“It is Confusing to Use More than One Accent in the Class”: Exploring Teachers’ Perception Toward World Englishes in Listening Class

Abstract

The increasing number of non-native English speakers has caused an inevitable effect which is the emergence of English varieties. Accordingly, English does not belong to one specific country. Thus, the ownership of English belongs to those who speak it. However, teaching English in Indonesia has been based on an exonormative norm that views ideal English is only from native varieties. Consequently, it is challenging to delve into teachers' views about exposing different English varieties to the students. Therefore, this qualitative study aims at investigating teachers' perceptions towards incorporating World Englishes (WEs) into a listening class. This study intends to picture how teachers perceive the diverse English varieties and the awareness of using the varieties as materials in the listening class. An openended questionnaire was distributed to five teachers and it was analyzed by coding. The findings revealed that most of the teachers used American and British English as target models. The main reason was the accessibility of finding the sources. However, the teachers accepted that other varieties could be also used as exposures of English. Exposing students to diverse varieties also influenced students in intercultural communication.