NATIVE-LIKE ACCENT OF ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Praditha Dyah Ayu Kusumastuty
112008077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD THE ISSUE OF TEACHING
NATIVE-LIKE ACCENT OF ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Praditha Dyah Ayu Kusumastuty
112008077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
TEACHERS
’
PERCEPTIONS TOWARD THE ISSUE OF TEACHING
learners should speak like the way the native speakers speak. However, with the increasing number of the non-native speakers around the world, we are now facing two different orientations, which are nativeness and intelligibillity. Nativeness principle starts to be denied by many English practitioners and the emergence of intelligibility principle is believed as the solution for the EFL countries. Considering the clash between nativeness and intelligibillity principles, this research was conducted in order to get the insight of teachers’ perceptions learning. The participants admitted that they also include native accents in their teaching materials. Nevertheless, instead of requiring the students to speak using native like accent, the participants expected the students to be aware of the richness of the language that they learn.INTRODUCTION
Native-like English has become an issue that haunts the educational system in almost
all part of the world, including in our country. Generally, people believe that language
learners should speak a language like native speakers and therefore only native speakers can
serve as genuine reference. However, with the rapid development in the use of English
nowadays (Crystal, 2003), some people start to believe the general assumption that influences
the language learners to speak like the native speakers should be put aside. Although the
recent growth in the use of English has influenced the changes in the goal of teaching
(Graddol 1997:10). It remids me to my personal experience as an English teacher in an
English club one afternoon in 2010, after I asked one of my students to have a conversation
with me in front of the class. She spoke English using bold Javanese accent, with the rhythms
and intonations that were totally different from the accent of the native speakers of English.
When she spoke, the rest of the class laughed at her. Surprisingly, there was one student who
frankly mocked her and said that the way she spoke was so funny. Having that experience
made me questioned, why did my students laugh at their friend who spoke using Javanese
accent? Is it silly if someone speaks English using their native accent? From that experience,
I learned that people have a stereotype that people who learn English are supposed to hide
their own accent through manipulating their pronunciation to seem more like the natives.
People appreciate the ones who can speak like the native speakers of English more than the
ones who try to be themselves.
Actually, the issue of discrimination based on how person speak or what we called as
the issue of nativeness is not new. It has been raised before the 1960’s (Levis, 2005) when
people really admired the native speakers and the ones who speak like native speakers.
However, in recent years, with the rapid spread of globalization, non-native speakers of
English have overwhelmingly outnumbered native speakers; 375 million native English
speakers, 375 million second language speakers, and 750 million foreign language speakers
(Graddol, 1999). According to Graddol, now we are facing the fact that the numbers of
non-native English speakers who speak and communicate in English are greater than the non-native
speakers of English and it is increasing gradually. The recent growth of non-native English
speakers all over the world has led to the changes of the orientation in teaching English. With
the growing number of the non-native speakers, many of English practitioners like
influences the non-native speakers to speak like the natives should be put aside as it is no
longer suitable with the real situation nowadays.
With the development of the number of non-native English speakers nowadays, the
teachers and English practitioners are facing two contradictory orientations, which are the
nativeness principle and the intelligibility principle (Levis, 2005). The nativeness principle
believes that teachers’ goal in teaching English is to achieve native-like pronunciation.
Pronunciation, in the narrower sense is considered as accent, is affirmed as one of the main
determinants of identity construction and L2 learners. Consciously or not, people tend to
manipulate their pronunciations either to differ themselves or to make them similar with the
target speech community in order to sound more like the native speakers of English. Here, the
English teachers try to make the students imitate the pronunciation of native speaker models
from inner circle countries and encourage the students to approximate their speech as closely
as possible to a native English model. Whereas in intelligibility principle, teachers’ goal in
teaching English is not for achieving native-like accent of English. Rather, they want to keep
the students’ own accents as those are part of their identity. Intelligibility orientation believes
that native-like accent is not necessary to be imitated by the English learners. The most
important is to be easily understood by the listeners.
This study aims to identify the teachers’ perspective toward the necessity of teaching
Native-like English in the era of World Englishes. The study will be guided by the following
research question: What are teachers’ perceptions toward the issue of teaching native-like
accent of English? The finding of this study will contribute to a better understanding of how
teachers view the native-like accent and its application in the classroom. For English teacher,
this study will help them to get an idea of how teachers respond to the issue Native-like
English accent and whether it influences their teaching performance. Thus, it is hoped that the
gain some indication of the issue of native-like accent in English teaching and how such
awareness affect their teaching performance.
