Varieties of English | Language attitudes in Monterey

Attitudes Towards Englishes Spoken Elsewhere

By Jennifer Dowrie

I went out into Monterey to discover people’s attitudes towards Englishes spoken elsewhere. Past researchers have found that people have very strong and sometimes hidden ideologies about English speaking. In English With an Accent, Lippi-Green (1997) wrote,

“We regularly demand of people that they suppress or deny the most effective way they have of situating themselves socially in the world. You may have dark skin…but you must not sound Black. You can wear a yarmulke if it is important to you as a Jew; but lose the accent… You’re the best salesperson we’ve got, but must you sound so gay on the phone?” (pp. 63-64)

This example shows we judge people based on the way they talk but do not say so outright as illustrated above in the quote.

In order to understand what people in the Monterey area think, I decided to use two different types of data collection for my inquiry. In one task, people were asked to listen audio tracks of four international English speakers from China, Mexico, Louisiana in the US, and New Zealand for one minute each and speculate on the speakers’ origin, age, socio-economic status, personality traits, and level of education. The audio of the four speakers was taken from the website: International Dialects of English Archives, (http://www.dialectsarchive.com). Task two comprised of a guided interview. I gave L2 English speaker participants a questionnaire to answer. We also discussed their answers to the questions. The term L2 English speaker in these data collection samples means anyone whose first language was not English, and English was their second language. An L1 English speaker means that English was that person’s first language. After collecting and compiling data, some recurring themes came out, lending to understanding more about people’s ideologies and attitudes towards Englishes spoken elsewhere. I found ideologies about English speaking and accent preferences that allowed participants to characterize people’s personalities. There were “acceptable” and “unacceptable” spoken Englishes that lead to insecurities about speaking English. Some participants also spoke about the ideology that one “standard” and “correct” English exists. Lastly, most participants had the ideology that learning English can resolve people’s problems.

As an introduction to this inquiry, I started with task one in which L1 and L2 English speakers, or the listeners or participants for this activity, filled out a profile for each speaker on the audio tracks. In this task as mentioned before, listeners had to use their best judgment to determine information about the speakers. The L2 English speakers had more mixed results with regards to the sex of the speaker, age, level of education, and socio-economic status. This result may reflect their different ideologies and backgrounds. Another factor to consider is that recognizing accents among English speakers may be harder to pick up. With regards to education and socio-economic status, education in other countries may be more or less accessible than in the United States, and the viewpoints on what is upper, middle, and lower class could be very different. Therefore, the level of education and socio-economic status may be hard to determine if one does not recognize the accent of the speaker and know the ideologies held about education and socio-economic status in the country of the speaker.

L1 English speakers or highly competent L2 English speakers had more responses in common. The only written “LC” for lower class in the socio-economic column was assigned to the Mexican accented English speaker audio track. Most participants agreed that the Mexican accented speaker’s highest level of education was high school whereas the other accented speakers were placed in college or university. Other research has shown similar findings. Chu (2013) found in her study entitled, Accent-based implicit prejudice: A novel application of the implicit association, “that participants perceived the standard American speaker to be significantly higher in socio-intellectual status than the Mexican accented speaker” (p. 21). One of the audio tracks had a college student from Louisiana speaking. No one was able to successfully guess which region of the US she was from, however, they were able to determine that she was American. Furthermore, they pinpointed that she was African American. Most participants agreed this speaker was in college and was part of the middle class. The listeners could mostly agree on certain aspects after hearing a speaker for only one minute. It reinforces the idea that what we say and how we say it identifies us for better or worse. Based on the way people spoke, each participant rated the speakers’ personalities. Each participant had to write a one if the disagreed or a five if they agreed that the speaker was serious, warm/friendly, attractive, responsible, open-minded, and had a sense of humor. These responses varied greatly, but it showed how we have a preference solely based on the way someone speaks. These preferences can drift into the category of an ideology.

