Eighth Biennial National Conference of the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL) 29 - 30 November 2007
Abstract
‘What did they say?’ Examining the effects of lecturers’ accents in English on the actual and perceptual listening comprehension abilities of international students in a culturally diverse Australian university
Alison R. Owens & Irene L. Hoetzer
Central Queensland University Sydney International Campus, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
owensa@syd.cqu.edu.au
The rapid growth in numbers of international student studying at Australian universities has resulted in a substantial increase in cultural and linguistic diversity within the higher education sector. As a result, the teaching and learning environment has also become culturally and linguistically complex, with many of both the teachers and the students now communicating in English as a second language (ESL); hence with accented speech. This study explored the effects of accented speech on the listening comprehension skills and abilities of a group of ESL students at an international university campus in Australia. This small-scope study reports on issues about accent comprehension that were identified in an analysis of the written and verbal responses of six, first-year students who listened to oral presentations by three Australian ESL university teachers. While it is not possible to generalise from findings based on such a small sample, the following are key issues which emerged as significant within the sample: the perceptual level of difficulty in comprehending accented English may not align with actual comprehension ability for a range of reasons; the degree of proximity between the first language of second language English speakers and listeners may not have a strong effect on enhancing comprehension, and; international students' expectations about Australian teachers' accents may not align with the realities of a multicultural community and workforce. Recommendations are made on the basis of such indicators to assist universities develop greater awareness amongst their teachers and learners of the cognitive-linguistic and the sociolinguistic issues involved in teaching and learning in English as a second language in Australian universities.
Keywords: international students, accented English, listening comprehension
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