The Nativeness Principle
Who are actually the native speakers of English? Defining native English speaker is a
complex task as there are many factors to consider. Richard and Schmidt (1992) explains that
“native speaker is a person considered as a speaker of his or her native language…” The
native language means “the language that a person acquires in early childhood because it is
spoken in the family and/or it is the language of the country where he or she is living…”
(p.241). Kachru (1986) distinguishes three major types of English users: (1) native users of
English for whom English is the first language in almost all function, (2) non-native users of
English who use an institutionalized second-language variety of English, (3) non-native users
of English who consider English as a foreign language and use it in highly restricted domains.
Kachru named the first group as members or the Inner Circle (e.g. United States, United
Kingdom, Australia), the second group as members of the Outer Circle (e.g. Malaysia,
Singapore, India, etc.), and the third group as members of Expanding Circle (e.g. Japan,
China, Indonesia, South Korea, etc.).
If we take a look at Kachru’s concentric circle, the answer for the question above will
be the speaker from Inner Circle like America, British, Canada, and many more. It places the
native English speakers and native English country at the center point of the circle. From that
point, it suggests that the native speakers are the “source models of correctness, the best
teachers as well as the sources if goods and services of those in the Outer and Expanding
Circle” (Graddol 1997:10). Scales et al. (2006) also highlighted that in the Expanding Circle
Second Language (SLA) learners, native speakers have an important role in English teaching
and learning process.
According to Pennycook (1994) the native speaker is the idealized person with a
complete and possible innate competence in the language. Pennycook claims the close tie to
the political economy of global EFL; UK and US centered English-dominant nations
maintain the native speaker as the preferred model and results in the language industry
comprising of textbooks or ways of teaching English. According to this model, the native
speaker refers only to Britons and Americans, which reminds us of the English BBC and
American CNN. Canadian and Australian English are also included. Holliday (1994) calls
BANA (Britain, Australia, North America) the center of native varieties of English (cited in
Yamaguchi, 2001), whereas Amin, a Pakistan-born Ph.D candidate at University of Toronto
claims that reference of ESL classroom is the (white) native speaker and the “white accent”
as the constructed norm (cited in Wlazinski, 2001, p.4).
The goal of nativeness principle is for the second language learners to achieve native
like fluency in the target language pronunciation. This traditional principle was once the most
dominant paradigm before the 1960s, but its popularity waned as the critical period
hypothesis raised issues, claiming the infeasibility of the ideal goal (Levis, 2005). However,
many English foreign language learners are comfortable just in writing and listening in
English, but when they have to speak in English, they often have the lack of confidence
because they have the mindset that English accent is difficult to acquire. Actually, there are
many factors that are really important in second language learning: age, motivation, the
native language, amount of exposure to the second language, phonetic ability (aptitude)
and attitude toward the target speech community (Kenworthy, 1987; Celce-Murcia et al.,
1996). But the ones like motivation, amount of exposure to the second language and
Piske, McKay, and Flege (2001) explain that prominent factors which determine an
individual’s accent are the following: speakers’ L1; the age of starting L2 learning; the period
of residence in a target country; formal instruction; motivation; language learning aptitude;
and speakers’ frequency of use of L1 and L2. Native-like accent appears as the most-wanted
goal by both the teachers and the students, with the latter comes more after that.
Intelligibility Principle
The popularity of nativeness principle due to its having native-like pronunciation
upon second language learners and teachers soon declined. With the decline of nativeness
principle, a more realistic and modern idea comes from intelligibility principle. Some
researchers like Jenkins (2000), Jones (2001), Sifakis and Sougari, (2005) have highlighted
the importance of global intelligibility rather than a particular native accent within the current
linguistic globalization (Scales et al., 2006). Nelson (1982 cited in Munro and Derwing 1997)
defined intelligibility as the apprehension of the message in the sense intended by the
speaker. Munro and Derwing (1995a, 1995b) offered a very similar definition. Intelligibility
is the extent to which the native speakers understand the intended message. In the
intelligibility orientation, an individual’s L2 accent is assumed as a common, normal aspect
of second language learning among the people who started L2 learning after childhood.
