Corny or Cool Swedish Teenagers Attitudes towards Australian and British English Accents

35 Pages·2010·0.26 MB·English

Beteckning:

Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi
Avdelningen för humaniora

Corny or Cool
Swedish Teenagers Attitudes towards Australian
and British English Accents
Malin Blackmore
April 2010
C-uppsats
Engelska
Engelska C
Examinator: Tore Nilsson
Handledare: Erik Smitterberg
Table of Contents
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….……3
1.1 Aim………………………………………………………………………...4
1.2 Previous Research……………………………………………………….....4
1.2.1 The Varieties of Standard English in Focus..........................…...4
1.2.1.1 Australian English…………………………….5
1.2.1.2 British English………………………………...5
1.2.2 Stereotypes………………………………………………….......6
1.2.2.1 Australian Stereotypes…………………….......7
1.2.2.2 English Stereotypes…………………………...7
1.2.3 Speech and personality traits…………………………………...8
2. Material and Method………………………………………………………….….9
2.1 Matched Guise Technique……………………………………………...…9
2.2 The Speakers……………………………………………………………...10
2.3 The Text…………………………………………………………………..10
2.4 The Questionnaires……………………………………………………......11
2.4.1 The Students…………………………………………………....11
2.4.2 The Teachers…………………………………………………...12
3. Results and Analysis…………………………………………………………......13
3.1 First Part: Assessing Each Accent………………………………………...13
3.1.1 Speaker A………………………………………………….…...13
3.1.2 Speaker B………………………………………………….…...15
3.1.3 Speaker C………………………………………………….…...17
3.1.4 Speaker D………………………………………………….…...19
3.1.5 Analysis of Assessing Each Accent……………………….…...21
3.2 Second part: Comparing the Accents………………………………..…….22
3.2.1 Most Pleasant and Most Authority………………………….….22
3.2.2 Job Suitability……………………………………………….….23
3.2.3 Likability…………………………………………………….….24
3.2.4 Analysis of Comparing the Accents……………………….…...25
3.3 Questions Concerning Respondents......................................................…...26
3.4 Teachers attitudes to different English Accents……………………..…….26
4. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...……27
References………………………………………………………………………..….29
Appendix………………………………………………………………………….…31

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1. Introduction
English accents have always, on one hand, fascinated me and, on the other hand, given me a
headache as I have always found it really hard to adjust to them. The day I started travelling
the world I was forced to interact with different accents; it was never easy. As the years went
by I lived for longer periods of time in different English-speaking countries so I got used to
the different accents. However, to this day, I find myself being prejudiced towards certain
accents.
Attitudes toward accents have been evaluated and documented in a number of
surveys through the years. Giles and Powesland (1975) had one speaker talk RP accent to a
number of respondents and Birmingham accent to another group of respondents in a survey
they called “Speech style and social evaluation”. They found that the “RP accent was rated
higher than the Birmingham accent in terms of competence, intelligence and industrious”
(Kwary 2009). In another survey Giles and Ryan (1982) concluded that “a certain accent can
change public opinion and show the speaker’s social class” (Kwary 2009).
One day I was watching Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter”, on TV. Listening
to his broad Australian accent I wondered how young Swedish people perceived him. Did
they think the accent was corny or cool? Would they associate Australian accents with
adventurers like “The Crocodile Hunter” and “Crocodile Dundee” or an attractive
adventurous lifestyle in general? Or would the broadness of the accent be associated with a
rural and conservative lifestyle? Furthermore, how would British accents stand in
comparison? I decided to conduct a survey to find out what Swedish teenagers think of
Australian and English accents.

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1.1 Aim
The aim of this essay is to find out about Swedish teenagers’ attitudes towards Australian and
English accents. By attitude I refer to Allport (1954) who, in a text by Gardner, describes attitude
as “a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or
dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is
related.” (Gardner 1982:132). The definition of accent used for this survey is “the characteristic
mode of pronunciation of a person or a group, esp one that betrays social or geographical origin”
(Collins 2003:8).
Students will listen to recordings of native English speakers and fill out a
questionnaire grading the accents in terms of psychological qualities, social significance, job
suitability and likability.

