Introducing World Englishes Accents to Elementary School Learners

Abstract

Exposing learners to various accents is important in the age of globalization since it prepares learners to communicate with sociolinguistic reality outside the classroom. This research aimed to investigate the effects of teaching World Englishes accents on learners' intelligibility and attitudes towards learning English. The study was conducted at a private elementary school in Chonburi province, Thailand. The participants were 34 elementary school learners, who enrolled in the English club. The study used a mixed-methods approach to guide the data collection and analysis. Three World Englishes accents were included in the instruction (English, Filipino and Chinese) because they were the accents available outside the classrooms. After the instruction, the learners were interviewed to explore their attitudes toward learning English. The findings indicated that the learners' intelligibility score after receiving the accent instruction was significantly higher than before the instruction. The interview also indicated the learners reported having positive attitudes toward learning English and the World Englishes accents.