The intelligibility principle is now popular because the principle no longer
recommends the language learners to acquire the native-like accent. Since the kind of
context non-native speakers engaged in interaction was an international one (Jenkins, 1998,
2000, 2002), and in international contexts it is among non-native speakers rather than
between native speakers/non-native speakers where English is used in communication (Lin
et al., 2002). Another reason for its popularity was and is that second language learners'
in a foreign language, they should at first do away with their first language accent, hence
their identities (Jenkins, 2000; Jones, 2001; Sifakis and Sougari, 2005).
Intelligibility as the goal in teaching pronunciation can help eliminate errors in
learners’ pronunciation. This new approach may help the teachers to decrease the heavy
burden to sound like native speaker. Unintelligibility can be avoided by paying attention to
the lingua franca core. Learners should be aware to the sound that may cause differences in
meaning, not the sound that have a purpose to pretend like native speaker pronunciation. In
communication, a speaker has responsibility to speak as clear as possible in order to be
understood and tries to understand other speakers what information wish to convey as well.
The desired situation would be the one in which World Englishes can both
accommodate the speaker’s identities and having a successful meaning of communication in
a relevant context. In World Englishes, native-like accent is no longer desirable because it
tries to wipe out the first language accent and also the language learners’ first language
identities (Jenkins, 2000).
Accent
When we talked about native-like English, the first thing that comes to our mind is the
accent. Accent is the cumulative auditory effects of these features of pronunciation that
identify where a person is from, regionally or socially (Crystal, 2003, p.3) Many English
learners want to sound like native speakers. There is a hypothesis that a learner needs to
begin learning the language before the age of 7 in order to develop native-like pronunciation
(Lenneberg, 1967). However, more recent research suggests that environment and motivation
may be more important factors in the development of native-like pronunciation than is age at
acquisition (Marinova-Todd, Marshall, & Snow, 2000). An understanding of the features of
The primary aim is that the student can be understood. Good pronunciation, with perfect
stress and intonation is needed, but a perfect accent is not (Harmer, 1991)
METHODOLOGY
Context of the Study
The study was conducted in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. I chose Salatiga context
because Salatiga is the town where I live on, so it will ease me to conduct my study. Senior
High School was selected as the context of the study because in Senior High School the
teachers use more complex materials compared to in Elementary School or Junior High
School, like movies and songs which are expressed with different kinds of accents. Five
senior high schools were chosen to represent the typical Public Senior High School in
Salatiga.
Participants
To discover teachers’ perceptions toward teaching native-like accent, there were 10
Public Senior High School teachers who participated in this study. From each of the school,
two teachers were selected among those who have indicated willingness to be interviewed.
The interview involved Senior High School teachers, because from my experience during my
Senior High School the teacher also explained a little bit that there are many kinds of English
accent in the world. In this study, I choose sample of convenience in selecting the participants
based on the people who are easily accessible to me. According to McKay (2006, p. 37)
sample of convenience is the selection of participants based on the people who are easily
accessible to the researcher. All of the participants had English teaching as their majority in
years. The participants are considered appropriate as they have enough experiences in
teaching English.
Instrument of data collection
Interview was used as an instrument for this research to find out teacher’s perception
toward teaching native-like accent. The interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia. The
interviews were conducted individually and were recorded. The interviews were semi
structured and done informally to make the respondents feel free from pressure of expressing
their ideas. The interviews were based on the following core questions:
1. What is your understanding of native-like English?
2. What English do you think as native English?
3. What do you expect from your students in speaking English?
4. Have you ever taught your students to speak like native speaker?
5. Do you think teachers should teach native-like English to their students?
6. Can you give reason for your response?
7. To what extent teaching native-like English affect the way you teach?
From the interview, the questions above were answered about 15 minutes by each
participant. The interview session first came up with asking the concept or background
knowledge that the participants have about the issue of native speakers-like accent of English.
This subject intended to make the participants easier to give more comments on the next
questions. Next, the participants’ experience in dealing with nativeness was asked and then
progressively moved to the question about the participants’ personal opinion toward teaching
Data Analysis
The data was analyzed qualitatively as there was only one variable in my research.
