Nomnian (2008: 31), in his study of Thai students attending a UK university, noted that they ‘…seem to position themselves as “linguistically inferior” to their European counterparts’. Thai students in this study commented that they found the fast-paced, interactive culture of a UK classroom a source of stress and anxiety.
An unanticipated outcome of this study was the strength of negative feeling exhibited by some Thai students towards the varieties of spoken English by ‘others’ e.g. international teachers or British nationals with regional accents. The following excerpts of interviews with Abe, Sid and Wendy illustrate this:
I= Interviewer A = Abe
I: Which of the four language skills do you find most challenging?
A: ‘I think the worst one is er listening because, because there, there many people here with different accents. I can I can only understand the accent like people speaking in BBC. (laughter) but if if if my my my friend start mumbling then I cannot understand.’ [Abe: Interview Term 1]
Abe comments on the variety of accents he is exposed to while studying in UK. He explains that he can only understand ‘BBC’ (Standard) English and finds his friend’s accent, which he describes as ‘mumbling’, impossible to understand. Abe uses the term ‘BBC English’ which Agha (2005:52) describes as ‘Standard British Received Pronunciation’ and Rymes and Leone (2014) describe as ‘imagined mainstream standard’ to compare with ‘non- standard Englishes’ (2014: 34) or regional accented English [ref chapter 2].
128 Abe comments that he has no difficulty in understanding most of his teachers but he does have a problem understanding a Portuguese lecturer.
I= Interviewer A = Abe
I: Do you understand the various accents of your teachers? Referring to the Portuguese lecturer he comments:
A: ‘Last time I I ask him how to pronounce his name properly and it’s like Jo Jo something and ... OK forget it! Fine! (laughter). I try not to call him [by] his name.’ [Abe: Interview Term 1]
Abe took steps to address the problem by asking the lecturer how he should pronounce his name correctly. However, he comments in the interview that he was still unable to pronounce it so he tried not to use it at all.
Abe referred to accents later in the same interview which took place in Term 1 ‘… in my class er there’s er er British people that speak different accent than than yours er Manchester accent and someone just mm it’s kind of mumbling in his mouth (laughter) and I can’t understand what he’s saying so so I basically keep myself away from him (laughter). It’s it’s not his problem it’s just my problem. I need to get more familiar with with that [accent]. (laughter) [Abe: Interview Term 1]
Abe uses the derogatory description ‘mumbling in his mouth’ to describe his British friend’s regional accent yet he qualifies this rather negative depiction by indicating that he is not criticising the other student but identifies the problem as his own [Abe’s] which he needs to resolve. He therefore avoids that student commenting that he needs more time to become familiar with his accent.
129 ‘I’ve always liked listening to British accent but I can’t imitate it… it was hard during the first days especially some weird accents that I don’t… it might not be from London, but it gets better over time.’ [Sid: interview Term 1]
Using judgemental language to contrast the ‘British accent’ with ‘weird accents’ reflects comments by Lippi-Green (1994: 165): ‘…the subjective nature of these qualifiers is clear’. In a later work (2012: 6) she questions ‘…how we use language to construct “self” and “other”’; and ‘who has the authority to decide what is ‘good English’ and who sets the standards for spoken and written language?’
The issue of accent recurs in a later interview with Abe, in Term 3. He refers again to the ‘BBC accent’ which he appears to hold in high esteem. He contrasts it with the ‘West London’ accent which he seems to regard as socially inferior.
Speaking improve a lot and listening as well but er I still not satisfy with with my skill because if I speak with friend with some British friend that’s that’s er quite difficult. … because their accent …it’s something else it’s not your accent it’s not BBC accent, some some people are from West London. [Abe: Reflections. Interview Term 3]
Although he recognises his own linguistic limitations Abe explains that he finds it difficult to understand his ‘British friends’ because of their regional London accent, possibly implying that the fault is theirs.
