A relational study of attitudes towards accents of English and level of intelligibility :a pedagogical analysis

Abstract

This study aims to explore the possible relationships between attitudes towards accents of English and levels of intelligibility. The context where the researchers conducted this relational study was in first-year teacher training students. The assumption of this study is that intelligibility should be favoured in the present international context, an aim which can be facilitated if accent-related attitudes are uncovered. Most of the population in Chile does not know or delegitimize accents of English; for example: Scottish English, mostly because of the lack of awareness. The above mentioned reasons conducted this study to apply an accent attitudes survey and an intelligibility test, whose results reflected the participants’ tendencies towards a specific English accent. Finally, the results suggest that there is no correlation between levels of intelligibility and positive attitudes towards a certain accent of English.