Persona Projection Through L2 Pronunciation: The accents of English majors at Leiden

In a threefold study linking sociolinguistics to the field of second language acquisition, I investigated what values students indexed through their L2 English accent. I related this to their identity. Indexicality is a framework that attatches linguistic variables to social meanings (e.g. Eckert, 2008, Trousdale, 2010, p. 48). The social meanings attached to speech are valued unequally across social groups, and therefore, some language is more likely to be heard and respected than others in a construct termed the ‘linguistic marketplace’ by Bourdieu and Boltanski (Eckert, 2000, p. 13). This study involved questionnaires (n=99), interviews (n=4), and investigations into students’ sound files (n=18). The majority of the students (71%) aspired to a British accent, which could be related to findings in the questionnaire: namely that students rated sounding native and intelligent highly. When interviewed, students stated that a British accent, and specifically Received Pronunciation (RP...Show moreIn a threefold study linking sociolinguistics to the field of second language acquisition, I investigated what values students indexed through their L2 English accent. I related this to their identity. Indexicality is a framework that attatches linguistic variables to social meanings (e.g. Eckert, 2008, Trousdale, 2010, p. 48). The social meanings attached to speech are valued unequally across social groups, and therefore, some language is more likely to be heard and respected than others in a construct termed the ‘linguistic marketplace’ by Bourdieu and Boltanski (Eckert, 2000, p. 13). This study involved questionnaires (n=99), interviews (n=4), and investigations into students’ sound files (n=18). The majority of the students (71%) aspired to a British accent, which could be related to findings in the questionnaire: namely that students rated sounding native and intelligent highly. When interviewed, students stated that a British accent, and specifically Received Pronunciation (RP), sounded more intelligent, and had more prestige attached to it. Investigation by Edwards (2016) reveals that the British accent is still considered the default model in the Netherlands. Thus it appears they have appropriated this norm, and thereby maximise the value of their speech on the linguistic marketplace. Moreover, students likely wish to signal their intelligence and expertise by emulating the British ideal. In general, students sounded predominantly British in their sound files (52% on average), though they had 40% Dutch influence on average, and also traces of American influences, like t-flapping and rhoticity. Besides L1 interference this showed students also incorporated aspects of speech which likely had covert prestige for them. In general, students’ accent preferences signal their academic, professional identity, but do not seem to index all aspects of their identity. When applied to the wider L2 acquisition field, this study illustrates identity expression may not be a priority of learners; instead, they may wish to appropriate a most standard and accepted accent.Show less

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Persona Projection Through L2 Pronunciation: The accents of English majors at Leiden