After I transcribed the interview result, I read the participants’ responses and analyzed the
data using holistic-content analysis. I used holistic-content analysis because I only have small
number of participants. When I read the transcript/notes of each participant, I decided on 4
major themes that I wanted to focus on in analyzing the data. After I decided on the themes, I
reread the transcript and “color-coded” the lines in the interview transcription that supported
the major themes.
FINDINGS
TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF THE TERM NATIVE-LIKE ENGLISH
The native as the models of competence has often been used in English language
teaching pedagogy. As Graddol noted, one of the primary drawbacks of using the term
'native' is that: It locates the 'native speaker' and native speaking countries as the center of the
global use of English and, by implication, the source of models of correctness, the best
teachers and English language goods and services consumed by those in the periphery
(Graddol 1997) Graddol also proposes the Kachru’s three concentric circle, which in the
traditional assumption give special status to English speakers of the inner circle both for
determining standards of use and defining language pedagogy.
The interviews revealed that almost all of the participants had the same opinion about
native-like English accent. Attributable to these native-like English accents, they still
believed that native speakers-like English accent was related to the inner circle country based
on Kachru's concentric circle. The participants’ understandings of native-like English are
Table 1. Participants’ Understandings of Native-like English
accents, which were British English and American English, while participants C, D, F, and G
added one more variety of accents in their response which was Australian English. Participant
C stated that the standard English that he knew were British English, and British English
developed to American English and Australian English. Paricipant D stated that we could
actually choose the accent that we wanted to use, but the accents that she considered as
natives were British English, American English and Australian English. Basically, almost all
of the participants mentioned two or more varieties of accents, except participant H who only
mentioned British English as the accent that had relation with native-like accent.
Participant G and participant H even tried to explain their opinion about why they
thought British English as the country that had relation with native-like accent. They believed
that English language firstly came from Britain, as participant H stated that “I think the other
varieties of English firstly came from British English.” Paticipant H also gave further
country where it came from was England. So, probably English was come from that place
too. Those became the reason why they had strong opinion about British English accent.
From the quotations above, it is clear that all former Senior High School teachers in
Salatiga still believed that the term native-like accent of English was still related to the inner
circle country in which English is used as their first language. Their responses fit to Scales et
al. (2006) who stated that in the Expanding Circle educators use Inner Circle standards for
teaching and learning. When it comes to the issue of the need of achieving native-like accent,
it means to achieve native-like accent like people from the Inner Circle country.
TEACHERS’ EXPECTATION ON STUDENTS’ ACCENTS
When the participants were about to tell about their expectation of the students'
accent, variety of responses were given. Almost all of the participants claimed that they did
not expect their students to speak using certain type of accent when they spoke in English.
Their attitudes refer to Scales et al. (2006) who highlighted the importance of global
intelligibility rather than a particular native accent within the current linguistic globalization.
The participants pointed out many different expectations when their students spoke in
English. Participant A, E, F, and I preferred their students to be understandable whenever
they spoke using English. The responses fit to Munro and Derwing’s (1995a, 1995b) idea on
intelligibility. They stated that inteligibility is the extent to which the native speakers
understand the intended message. Participant E responded further by giving an actual
example when the students went to Bali for study tour. There, he suggested his students to
practice and test their knowledge of English by talking with the native speakers. He said,
“The students can see by themselves whether the native speakers can understand what the
there is something wrong in their speaking. And I will ask them figure out why the native
speakers can not understand them.”
Meanwhile, accuracy in pronunciation was also preferred by the participants
regarding to how their students spoke. Participant A and B stated that accuracy in
pronunciation in English was one of the important points in speaking English. Participant A
stated that he never expected his students to speak like the native speakers of English. He
said, “For me, the most important thing is that their pronunciations are understandable and
accurate.” Participant B, who had the same opinion with participant A added, “I teach my
students to avoid mispronunce the words, as it may leads to different meaning.” From their
responses, it is obvious that the participants did not expect their students to speak like the
native speakers. They expected their students to be able to speak accurately.
Participant F and H mentioned fluency as the thing that the students needed to
consider in speaking English. As stated by participant F, “I hope the students can speak
fluently and meaningfully.” From the response made by the participants, it is clear that
speaking like the native speakers of English was not the main goal for the participants in
teaching English to their students. Rather, they had their own expectations other than
imitating the accents of the native speakers of English. To speak understandably, accurately
and fluently became the major expectations of almost all of the participants.
