being private and individualistic “Every Englishman is an island on an island”

(Gerlitz and Gerlitz, 1997: 104)

1.2.3 Speech and personality traits

The importance of the link between voice/speech and personality traits was emphasised by the onslaught of large-scale broadcasting, gramophone and telephone technology. (Mobärg, 1989:4) Nowhere else in the world is the accent such a determiner of social status as in the UK. It may even prevent either participating in a certain social circle or advancement in a profession (Svartvik 1999:168). Edwards (1984:30) concludes from going through a vast number of studies and surveys that “Language varieties which diverge from Standard English are liable to be viewed… less favourably than the Standard. This is especially so when evaluations are being made of traits relating to a speaker’s competence.” Standard English is the language used by media such as the BBC, CNN and the major newspapers and magazines

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from different parts of the English speaking world. Grammatically Standard English is surprisingly uniform although the vocabulary may vary due to social and geographical needs, linguistic history etc. (Svartvik 1999:361). Svartvik is referring to a major survey in the US when claiming that respondents listening to an accent similar to theirs perceived the speaker as warm, friendly and honest but also slow and less intelligent. On the other hand the

respondents perceived a Standard English speaker as cold and dishonest but also fast, intelligent and ambitious. (Svartvik 1999:153) Trudgill claims that it is quite common in Britain to perceive rural accents, from Devonshire, Northumberland and the Scottish

highlands for instance, as “pleasant, charming, quaint or amusing”.(Trudgill 2000:9) On the other hand he claims that urban accents, the likes of Birmingham, Newcastle or London, are often considered as “ugly, careless or unpleasant”. (Trudgill 2000:9)

2. Material and Method

The method used for this essay is a questionnaire survey conducted at an upper secondary school in mid-Sweden. Three classes from the social science programme participated. They listened to recordings of four different speakers reading one part each from the beginning of the first Harry Potter novel. The students’ task was to fill out questionnaires revealing their attitudes toward the different accents. I also asked their teachers to fill out a different questionnaire. The design of the survey and questionnaires draws on a previous essay made by Wikström. (2002)

2.1 Matched Guise Technique

Lambert, Hodgson and Fillenbaum (1960) introduced the Matched-Guise technique as a means of assessing language attitudes. Originally one tape-recorded speaker would read the same text in two or more language varieties, the purpose being that the listeners would not be

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distracted by different voices but concentrate on the accents. The listeners would then fill out a questionnaire to evaluate the speaker’s personality in forms of psychological qualities, social significance, job suitability and likability (Mobärg 1989:22).

There has been some criticism towards the use of the matched guise technique.

Even if the speakers are multi-lingual there is a possibility that they are “modifying their output in more ways than one when going from one language to another” (P.M Smith

1985:89) which would undermine the original idea of a neutral speaker in different guises also known as accents. Further criticism was delivered by Giles and Bourhis (1973) who claim that the tendency to repeat one and the same reading passage over and over to the listeners would seem to distort reactions in various ways (Mobärg 1989:38).

2.2 The speakers

From the very beginning I was determined to use authentic accents for this survey basically because there was no available speaker who authentically knew different accents. I believe that it is extremely difficult to replicate the genuine accents of a native English speaker.

However, a modified version of the Matched Guise technique was still the best option since the purpose of the survey was to measure the respondents’ attitudes toward different accents. I do acknowledge the risk of the respondents giving the speakers personality traits based upon the sound of their voices rather than their accents. To prevent this to the fullest the speakers were given some instructions when recording the text passages. All speakers were asked to read loudly, clearly and as naturally and neutrally as possible and try to avoid adding traits based on the actual use of the voice rather than the accent. The speakers were:

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Table 3: Information on the speakers.