I continued with my data collection looking at L2 English speakers’ ideologies about how they feel they are viewed, what learning English can do for them, and how they feel about speaking English. L1 English speakers have an ideology that some Englishes are more acceptable than others. After I started interviewing, I saw a trend. L2 English speakers from more “acceptable” English speaking countries believe to be viewed positively by L1 English speakers whereas L2 English speakers from “unacceptable” English speaking countries do not. The trend seemed to be that student, Caucasian, and European English speakers felt that their accents were liked. They also reported that most people wanted to know where they were from. Some responses that exemplified this were:

“Mostly they ask me where I come from. In New Jersey, sometimes they find my accent interesting and nice.”
“Yes, they ask me where I’m from and if I’m visiting. Some coment they love my accent.”
“Si muchos me preguntan sobre donde vengo, sobretodo por la forma de hablar. Algunos dicen que les gusta mucho el acento espanol.” [Yes many people ask me about where I’m from, mostly by how I speak. Some say they like my Spanish accent.]

When L1 English speakers ask about L2 English speakers’ accents, there are probably many motives in doing so. Perhaps, people found different accents exotic or they genuinely wanted to know the person’s origin. Another hypothesis was that L1 English speakers in Monterey have grown accustomed to an international population because of the area’s unique characteristics. Some responses such as: “Positively maybe”, “I am not too short (sure) however I have often gotten positive comment”, “Sometimes when I meet a group of Caucasians, I feel I am out of place. But in general I have no problem” made me question how certain L2 English speakers felt about being viewed positively when speaking English.

In these examples, I sensed an underlying doubt or maybe L2 English speakers were not telling me everything. It was not until I wandered over to the Monterey Bay transit center in downtown Monterey that a very different picture was painted. This verified the notion that I was not getting the entire picture from students and Caucasian L2 English speakers. At the transit center, there were some groups of L2 English speakers who were both first and second-generation Mexican immigrants either working or going to school. After spending some time talking to them, I recorded different answers to my question of “how you feel you are viewed when you speak English.” Some of the responses were: “People laugh”, “People are racist thinking oh you’re not from here”, “People judge me when I speak”, and a less extreme, “Some people positive and some people negative. Maybe because they study different language too.” This contrast in responses helped me gain a more complete understanding of this ideology of how L1 English speakers viewed L2 English speakers’ accents as “acceptable” and “unacceptable.”

Despite these differences in responses, all L2 speakers of English shared underlying insecurities and an ideology that learning English will improve their lives. L2 English speakers had insecurities about speaking English and avoided doing so in certain instances. Furthermore, L2 English speakers who spoke “unacceptable” English tended to have stronger responses to my questions and felt they were viewed more negatively. Therefore, they avoided more English speaking situations whereas speakers of L2 English who spoke “acceptable” English tended to feel that people liked their accents and were curious to know more about them. L2 speakers of “acceptable” English felt that people viewed them more positively and therefore did not avoid speaking English as much as “unacceptable” L2 English speakers. The questions I asked them were: Do you ever feel like avoiding speaking English in certain situations? Which situations are those? Why do you feel that way? Some of their responses are listed below:

“When there are some words I don’t know how to say it in English. I’ll avoid speaking. When I feel natives won’t understand me, I won’t speak that out.”
“Yes, in certain class especially when there are lots of “smarty” students. I feel like they might judge me. (grammar..idea..)”
“Yes. Parties or social events.”
““Sí, no hablo inglés porque me avergüenza. Cometo errores.” [ I don’t try to speak English because I am embarrassed. I make mistakes.]
“I’m not embarrassed but my mom is. She makes me talk if we are in public in places that don’t speak Spanish. She is uncomfortable.”
“Sometimes I do in class. When I have an ideal about complex critical thinking question and I am not too sure if my explanations will be understood.”

These L2 English speakers mentioned making mistakes more so than an accent as to why they may feel embarrassed about speaking English in certain situations. However, one L1 English speaker originally from Louisiana responded to the same questions saying, “No. But I know I had a bad accent! Now I don’t. I live here.” He understood that his accent was “bad” because he was from Louisiana, but now that he lives in California, his accent is “better” now. Preston (1998), researched these phenomena of people believing that certain areas of the United States speak better English and have more correct accents. In the study looking at which region of the United States speaks better English, “Michigan respondents consider their speech the best and steadily assign lower ratings the farther south a state is” (p. 146). The South was always ranked very low, so it seemed that people thought Southerner’s grammar, accent, and grammar choices were not examples of good English.

