English as an International Language at United World College East Africa: Attitudes to native and outgroup accents: Qualitative method

Marta Nowacka; Antoni Nowacki

doi:10.18778/1731-7533.23.14

Authors

Marta Nowacka University of Rzeszów, Poland
Antoni Nowacki Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.23.14

Keywords:

EIL, UWC, native accents, outgroup accents, qualitative method

Abstract

This paper presents qualitative results on attitudes to English as an International Language (EIL) at a multicultural, highly diversified community of United World College East Africa, Tanzania, Moshi campus. The results reveal that nearly half of the respondents admit to preferring one native variety of English, with most of the outgroup participants expressing the wish to speak with a British or American accent. The most common ways of adjusting speaking for the benefit of communicative partners are paraphrasing, repetition and slowing down. Vietnamese, Asian English in general, and Irish turn out to be the most difficult accents to comprehend. Pronunciation is the most frequent reason for incomprehensibility. Among the ways of adjusting to accents, listening carefully and immersion are the most often used.

Author Biographies

Marta Nowacka, University of Rzeszów, Poland

Marta Nowacka’s research focuses on the pronunciation of Polish university students of English and on teaching phonetics. She has co-authored How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck?: An English Pronunciation Practice Book (Mańkowska et al., 2009) and Sally Meets Harry: A Primer to English Pronunciation and Spelling (Nowacka et al., 2011).

Antoni Nowacki, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA

Antoni Nowacki is currently a student of Animal Behaviour at Bucknell University, PA, USA. At the time of the study, he was a diploma student at UWCEA, Moshi, Tanzania. His responsibilities included collaborating on the questionnaire design, piloting the study, and collecting data.

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