Indonesian EFL Students’ Attitudes toward Various English Accents
Monika Dharma Abstract
Some scholars (e.g. Kachru, 1985; Jenkins, 2000, 2006; Kirkpatrick 2006, 2007; McKay, 2002) has criticized monocentric view (Quirk, 1985, 1990) and promoted World Englishes, but English learners from Japan, Korea and Chinese still hold the monocentric view (Li, 2009; Jung, 2010; Mei 2011). However not all countries have same perspective. Learners from South Africa, Pakistan, and India hold their country English accent (Timmis, 2002). This study is a quantitative study that investigates Indonesian EFL students’ attitudes toward various accents, which are British English (BE), American English (AE), Malaysian English (ME), Indian English (IE), and Japanese English (JE). There are three sub topics: (1) Indonesian EFL students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral toward various English accents; (2) opinions about the importance of using native accent(s); (3) opinions about own accent. Questionnaires written in Bahasa Indonesia were distributed to 100 students of English Department Satya Wacana Christian University Salatiga. The results show (1) native accents receive much more positive attitudes, and non-native accents receive much more negative attitudes; (2) more than half participants state using native accent(s) is not important; (3) the most of participants claimed their accent is non native, but they have positive opinions toward their accent, and positive feelings when they use their accent.
Keyword: Native accent(s), Non-native accent(s), Attitude(s), Monocentric view,
