LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:4 April 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2022
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Yemeni English Teachers’ Attitudes Towards English Accents

Ali, Mansour Q.H. and Hasan, Sadia. H.

Abstract

A person’s attitude towards a particular object may influence his/her behaviour towards this object (Bohner & Wanke, 2002). Actually, in Yemen, British English and American English accents are both used in private institutes, particularly in textbooks. Therefore, identifying the teachers' attitudes towards English accents is quite pertinent in improving the learning of this foreign language. This paper mainly investigates the attitudes of Yemeni English language teachers towards American and British English accents. It also attempts to find out which English accent Yemeni English teachers mostly use in the classroom. A questionnaire was used to elicit the attitudes from 40 Yemen English language teachers, taught at English learning private institutes. The results indicate that most of the participants prefer to use American accent more than British in the classroom. However, they use a mixture of both while teaching. Even though the majority claim that no accent is superior to the other, most of the participants consider British accent as the actual accent.

Keywords: Yemeni English Teachers, Attitude, English Accents, Variety Preference, Behaviour.

1. Introduction

English is the language that has now acquired the status of lingua franca all over the world. It has also become the language of science and technology in other than English speaking countries, especially in southern and western Asia. Thus, Yemen is also one of the countries in which English is taught and learned as a foreign language. The structure of the Yemeni school curriculum is such that English is taught as a compulsory subject only from 7th to 12th grade. As a result of which most of the Yemeni students finish schools with a poor level of this foreign language. However, the augmented significance of English drags them to make an effort to improve their competence and performance of this alien lingo. As a part of this effort, most of the students join private English learning institutes. Those who join these educational institutes achieve a good level of different skills in this non-native language. The teaching in most of these institutes is based on American textbooks. By and large, USA and Great Britain are considered to be the two natives to the English language. Thus, teachers in Yemen have different feelings and preferences towards these two varieties of English; some prefer British accent, and others consider American English to be their favourite. It is also noticeable that, nowadays, the supremacy of US media covering politics and economy influence the feelings of non-native speakers. Consequently, it needs to be questioned whether Yemeni English teachers are affected by the vitality of American English or not.

To appraise the level of English as a foreign language in Yemen, it is essential to assess the teachers' feelings. The contradiction between teacher’ and students’ attitudes causes some difficulty in learning speaking skills. Attitude towards a particular language variety may affect the behaviour towards that variety. Therefore, investigating attitudes is very important to overwhelm the issues and challenges faced by teachers and students. For that reason, this study focuses on teachers' attitudes towards two accents of English Language.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ali, Mansour Q.H.
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh, UP
India
m.q.alburiahi@gmail.com

Hasan, Sadia. H.
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh, UP
India
shhasan.wc@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.