Speaker Gender Age Origin Profession Accent

A Female Late

30’s

Brisbane, Australia Nursing Aide Australian English

B Male Early

40’s

Fulham, London, England

Printer Estuary English

C Female Late

30’s

Cumbria, NW England

Kindergarten Teacher

Northern England

D Male Early

40’s

Melbourne, Australia

Gardener Australian English

2.3 The Text

Since the students were supposed to listen to the accents rather than worrying about the content of what the speakers were talking about, I chose a well-known text. Each speaker was allotted a passage from the beginning of the very first Harry Potter novel Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone (Appendix 1). I decided to let the speakers read different passages so that it made a story, to prevent the students from being bored and thus losing concentration.

2.4 The Questionnaires 2.4.1 Students

The questionnaires were divided into two parts. The first section investigated the respondents’

familiarity with the accent and a more in-depth analysis of one accent at a time. The second part was aimed at comparing the accents and finding out whether they were connected with certain jobs etc.

The first part (appendix 2) evaluated each accent separately. I played one accent at a time. The respondents were asked to grade the accent on four-graded scales similar to semantic differential scales. Those scales are commonly used for measuring social attitudes within the areas of linguistics and social psychology. Typically they would have two opposite

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adjectives and the respondents would have to grade the accent between the two. In this case the semantic differential scales have four grades since an even number forces the respondents to take a stand omitting the passive choice in the middle. They are unnumbered “in order to prevent the listeners from making assumptions about one end of the scale being worth more than the other.” (Wray and Bloomer 2006:156) Questions asked were: Was the accent familiar to them? Did they understand the accent? What country did they think the speaker came from? Finally, they were asked to grade the accents in terms of psychological qualities (e.g.

trustworthy, unreliable or friendly) and social evaluation (e.g. well educated or little formal education).

The second part (appendix 3) included playing the accents again, only this time all in a row without stopping. The respondents were asked to compare the accents and grade them in terms of job suitability. The different professions were chosen based on the aim of this survey; whether the broad Australian accents are perceived as adventurers or farmers, whether the posh British accents are perceived as politicians or sales Persons and finally, which accent is most commonly associated with actors and teachers. The respondents then graded the accents in terms of likability where they had to fill out the four-grade scale ranging from “very well” to “not at all” and also motivate their choice.

Finally, the respondents were asked to state whether they had been to an

English-speaking country and whether their teacher exposed them to different English accents in class.

2.4.2 The Teachers

Each teacher in each class filled out a questionnaire (appendix 4) with three yes or no questions. They were: Which English accent do you speak? Which English accent do you

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teach? Do you involve other English accents in class, other than British English and American English?

Finally, the teachers were asked whether they thought that it was important to teach different accents or whether it confused the students. They were also asked to explain their point of view.

3. Results and Analysis

As previously stated the survey was divided into two parts: in the first part each accent was assessed one at a time and in the second, the accents were compared with each other.

3.1 First Part: Assessing Each Accent

These are the results from the questionnaires grading the accents in terms of psychological qualities and social significance.

3.1.1 Speaker A

Speaker A was a female speaker from Brisbane, Australia. The first questions were whether the respondents were familiar with the accent and how well they understood the accent.

Very well Not at all

0 10 20 30 40 50

No of respondents

Familiarity Comprehensibility

Figure 1: Grading speaker A in terms of familiarity and comprehensibility

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It turns out the respondents were quite familiar with the accent and understood it very well.

What country did they think the speaker came from?

Table 4: Speaker A’s suggested country of origin Country Percent of

respondents England 59.6%

Australia 22.8%

Ireland 8.8%

USA 5.3%

Wales 1.8%

New Zealand 1.8%

A staggering 59.6% voted for England, Australia came in second at 22.8% and Ireland in third place. USA, Wales and New Zealand were other suggestions mentioned.

The next task was to grade the accent in terms of psychological qualities and social significance.

Friendly Reserved

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Trustworthy Unreliable

0 10 20 30 40 50

Respondents

Posh Rural

0 10 20 30

Respondents

Cool Corny

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

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Well educated Little formal education

0 10 20 30 40 50

Respondents

Figures 2-6: grading speaker A in terms of psychological qualities and social significance

The respondents considered the accent of speaker A to be quite friendly and trustworthy.