1.2. Previous Research
1.2.1 The Varieties of Standard English in Focus
There are three different English accents to be evaluated in the survey. Two are from England,
one from the northern part of England and one from London. There are also two speakers
from Australia, one from Melbourne in the south-east and one from the more northerly
situated Brisbane however they speak with the same accent. So how come the dialect areas
are fairly small in England compared to virtually non-existing in Australia? The reason for
this, according to Trudgill (2000:153), is that English has been spoken in England during the
last 1500 years but in Australia only for the last 200 years or so. Any differences in the
accents within Australia are more likely to be socially determined than geographically
determined (Svartvik 1999:118).
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The accent that will be compared to when trying to explain the accents in focus
in the following section is RP, Received Pronunciation, also known as the Queen’s English. It
is globally known as being the accent that second language learners want to learn. Svartvik
(1999:170) further explains the reason for that: The pronunciation of RP is socially accepted
and is easy to understand all over the world. Additionally, most English course books use RP
as a standard.

1.2.1.1 Australian English
As previously stated there are not different accents throughout Australia despite it being the
sixth largest country in the world. However, Australians as a whole, speak with a distinct
accent. Typical features of the Australian accent are related to cockney, mainly due to the first
settlers or prisoners who for the most part came from the London area. For example, a word
like “say” is pronounced like /aɪ/ where in RP it is pronounced like /eɪ/ (Svartvik 1999:120).
Further examples from Svartvik (1999:120) are:
Table 1: The differences between RP and the Australian accent.

Word RP Australian accent
father /fɑ:đə/ /fa:đə/
see /si:/ /səɪ/
do /du:/ /dəƱ/
now /naƱ/ /næƱ/

1.2.1.2 British English
There are many different accents and dialects on the British Isles but in this survey the focus
is on Northern English and Estuary English.
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Around half of England’s population speaks with a northern accent. The most
defining feature of the Northern England accent, compared to the southern accents, is the use
of /u/ when pronouncing words like “love” and “dozen” instead of RP /ʌ/. Thus the Northern
English accent does not distinguish between the pronunciations of certain words like put and
putt, could and cud (Svartvik, 1999:186). Other examples of the Northern England accent
from Svartvik (1999:186) are:
Table 2: The differences between RP and the Northern England accent.

Word RP Northern England accent
bath /bɑ:ɵ/ /bæɵ/
ham /hæm/ /hɑm/

One of the Southern England accents is called Estuary English. It is spoken
mainly in the area surrounding the mouth of the river Thames in the south eastern corner of
England however it is rapidly spreading beyond the south eastern corner of England.
According to Svartvik (1999:182) Estuary English is in between RP and Cockney some
believe it will become a common ground where people from all social contexts can meet as it
is spreading socially and geographically. Some typical features include a glottal stop instead
of /t/ in words like “airport”, “lot” and “about”. (Svartvik 1999:182) Some more of Svartvik’s
examples include a short /u/ replacing the /l/ in words like “bill”, “fault” and “tall”. When
pronouncing a word like “enormous” Estuary English speakers will say /w/ instead of /r/.

1.2.2 Stereotypes
For most of us it is enough to find out the nationality of a stranger, to get an opinion about the
person. That preconceived perception of somebody is called a stereotype, as Ronowitz further
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explains: “all societies, groups and individuals have tendencies to create stories,
interpretations and clichés about their own and other cultural groups, which are not
necessarily true or only partly true.” (Ronowitz 2007:10). Furthermore, Ronowitz stresses that
myths and cultural stereotypes are generalizations (Ronowitz 2007:11). Despite the fact that
stereotypes are generalizations that are not true or only partly true there seems to be a need for
them. One theory for their existence is that “people love their stereotypes since they give
structure to life and are reassuring.” (Sharwood-Smith 2007:45).

1.2.2.1 Australian Stereotypes
Ronowitz claims that, based on their history and traditions, the typical Australian male has got
an image internationally “as a tough, suntanned resourceful adventurer” (Ronowitz 2007:10).
He continues that it may have been true some 150 years ago but hardly today. Another
stereotype worldwide is that “Australians do not like hard work” (Ronowitz and Yallop
2007:89). This perception of a typical Australian is likely to be based on the belief that
everybody can be lazy on the beach all day, every day. In fact, it takes quite a lot of hard
earned money to be able to enjoy the beach life from time to time. There are also many hard-
working Australians on low income (Ronowitz and Yallop 2007:89). A final example of an
Australian stereotype, as seen by other nationalities, is that “Australians are crude and
primitive when it comes to what is sometimes called high culture.” (Ronowitz and Yallop
2007:94). There are surveys conveying a different result. A majority of Australians are
interested in the development of the Australian cultural life (Ronowitz and Yallop 2007:95).

