The Attitudes Towards RP and Geordie Regional Variety of English Among Turkish Speakers of English: Some Implications for English Language Teaching

Cihat Atar*, Cahit Erdem**
* Department of English Language Teaching, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey.
** Department of English Language Teaching, Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey.
Periodicity:April - June'2020
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.10.2.16592

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to find out the attitudes towards Geordie regional variety of English compared to Received Pronunciation (RP) among Turkish speakers of English. There is a recent trend in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) studies which argue that there are different 'Englishes' and these Englishes have different attitude and prestige levels. However, there are not many studies on the attitude of second language (L2) speakers regarding the accents of British English in the UK. Therefore, this area needs more research. This a descriptive quantitative survey study and the participants are 34 Turkish L2 speakers of English. As for the data collection tool, this study utilizes an attitude test preceded by two audio recordings prepared by matched-guise technique. Having listened to the audio recordings, participants fill in attitude rating scales consisting of 3 dimensions: social status, social attractiveness and linguistic features. The analysis compares and contrasts how a non-standard dialect, Geordie, and RP are perceived. The analysis indicates that the participants have a significantly positive attitude towards RP and RP speakers are considered to have higher social status and linguistic competence while no significant difference is found for social attractiveness. The results of this study have implications for ELF studies, the status of native speakers and L2 teaching and learning.

Keywords

ELF, L2 Teaching, Dialects of English, Matched-Guise Technique, Non-Standard Accents.

How to Cite this Article?

Atar, C., and Erdem, C. (2020). The Attitudes Towards RP and Geordie Regional Variety of English Among Turkish Speakers of English: Some Implications for English Language Teaching. i-manager's Journal on English Language Teaching, 10(2), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.10.2.16592

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