Furthermore they thought the accent was neither posh nor rural but fairly corny. Finally the accent of speaker A was considered rather well educated.

3.1.2 Speaker B

Speaker B was a male speaker from London, England. Once again the respondents were asked if they were familiar with the accent and how well they understood it.

0 10 20 30 40

No of respondents

Figure 7: Grading speaker B in terms of familiarity and comprehensibility

The respondents were fairly familiar with the accent and understood it very well. The next fact to establish was what country the speaker came from.

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Table 5: Speaker B’s suggested country of origin

Country Percent of respondents England 49.2%

Ireland 13.1%

Scotland 13.1%

Wales 11.5%

USA 9.8%

Australia 3.3%

Nearly half of the respondents thought the speaker came from England. Ireland and Scotland shared second place and then Wales, USA and finally Australia on 3.3%.

When grading the accent in terms of psychological qualities and social significance the diagrams turned out like this.

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Posh Rural

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Cool Corny

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

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0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Figures 8-12: Grading speaker B in terms of psychological qualities and social significance

Speaker B was considered slightly reserved but quite trustworthy. The accent was also branded as rural and corny but with an in between level of education.

3.1.3 Speaker C

Speaker C was a female speaker from Cumbria, Northern England, and these are the results of what the respondents answered to the questions of familiarity and comprehensibility.

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Figure 13: Grading speaker C in terms of familiarity and comprehensibility

The results indicate that the respondents were quite familiar with the accent and understood it well. So what country did they think it came from?

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Table 6: Speaker C’s suggested country of origin

Country Percent of

respondents

England 39.6%

Ireland 20.8%

Australia 13.2%

Scotland 13.2%

USA 3.8%

Wales 3.8%

Northern Ireland 3.8%

New Zealand 1.9%

Once again England came first with Ireland in second place. Australia and Scotland shared third place and other suggestions were USA, Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand.

As the respondents graded the accent in terms of psychological qualities and social significance this is how it turned out:

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

0 10 20 30

Respondents

Posh Rural

0 10 20 30

Respondents

Cool Corny

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

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0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Figures 14-18: Grading speaker C in terms of psychological qualities and social significance

The accent of speaker C was considered quite friendly and trustworthy, neither posh nor rural but fairly corny. The respondents thought that speaker C was rather well educated.

3.1.4 Speaker D

Speaker D was a male speaker from Melbourne, Australia. For the last time the respondents were asked to grade the accent in terms of familiarity and comprehensibility.

0 10 20 30 40

Respondent

Figure 19: Grading speaker D in terms of familiarity and comprehensibility

Most respondents were fairly familiar with the accent and understood it even more. Then they had to answer the question as to what country the speaker came from.

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Table 7: Speaker D’s suggested country of origin

Country Percent of

respondents

USA 34.0%

Australia 30.2%

England 13.2%

Scotland 7.5%

Ireland 5.7%

Northern Ireland 5.7%

Wales 1.9%

Canada 1.9%

Just over a third of the respondents thought that the speaker was from USA. Almost equally the same amount went for Australia. In third place came England and then Scotland. Ireland and Northern Ireland ended up with 5.7% each and the final suggestions of countries of origin were Wales and Canada.

Finally the accent was graded in terms of psychological qualities and social significance.

0 5 10 15 20 25

Respondents

0 10 20 30

Respondents

Posh Rural

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Cool Corny

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

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0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

Figures 20-24: Grading speaker D in terms of psychological qualities and social significance

The respondents considered the accent of speaker D to be very friendly and trustworthy. The accent was thought to be very rural and quite corny. Finally speaker D was thought to have fairly little formal education.

3.1.5 Analysis of Assessing Each Accent

Over all the respondents thought they were familiar with the accents and understood them all very well. The respondents thought that speaker A, B and C all had accents from England.

However, there were quite a few respondents who accurately thought that speaker A and D originated from Australia.

