What Do ESL Students Say About Their Accents?

Abstract

This study concerns adult immigrants' perceptions of their own pronunciation problems and the consequences of speaking with a foreign accent. Interviews were conducted with 100 intermediate proficiency ESL students (58 of whom belonged to a visible minority). Over half the respondents felt that pronunciation played a role in their communication problems, yet when asked what their pronunciation difficulties were, many were unable to answer. Those who did identify problems tended to focus on a small set of salient segmental units that generally have little effect on intelligibility. When asked whether they had been discriminated against because of accent, two thirds said no, but when asked if people would respect them more if they pronounced English well, the majority agreed. In light of the students' comments, recommendations are made for pronunciation instruction guided by intelligibility rather than salience; it is also suggested that the politics of accent and bias be explored with ESL students.