1.2.2.2 English Stereotypes
Based on the old days of colonialism and the new English-speaking countries mother England
left behind, there are conceptions of England as “old (perhaps negatively as staid and old-
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fashioned, perhaps positively as solid and stable)” (Sharwood-Smith 2007:52). However, the
most striking quality of the English is that Englishmen “are amazingly polite and perhaps
artificially so.” (Sharwood-Smith 2007:67). Despite differences in class and other barriers,
English people in general are well-mannered. Whether it is genuine politeness or not, one
theory explaining the phenomena is that with that many people on the island there have to be
strong social rules to be able to coexist (Barkman and Hedin, 1996:13). Other perceptions of
the English are that they are private, as one should not “wash one’s dirty linen in public”
(English proverb from the 19th century). That is one reason why the English tabloid press has
caused so much damage when they, for instance, have exploited the privacy of the royals
(Gerlitz and Gerlitz, 1997: 100). Not only is the Englishman a private person but also an
individualist. A typical English proverb from the 17th century is “If you want a thing done
well, do it yourself” (Gerlitz and Gerlitz, 1997: 100). Finally a proverb to sum up the English
stereotype as being private and individualistic “Every Englishman is an island on an island”
(Gerlitz and Gerlitz, 1997: 104)

1.2.3 Speech and personality traits
The importance of the link between voice/speech and personality traits was emphasised by the
onslaught of large-scale broadcasting, gramophone and telephone technology. (Mobärg,
1989:4) Nowhere else in the world is the accent such a determiner of social status as in the
UK. It may even prevent either participating in a certain social circle or advancement in a
profession (Svartvik 1999:168). Edwards (1984:30) concludes from going through a vast
number of studies and surveys that “Language varieties which diverge from Standard English
are liable to be viewed… less favourably than the Standard. This is especially so when
evaluations are being made of traits relating to a speaker’s competence.” Standard English is
the language used by media such as the BBC, CNN and the major newspapers and magazines
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from different parts of the English speaking world. Grammatically Standard English is
surprisingly uniform although the vocabulary may vary due to social and geographical needs,
linguistic history etc. (Svartvik 1999:361). Svartvik is referring to a major survey in the US
when claiming that respondents listening to an accent similar to theirs perceived the speaker
as warm, friendly and honest but also slow and less intelligent. On the other hand the
respondents perceived a Standard English speaker as cold and dishonest but also fast,
intelligent and ambitious. (Svartvik 1999:153) Trudgill claims that it is quite common in
Britain to perceive rural accents, from Devonshire, Northumberland and the Scottish
highlands for instance, as “pleasant, charming, quaint or amusing”.(Trudgill 2000:9) On the
other hand he claims that urban accents, the likes of Birmingham, Newcastle or London, are
often considered as “ugly, careless or unpleasant”. (Trudgill 2000:9)

2. Material and Method
The method used for this essay is a questionnaire survey conducted at an upper secondary
school in mid-Sweden. Three classes from the social science programme participated. They
listened to recordings of four different speakers reading one part each from the beginning of
the first Harry Potter novel. The students’ task was to fill out questionnaires revealing their
attitudes toward the different accents. I also asked their teachers to fill out a different
questionnaire. The design of the survey and questionnaires draws on a previous essay made
by Wikström. (2002)

2.1 Matched Guise Technique
Lambert, Hodgson and Fillenbaum (1960) introduced the Matched-Guise technique as a
means of assessing language attitudes. Originally one tape-recorded speaker would read the
same text in two or more language varieties, the purpose being that the listeners would not be
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distracted by different voices but concentrate on the accents. The listeners would then fill out
a questionnaire to evaluate the speaker’s personality in forms of psychological qualities,
social significance, job suitability and likability (Mobärg 1989:22).
There has been some criticism towards the use of the matched guise technique.
Even if the speakers are multi-lingual there is a possibility that they are “modifying their
output in more ways than one when going from one language to another” (P.M Smith
1985:89) which would undermine the original idea of a neutral speaker in different guises also
known as accents. Further criticism was delivered by Giles and Bourhis (1973) who claim that
the tendency to repeat one and the same reading passage over and over to the listeners would
seem to distort reactions in various ways (Mobärg 1989:38).

2.2 The speakers
From the very beginning I was determined to use authentic accents for this survey basically
because there was no available speaker who authentically knew different accents. I believe
that it is extremely difficult to replicate the genuine accents of a native English speaker.
However, a modified version of the Matched Guise technique was still the best option since
the purpose of the survey was to measure the respondents’ attitudes toward different accents. I
do acknowledge the risk of the respondents giving the speakers personality traits based upon
the sound of their voices rather than their accents. To prevent this to the fullest the speakers
were given some instructions when recording the text passages. All speakers were asked to
read loudly, clearly and as naturally and neutrally as possible and try to avoid adding traits
based on the actual use of the voice rather than the accent. The speakers were:

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