When grading the accents in terms of psychological qualities and social evaluation the respondents thought all accents to be friendly apart from accent B. That particular accent is Estuary and part of London and as previous studies show, urban accents have been considered less favourable than rural accents. Stereotyping also points out that the English are considered as private people. Nevertheless, all accents were perceived as

trustworthy, obviously no apparent connection to being considered friendly or not.

Accent A, B and C were all balancing between being considered posh or rural.

Accent D, on the other hand, was voted overwhelmingly rural. As speaker D is Australian,

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one of the Australian stereotypes suggests that they are crude and primitive when it comes to high culture, putting the accent directly opposite to posh. None of the four accents were considered cool and finally, accents A and C were thought to be well educated whereas the accents of speaker B and D were considered to have little formal education.

3.2 Second Part: Comparing the Accents

These are the results from the questionnaires grading the accents in terms of job suitability and likability.

3.2.1 Most Pleasant and Most Authority

0 5 10 15 20 25

1 2 3 4

Speaker

Students Most pleasant to

listen to Most authority

Figure 25: Comparing the accents in terms of most pleasant to listen to and most authority

Speaker B (2) had the accent which got voted the most pleasant to listen to, closely followed by the accents of speaker A (1) and speaker D (4). When assessing which accent had the most authority, once again speaker B (2) came out on top with speaker C (3) and speaker A (1) not far behind.

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3.2.2 Job Suitability

Job suitability

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Actor

Adventurer

Farmer

Politician Sales person

Teacher

Respondents Speaker A

Speaker B Speaker C Speaker D

Figure 26: Comparing the accents in terms of job suitability

The respondents thought that the accent of speaker A would be suitable for being a politician first and foremost. A teacher is almost as attractive for that accent, followed by a sales person and an actor. However, an adventurer and a farmer are not likely to suit speaker A.

According to the respondents the accent belonging to speaker B was most likely to work as an actor but sales person and an adventurer would also suit the accent. A job as a politician could suit speaker B but not a farmer or a teacher.

Speaker C’s accent is suited for a teacher, followed by an actor and a sales person. However, being an adventurer, politician or a farmer is not suitable for speaker C.

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Finally, the accent of speaker D is destined to be a farmer or an adventurer by a great margin. None of the other trades, actor, politician, sales person or teacher would suit the accent of speaker D.

3.2.3 Likability

Like the most

0 5 10 15 20 25

Respondents

Speaker A, B, C, D

Figure 27: Comparing the accents in terms of likability

The respondents had different reasons for liking each accent. Comments concerning speaker A’s accent were that it was easy to understand and pleasant to listen to. The latter also applied to the accent of speaker B but also that it was harmony in it, it had a good flow and the accent was laid back and cool. Speaker C’s accent sounded friendly and was easy to understand according to the respondents. Finally, comments regarding speaker D’s accents were that it sounded cool and laid back but also nice, calm, friendly and like a farmer’s accent. Overall, the respondents chose speaker D to be the favourite accent, followed by speaker B, A and finally speaker C.

Reasons for not liking the accent of speaker A were that it was perceived as too posh, too aggressive and difficult to understand. Some respondents thought that speaker B was hard to understand, sounded posh and some actually thought that the accent was made up.

Speaker C was also difficult to understand according to the respondents. They also thought the accent was boring, annoying and could put you to sleep. Finally, reasons for not liking the accent of speaker D were that it sounded boring, too rural and hard to understand at times.

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The accent belonging to speaker C was the least liked among the accents followed by accents B and D and finally accent A.

3.2.4 Analysis of Comparing the Accents

The accent which was voted the most pleasant to listen to and had most authority belonged to speaker B. The respondents thought the accent was most suited for an actor followed by a sales person and an adventurer. Speaker B’s accent was rated the second most liked accent, the reasons being, among others, that the accent was laid back and cool. That also applied to accent D which was rated the most liked accent. Here, the respondents agreed with the internationally recognised stereotype of an Australian male as accent D was voted the most suited for an adventurer. However, the accent of speaker D was voted to suit a farmer as well, which some of the reasons for liking that accent implied: nice, friendly and like a farmer’s accent. Previous research shows that rural accents are perceived as pleasant.