In contrast, participant C response was quite different from the other participants. In
his response he expected his students to have a model when they spoke in English. He quoted
that, “Actually we really need to decide which English that we use as our reference.” His
reason for this response was because it could be easier for the listeners to understand what the
students said, especially for the native speaker. He even stated that in his grading category, he
prefered to have the pronunciation that is close to the native speakers, because it was more
Participant E response fits the idea of Bley-Vorman (1983) who stated that there is a
"comparative fallacy" relating second language learner to native speaker. It says that there are
two words, which are: 1. Succeed, 2. Fail. They are associated with the native speaker, for
example in their fossilization and errors as second language users, especially in speech. Cook
(1999, p.189) moreover described that teaching English is always associated with failure to
achieve native speaker competence.
Below is the comment made by participant C:
Actually, we can see that in the grading category especially in speaking, it is stated that if the pronunciation is closer to the native speakers, it is more standard. It means that if the pronunciation is closer to the natives, is will be easier to be understood by the native speakers. In relation with this, actually we really need to decide which English that we use as our reference. (C)
To summarize the result of this section, the majority of the participants claimed that
they did not expect their students to speak using certain type of accent when they spoke in
English. The participants gave their own expectations, like fluency, accuracy and to be
understandable in speaking English. Their attitudes refer to Scales et al. (2006) who
highlighted the importance of global intelligibility rather than a particular native accent
within the current linguistic globalization. Native-speaker like accent of English was
considered less important fot the paticipants than their own expectations.
HOW THE ISSUE OF NATIVENESS AFFECT THE CLASSROOM PRACTICE
The issue of teaching native-like English obviously affected the teachers in their
teaching practice. 6 out of 10 participants strongly admitted that they had ever taught about
native-like English and they had applied it in the classroom. Participant C said that he
automatically tried to imitate his way of speaking as similar as possible with the native
speakers, which he considered as the standard reference in English teaching. And he applied
They both tried to teach native-like accent to their student. Participant F gave more detailed
examples of the materials that she usually gave to her students; like movies, audio journals,
and conversations from both American English and British English. According to Stern
(1983), maintaining the native speakers’ "competence", "proficiency" or "knowledge of
language" is a necessary point of reference for the second language proficiency concept used
in English teaching theory (p. 341)
Participant G said that she also taught native-like English to her students. However,
she was also conscious that she is not a native speaker of English. She did not push her
students to speak like the native speakers of English because she herself had awareness of her
non-nativeness. Rather, she thought that it would be better if her students at least knew the
words in English first, without pushing them to acquire certain kinds of accents. Below is the
comment made by the participant G:
I have ever taught them about native-like accent of English. But before I taught them about that I try to reflect to myself. I am not a native. I am not like the natives. So at least they know the vocabularies in English first. (G)
Although participant G claimed that she had awareness about herself as a non-native,
still, she tried to teach her students to speak like the native speakers. She taught her students,
but she did not require the students to be able to speak in certain kinds of accents.
Analyzing the comments made by the participants on their experiences in teaching
native-like accent, some of the participants like participant A, B, and H stated that they never
taught native-like accent in their classroom. Participant A said that she just tried to teach her
students to hide their Javanese accent when they speak English. However, she never merely
taught her students to speak using native-like accent. This response is contradictory to
Jenkins (2000) who states that in having a successful meaning of communication, the
speakers do not need to wipe out their language accent and also the language learners’ first
they do away their identities too (Jenkins, 2000; Jones, 2001; Sifakis and Sougari, 2005).
Jenkins also (2000) argues that rather than teaching the exact pronunciation and accent like
the native speakers utter, she influences the educators to just ensure the intelligibility in
teaching the target language. The issue of intelligibility, of course, is a particularly important
point on reference of the study of English as a second language. By doing so, the teachers can
still be able to make the students acquire the target language without losing their identity.
Participant B also never taught his students to speak English using native-like accent.
He further explained that besides British English and American English, there were other
accents of English like Mexican, Spain, etc. He commented that their accents were different,
but those still could be used in communication. His attitude refers to Mckay (2002), as she
clarified that today many countries in the Expanding circle (e.g. Denmark, Norway, and the
Netherlands) have many more English speaking-bilinguals than some countries in Outer
circle where English has an official status, such as Gambia and Rwanda.
