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Teaching and Researching English Accents in Native and Non-native Speakers pp 191–205Cite as

Stratification of English as a Lingua Franca: Identity Constructions of Learners and Speakers

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Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

Abstract

Studies of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) suggest that some speakers of ELF are willing to mark their (national) identity in their ELF pronunciation, which we call the liberal stance, while others want to strive towards native models (e.g. Jenkins, World Englishes 28:200–207, 2009), which we describe as the conservative stance. A recent study (Stanojević and Josipović, Euro-English and Croatian national identity. Conference paper presented at the New Challenges for Multilingualism in Europe, Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 11–15, 2010) confirms this, suggesting that liberalism versus conservativism towards ELF among Croatian university students is correlated with their major field of study. In this paper we show that there may be a more pervasive process at play behind the liberal versus conservative attitudes to ELF, namely identity construction. Based on the results of a questionnaire conducted among secondary school pupils, university students and employees of a company, we show that different attitudes to one’s own accent, the accent of one’s conversational partners and teaching models primarily hinge on belonging to different groups of participants: learners versus speakers of ELF. Our results support a non-monolithic, stratified ELF model, which allows changes in accordance with the needs and identity construction of its speakers.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Moira Kostić Bobanović, Snježana Kereković, Višnja Kabalin Borenić, Mario Brdar, Zrinka Jelaska, Kristina Cergol, Jelena Parizoska, Ivanka Rajh, Ana Poljak, Anamarija Kaštelanac, Žarko Magdić, Maja Bradić, Marina Mioč, Katarina Seljan, and Marijana Pejaković for their help in administering the questionnaire.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Višnja Josipović Smojver & Mateusz-Milan Stanojević

Authors
  1. Višnja Josipović Smojver
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  2. Mateusz-Milan Stanojević
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Višnja Josipović Smojver .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of English Language and Applied Li, University of Lodz, Kosciuszki 65, Lodz, 90-447, Poland

    Ewa Waniek-Klimczak

  2. , Department of English Language and Liter, University of Reading, Whitekinghts, Reading, RG66AA, United Kingdom

    Linda R. Shockey

Appendix A: Questionnaire About the Pronunciation of Croatian and English

Appendix A: Questionnaire About the Pronunciation of Croatian and English

Please fill in this anonymous questionnaire, which examines the attitudes concerning the pronunciation of Croatian and English. The questionnaire consists of two parts: four statements about Croatian and seven statements about English. Please circle the answer which best corresponds to your opinion. When you are asked to assess a statement on a 5-point scale, please use the following values:

Strongly disagree

Partially disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Partially agree

Strongly agree

1

2

3

4

5

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Smojver, V.J., Stanojević, MM. (2013). Stratification of English as a Lingua Franca: Identity Constructions of Learners and Speakers. In: Waniek-Klimczak, E., Shockey, L. (eds) Teaching and Researching English Accents in Native and Non-native Speakers. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24019-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24019-5_14

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24018-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24019-5

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