The accent of speaker A was a close second in terms of being the most pleasant to listen to and was allotted the jobs of a politician, a teacher and a sales person. Some of the reasons why the respondents liked the accent were that it was easy to understand and pleasant to listen to. From a somewhat contradicting point, the reasons why the respondents did not like the accent of speaker A were that it was perceived as too aggressive and difficult to understand. The least liked accent belonged to speaker C but got voted second for the most authority, joining the other British accent on top of the “most authority” list. As some stereotypes suggest, English are considered solid and stable and unarguably individualistic, traits for authority indeed. Some respondents also thought it sounded friendly and was easy to understand. The accent was most suited to be a teacher followed by an actor and a sales person.

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The British accents were most suited to be actors where as the Australian

accents did not follow each other once. The accents of the female speakers were most likely to be teachers and the male speakers’ accents got the adventurers vote. Whether this is gender based or not is interesting, however, not part of this survey.

3.3 Questions to Respondents

The respondents were asked whether they had been to an English speaking country. 25% had been to at least one English speaking country. The country most frequently visited was England (88%). Secondly, 29% of the respondents had been to USA and in third place, equally on 6 %, we find Ireland, Scotland and Canada. The final question put to the respondents was whether their teacher exposed them to different English accents in class.

37% of the respondents claimed they were being exposed to different English accents in class, subsequently 63% were not.

3.4 The Teachers Attitudes to Different English Accents

Three teachers participated in this survey as they were teaching the respondents included. The first question asked was which accent they speak themselves and the unanimous answer was British English. When asked which accent they taught the same answer occurred, British English. On the matter of involving other English accents in class, apart from American English and British English, one teacher claimed to use Scottish, Irish and African accents although not very often. The second teacher involved accents like South African, Indian and Australian for the simple reason that they occur in the course book. The third teacher claimed not to use any other English accents as the course was only an A-course.

Finally, the teachers were asked whether they thought it important to teach the students different accents or whether it confuses them. They were asked to state their point of

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view and explain why. One teacher considered teaching the students to understand different accents important but insists on teaching them British since that was compulsory when she started teaching. The other two teachers do not think the students get confused from learning different accents. On the contrary, broken English is the world language number one and the students should be aware of that.

4. Conclusion

Considering the fact that the teachers all were speaking and teaching English there cannot be a surprise to realise that most respondents thought that three out of four accents were from England. Nonetheless, bearing in mind that only a quarter of the respondents had been to an English speaking country, quite a few respondents accurately thought that speaker A and D originated from Australia.

Only a third of the respondents claimed to being exposed to different English accents in class although two out of three teachers said that they involved different accents when teaching. As for the respondents’ attitudes towards Australian and British English accents, none of the accents were considered cool perhaps due to the likelihood of the respondents being mostly used to Standard English, mainly through the flow of international media. That would correspond with Edwards’ conclusion that other accents are likely to be viewed less favourably that the Standard. However, three out of four accents were considered friendly and they were all believed to be trustworthy. The two accents that were considered rural were also voted most pleasant to listen to and most liked, which coincides with

Trudgill’s claim on how the British themselves perceive rural accents. Somewhat disturbing are the links between the traits of the accents and job suitability as the two accents most suited to be teachers were the least liked albeit considered well educated. The British accents topped the actor suitability list which is not surprising considering the fact that the British accents appear far more in films than Australian accents.

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Finally, how do young people perceive the broad Australian accent according to this survey? Actually, both as the adventurer and as the farmer. Whether it is the media or Australians themselves, projecting their image into the world, there is no doubt the accent travels far indeed.

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References Primary Sources Students’ questionnaires Teachers’ questionnaires

Secondary Sources

Barkman, Clas and Hedin, Lotta, (1996), Englandsboken med Wales Borås: Dagens Nyheters förlag.

Collins, (2003), English Dictionary 6^th edition Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers.