Over the course of a year Sid and Abe felt that they had improved their listening and speaking skills but still had difficulty in understanding regional accents. Abe provided another example of how a regional accent caused him confusion when he travelled to a city in the north of England:
‘I been to Manchester and I’m going into to the the department store and and it’s not open yet and the security [guard] walk walk to me and said “It’s shoot” “what? Oh ok ok. It’s shut ok” (laugh) [Abe: Reflections. Interview Term 3]
130 Abe finds this experience amusing. He takes pleasure in imitating the regional Mancunian accent and employs negative evaluative statements and humour when comparing the ‘undesirable’ (Fairclough 2003: 179) accents of others with Standard ‘BBC’ English’ ‘…their accent, it’s something else, it’s not your accent it’s not BBC accent.’
Wendy also commented on problems experienced by Thai students when the lecturer is not a ‘native’ English speaker:
‘One of my my my friends say that she does she didn’t understand the lecture because she the the her lecturer is not native speaker.’ [Wendy: Reflections Term 3]
Wendy states that her friend did not understand the content of the lecture because the lecturer was not a native speaker of English, exemplifying Fairclough’s (2003: 176) ‘evaluative statements’ and Wortham and Reyes’s (2015: 108) ‘negative connotations’ of being a ‘non- native’ speaker. As Nomnian (2008: 34) states ‘…it is imperative for Thai students to develop optimistic attitudes towards multilingualism and varieties of spoken English inside and outside the classroom’.
4.4.1 Challenging accents: Views of teachers
While it is true that the Thai students experienced some difficulties comprehending various accents within the multicultural classroom environment, similar challenges were experienced by their teachers.
Sid’s finance lecturer informed me that he was a German national and commented on how difficult it was for him to understand some of the more unfamiliar accents of his students:
‘It’s always also difficult because sometimes you just understand people better with the accents you know… I understand Thai [students] better than er Chinese
131 because I also have a few students from Thai …you get used to accents you know.’ [Interview: Lecturer 03 /Sid]
It was interesting that, like Sid and Abe, he found it easier to understand unfamiliar accents the longer he was exposed to them.
I reflected on my own challenges when observing several classes attended by my Thai participants. In my field notes taken during a finance lecture given by a teacher who informed me that he was an Italian national, I commented:
‘I found his accent difficult to follow in particular when he referred to ‘Hedge’ funds’ which I mistook for ‘edge’ as he did not write the word on the board and did not pronounce the aspirated ‘h’. ‘
This example reflects to some extent Plum’s experience when she misunderstood the teacher’s pronunciation of ‘libel’ and ‘liable’. Like Plum’s situation, the topic was unfamiliar to me and I was confused until the teacher wrote the academic vocabulary on the board toward the end of the lesson.
In my interview with this Italian teacher he makes pertinent remarks about the accents of his colleagues and the impact on students:
‘I’m sure that when you are confronted with a faculty that comes from so many different backgrounds, we have Italians, French we have erm people from really all over, teaching all subjects … so you are combining … many dirty accents.’ [Interview: Lecturer 05]
He comments that in his opinion it must be difficult for the students to cope with so many different accents especially if their English language skills are not very proficient. He refers to his own faculty where teachers originate from many different countries. The Italian lecturer’s use of the descriptor ‘dirty accents’ is particularly pejorative. Lippi-Green (1994:
132 165) comments ‘…accent becomes both manner and means for exclusion…. when people reject an accent they also reject the identity of the person speaking: his or her race, ethnic heritage, national origin, regional affiliation or economic class …the concept of accent, so all-encompassing in the mind of the public, is a powerful one’.
It is interesting to compare the pejorative evaluative statement ‘dirty accents’ made by this lecturer with the slightly less negative comment ‘weird accents’ made by Sid. Both statements employ derogatory judgemental language to describe what they perceive to be the ‘undesirable’ accents of others. What is also very interesting is at no time did the Thai students in this study refer to their own accented English.
Rubin and Smith (1990: 337) noted that when students perceived ‘…high levels of foreign accentedness, they judged speakers to be poor teachers’. This finding, however is not evidenced in my research. Although the Thai students comment particularly on how accent can sometimes impact negatively on their comprehension of spoken English and understanding of lesson content, it does not reflect how they rate the competency of the teachers.