The interviews also revealed that almost all of the participants admitted that the issue
of native-like English somehow had a role and influences their way of teaching. Attributable
to this native speaker of English-like issue, participant A, C, D, E and G commented that in
their teaching they tried to imitate the natives as closely as possible. From the participants’
responses, it can be assumed that most of the participants admitted that the issue of
native-like English did influenced their way of teaching in the classroom.
Basically, almost all of the participants tried to imitate the native-speakers as closely
as possible when they spoke English in front of their students. As the model of English as a
Second Language (SLA) learners, native speakers have an important role in English teaching
and learning process. According to Pennycook (1994), the native speaker is the idealized
person with a complete and possible innate competence in the language. Speaking like the
speaking English, which possibly becomes the main reason why the participants tried to
imitate the native speakers as close as possible in front of their students.
Particularly for participant E, he explained that the students tend to imitate their
teachers. As the model for his students, he tried not to make mistakes especially in speaking
as his students would potentially do the same mistakes as he did. While participant C realized
about his English and mother tongue, as he stated, “I personally realize about my English, so
I let them know about my English. My background language, my mother tongue is Javanese
and Indonesian. I tell the students about that from the very beginning.” He said that he
explained about his background language from the very beginning to his students. He also
prefered to invite the native speakers to the classroom as the reference for his students.
Nevertheless for the other participants, they stated that the issue of native-like English
did not influence their teaching at all. Participant H stated that she did not require the students
to be like the natives, but to be understandable. That was her point. The issue of native-like
English did not affect her in her teaching. From participant B and I resposes, they claimed
that they did not recommend their students to acquire native-like accent. Being
understandable became their desires when their students spoke using English, because in
communication a speaker had responsibility to speak as clear as possible in order to be
understood and tried to understand other speakers about what information they wish to
convey as well. Their ideas refer to Munro and Derwing (1995a, 1995b) about intelligibility,
which is the important point of communication is the extent to which the native speakers
understand the intended message.
From the comments made by the participants, they admitted that they had ever taught
about native speaker-like accent of English and they had ever applied it in the classroom.
Their experience in teaching native speakers-like accent of English somehow had a role and
native-like accent to their students by imitating the way the native speakers of English speak
as closely as possible, while some participants prefered to give a concrete example by
inviting the native speakers in the classroom. This reflects the awareness of the participants
toward the issue of teaching native speakers-like of English in the classroom and how this
issue influenced their teaching.
THE NECESSITY OF TEACHING NATIVE LIKE ACCENT IN THE CLASSROOM
When the participants were asked whether it is necessary or not for them to teach
native-like accent in the classroom, participant C, D, E, F, and I claimed that it was necessary
to teach native-like accent to the students. Participant F preferred to teach native-like English
as the reference only for the students, so when the students met the native speakers, the
students could identify the accent of English that they used. Whereas participant I thought it
was good for the students to realize the existence of varieties of English accent, as stated by
participant I, “I think it is good if the students to know about the varieties of accents of
language that they learn.”
Participant E also had the similar idea with participant F and I. They thought the
students needed to have the knowledge about native-like accent. Participant E added, even
though he thought it was necessary to teach the students about native-like accents, he did not
require the students to speak like the natives. He mentioned, “If they can do the same, it is
really good. But if they cannot, that is just fine for me”.
Participant A, B, G and H stated that it was not necessary for the teachers to teach
native-like accent in the classroom. Their responses refer to Harmer (1991) who states that
good pronunciation, with perfect stress and intonation us needed, but a perfect accent is not.
Participant H further commented that the students could learn about that outside the
richness of English through what they heard and saw in the songs and movies. She also
assumed that the students would finally realize that eventhough people speak the same
language, which was English, people spoke it in many different accents. Even the students
themselves spoke differently too. While participant G stated that when she tried to teach
native-like accent, she also doubted whether the students would really use the native-like
accent in the future. She quoted, “So, why do I need to teach them?” She admitted that kind
of thing had ever passed to her mind as an English teacher.
Thus, although some participants stated that it was not necessary for the teachers to
teach native speakers-like accent of English to their students, many of the participants found
it was needed to be taught in the classroom in order to enrich the students’ knowledge about
the varieties of accents of language they learned.