Edwards, John R, (1982), “Language attitudes and their implications among English speakers” in E.B. Ryan and H Giles (eds.) Attitudes towards Language Variation: Social and Applied Contexts. London: Edward Arnold.

Gardner, Robert C, (1982), “Language attitudes and language learning” in E.B. Ryan and H Giles (eds.) Attitudes towards Language Variation: Social and Applied Contexts. London:

Edward Arnold.

Herlitz, Siv and Gillis, (1997), Herlitz kulturguide England. Uppsala: Uppsala Publishing House AB.

Mobärg, Mats, (1989), English Standard Pronunciations: A Study of Attitudes. Gothenburg:

Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.

Rowling, J.K., (1997), Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Sharwood-Smith, Michael, (2007) “ British Shibboleths” in Eddie Ronowitz and Colin Yallop (eds.) English. One Language, Different Cultures New York: Continuum.

Svartvik, Jan (1999) Engelska, Öspråk, världsspråk, trendspråk. Stockholm: Pan.

Trudgill, Peter, (2000). Sociolinguistics (4^Pth^Pedition). London: Penguin books.

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Wikström, Maria, (2002) Swedish Teenagers’ Attitudes to Spoken English: A Verbal Guise Experiment Investigating the Influence from School and Mass Media University of Gävle Wray, Alison and Bloomer, Aileen (2006) Projects in linguistics. London: Hodder Education.

Electronic References

Kwary, Deny A. http://www.kwary.net/linguistics/Language%20Attitude.ppt 20090323

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Appendix 1

Text from the beginning of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Speaker A:

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were

perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache.

Speaker B:

Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it.

Speaker C:

They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.

The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street.

Speaker D:

The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him.

This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.

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Appendix 2

Questionnaire for students on attitudes toward English accents

Four people from different parts of the English speaking world will read a few lines out of the first volume of Harry Potter, one at a time. Please grade your answers in the questions below.

Remember to focus on the accents, not the quality of the voices.

Speaker A

1. Are you familiar (bekant) with the accent? Very well Not at all 2. Did you understand the accent well? Very well Not at all 3. Which country do you think the accent is from? ______________________________

4. How do you rate (gradera) the following qualities (egenskaper) when you hear this accent?

Friendly Reserved Trustworthy (pålitlig) Unreliable (opålitlig) Posh (snobbig) Rural (bondig)

Cool Corny (töntig) Well educated Little formal education

Other qualities: ______________________________________________

Speaker B

Other qualities: ______________________________________________

Speaker C

Other qualities: ______________________________________________

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Speaker D

Friendly Reserved Trustworthy ^(pålitlig) Unreliable (opålitlig) Posh (snobbig) Rural (bondig)

Other qualities: ______________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix 3

I will now play all voices again. Please listen carefully and compare the different accents.

Speaker A Speaker B Speaker C Speaker D

17. Which accent is most pleasant to listen to? ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

18. Which accent has most authority (makt, pondus)? ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

19. Which accent do you think would suit each profession? (Tick only one/question)

Politician ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

Adventurer (äventyrare) ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

Teacher ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

Farmer ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

Actor ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ Sales person ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭

20. Which accent do you like most? ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ Why? ________________________________________________________________

21. Which accent do you like least? ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ ⁭ Why? ________________________________________________________________

Please fill out some details for practical reasons.

Age: 15 16 17 18 19

Sex: Male Female

Grade: 1^st year 2^nd year 3^rd year Program: ____________________________________

22. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country?

Yes which one(s) ________________________________________________

No

23. Does your teacher expose you to different English accents in class?

Yes No

This is the end of the survey. Thank you for your participation!

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Appendix 4

Questionnaire for teachers on attitudes to different English accents

1. Which English accent do you speak?

________________________________________

2. Which English accent do you teach?

________________________________________

3. Do you involve other English accents in class, apart from American English and British English? Yes namely _________________________________________

No

4. Is it important to teach different accents or does it confuse the students? Please, state your point of view and explain why.

_____________________________________________________________________

______________________________

Thank you for your participation!