After discussing various insecurities with speaking English, I asked participants if they felt more or less inclined to learn English given their experiences with the language. All L2 English speakers responded that they wanted to better their English for different reasons. One ideology that came up was that there is one “standard” and “correct” English. English was the “key” to improving their lives in some way. An illustration of this ideology comes from Pakistani students who were asked, “What they would like to do to help Afghan refugee children in Pakistan thrive.” (Hornberger and McKay, 2010). “Many of the young Pakistani children believed that it was important for the Afghan refugees to develop literacy and to learn some English” (p. 96). In the study by Norton and Kamal (2003), the students responded,

“English is the language spoken commonly. This language is understood throughout the world. If the Afghan children learn English, know English, speak English they will be able to discuss their problems with the people of the world.”
“The English language is an international language spoken all over the world and it is the language of science. Therefore to promote their education and awareness with modern technologies, it is important to teach them English” (p. 309)

Participants’ responses in this data collection mirrored exactly that. Participants stated:

“He visitado muchos paises de habla inglesa y la verdad me gusta mucho. Quiero mejorar mi ingles tanto para viajar como para mi futuro profesional.” [I have visited many English-speaking countries and the truth is that I like it a lot. I want to improve my English in order to travel and for my professional future.]
“More inclined, I love to be able to expres my self with people around me and make friends.”
“I definitely say that I would like to improve English so that I would be able to convey my feelings and understand others.”
“I always want to learn English and make it more perfect so that I can speak like a native speaker :)”
“More inclined because I want to better my speaking (accent and written skills). I want to speak with a standard accent or no accent like a CNN newsreport journalist because most often one doesn’t need to make an extra effort to understand. However this situation may differ from another persons point of view because they may not understand the CNN news reporters accent.”

A list of the participants’ responses to all questions is in the attached documents.

In these examples, the participants hope that learning English will get them more business opportunities, allow them to communicate when they travel, and express themselves better to “native” speakers. Participants want to improve their English in order to make it perfect, speak like a “native” speaker, or speak with no accent so everyone can understand better. Looking back over the participants’ responses, I give kudos to the participant who then reflected that maybe depending on your point of view, you may or may not be able to understand someone with a “standard” accent. As an aside to consider further, the participant from Spain continued to prefer speaking Spanish with me because maybe she felt that I might be judging her speaking ability and accent. She did speak English at one point and her comprehension was excellent, but reverted back to speaking Spanish.

The ideology that English is the answer completely ignores the fact that there are much bigger factors influencing whether or not a person will be able to better their business opportunities, travel, move to and live in the country of interest. Immigration, for example, is a huge roadblock for anyone trying to move from one country to another. Just because one learns a language does not mean that country is going to welcome him or her with open arms. Despite this consideration, the L2 English speakers feel a huge responsibility to improve their English in order to better their lives. I question why they feel as if it is their burden to carry. English’s role as a lingua franca or a contact language has increased more so with advances in technology and the globalization of the world markets. This phenomenon has taken a huge weight off of the L1 English speakers of having to learn other people’s languages. The importance given to the English language has created the ideology that in order to have a better life English is your answer.

Going out into Monterey to discover the attitudes towards Englishes spoken elsewhere helped me confirm that people have very strong yet hidden ideologies about “acceptable” and “unacceptable” accents and Englishes. Furthermore, speakers of English who are not from Monterey, California have insecurities about speaking English and ideologies that learning English will benefit their lives greatly. People also believe that there is one “standard” and “correct” English. As an English as a second or foreign language teacher, I cannot help but think of some issues that could come up if the insecurities present themselves in English learners in the classroom. These ideologies could potentially prohibit language learning. Conversely, they may motivate students to learn because of the ideology that learning English has so many benefits. Ideologies will not fade away overnight, but the materials I choose are extremely important when beginning the attempt at challenging these ideologies. If we believe existing ideologies need to change, we can do something about it.

References

Chu, C. Accent-based implicit prejudice: A novel application of the implicit association test (Order No. AAI1541496). Available from Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). (1537583898; 201408746). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1537583898?accountid=12457

Hornerberger, N. H., & McKay, S. L. (2010). Sociolinguistics and Language Education. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters, 96.

Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London, England: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/85653299?accountid=12457

Meier, P. (Founder). (2015). International Dialects of English Archives, available from (http://www.dialectsarchive.com).

Norton, B. and Kamal F. (2003). The imagined communities of English: Language learners in Pakistani school. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 2 (4), 301-317.

Preston, D. R. (1998). They Speak Really Bad English Down South and in New York City. Language Myths. Bauer, Laurie and Peter Trudgill. NY: Penguin Books,139-149.

Data collection attachments:

socioling-results- proj 1

socioling-questionnaire results- proj 1