CONCLUSION
From the interview with 10 Senior High School teachers in Salatiga, I concluded that
most of the participants had some similarities in their understanding of native-like English.
Firstly, all of the participants believed that native-like English was still related to the inner
circle countries in which English was used as their first language. When the participants were
asked about their model in teaching native-like accent, all of them refered to the same
reference, which was the speakers from the inner circle countries. Secondly, regarding with
the teachers’ expectation of the students’ accent in English, most of the participants did not
encourage their students to speak using native-like accent due to the fact that they too have
their own native accent. Some of the participants mentioned their own expectation when their
students speak in English, like they prefered their students to speak clearly, fluently and to be
To some points, contradicted answers were also given by the participants. For
example, at one point the participant said that it was necessary to teach native-like accent to
the students if one day the students socialized with the people who use English, but she also
stated that it was not necessary to be taught as the students did not use English in their daily
lives.
The participant also stated that in the grading category especially in speaking, if the
accent was closer to the native speaker, it was more standard. According to Stern (1983), to
maintain that the native speaker’s "competence" , "proficiency" or "knowledge of language"
is a necessary point of reference for the second language proficiency concept used in English
teaching theory (p. 341)
Nevertheless, some of the participants believed that there were many kinds of accents
in the world, like Mexican, Spain, and so on. Accent should not be a set back among the
speakers. They said that different accents were okay, as long as it was understandable and
acceptable.
The participants who proposed that English should be taught as closely as possible to
the native accent reasoned that this could avoid misinterpretation in communication as they
stated that speaking in native-like accent could ease the understanding of the speaking. The
participant also stated that native-like accent was needed when the students socialize with the
people who use English. However, according to Graddol, now we are facing the fact that the
numbers of non-native English speakers who speak and communicate in English are greater
than the native speakers of English and it is increasing gradually. Even nowadays,
international contexts it is among non-native speakers rather than between native
speakers/non-native speakers who communicate with each other the most (Lin et al., 2002).
The majority of the participants still believed that native-like accent was needed to be
did influenced the teachers’ way of teaching. However, the participants did not encourage the
students to speak in native-like accent. To be understandable and accurate in speaking in
English were the main desires of the participants in teaching English to their students. From
the participants’ responds, I concluded that the participants applied the intelligibility
orientation in their teaching. The traditional assumption that pushes the students to use
particular English accent or try to make the students to be similar to the native speakers of
English is no longer used by the participants. In relation with the statement above, according
to Jenkins (1998), a more realistic approach to pronunciation may be to treat the native
speaker model not as a goal for production, but rather as a point of reference to prevent
non-native varieties from moving far apart from each other.
It was amusing to see that the issue of teaching native-like English managed to trigger
various responses from 10 English teachers in Salatiga. Hovewer, it must be admitted that
this research has not yet covered everything about teachers’ perceptions in broader area.
Further research might be conducted using a broader sample population from Senior High
School in all areas in Indonesia. Also, it is possible to observe any differences between urban
areas, rural and remote areas, where the teachers do not have many opportunities to keep up
to date with the development in English language teaching.
Finally, it might be interesting to find out the students’ perception toward learning
native-like English in the classroom. After all, they are the ones who will be most affected by
the development in English language teaching and it is only fair that they say a word about
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research has been the result of a collaborative effort of a large number of people who
have enriched my life during these past few years. This research was done with the support of
the followings, and I would really like to thank:
1. Allah SWT for always be there for me no matter what.
2. English Department of SWCU Salatiga for the best 4.5 years of my life.
3. Mrs. Anita Kurniawati, for the help, support, guidance, new knowledge and
experience. And thank you for being an amazing supervisor.
4. Mrs. Victoria Usadya Palupi, for helping me as the second reader. Thank you for the
guidance.
5. My family, my sister Pradevi Dyah Arum Kusuma Wardhani, my brother Pramadhika
Ferdhian Kusuma Wardhana, and especially my mom for the love and
encouragement. Thank you all very much.
6. Farid Nugroho, thank you so much for the unlimited support and lessons, and thank
you for being the best inspiration ever.
7. Jonthon Coulson, thank you so much for the support and motivation that you give to
me all the time.
8. Rhany Dhewani, Vita Devi and Cindy Alvionita for being my best friends ever in my
life.
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