TERM PAPER

TERM PAPER

THAI EFL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD OUTER AND EXPANDING
CIRCLE ASIAN ACCENTS IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION

A TERM PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

SEMINAR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE USAGE IN THAI SOCIAL CONTEXT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
BANSOMDEJCHAOPRAYA RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022

TERM PAPER

THAI EFL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD OUTER AND EXPANDING
CIRCLE ASIAN ACCENTS IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION

A TERM PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

SEMINAR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE USAGE IN THAI SOCIAL CONTEXT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
BANSOMDEJCHAOPRAYA RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022

TERM PAPER APPROVAL

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
BANSOMDEJCHAOPRAYA RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY

Course Title Seminar in English Language Usage in Thai Social Context
Seminar Title Thai EFL Students’ Attitudes Toward Outer and Expanding Circle
Asian Accents in Listening Comprehension
Degree
Field of Study Bachelor of Arts
English

Approved by

______________________________
Dr. Pipittaporn Inpanich
Advisor

______________________________
Asst. Prof. Waranya Kitiwongwattanachai

Head of English Language Program

Group Members Saechua
1.Mr. Chatchai Sangpin
2.Ms. Chonlada Atchariyauthen
3.Mr. Kaiyasit Munjit
4.Ms. Sujitra Asae
5.Ms. Suraiya

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Abstract

English language is a lingua franca, and people around the world use English language for
communication. English language has many accents, and different accents are influenced by
mother tongues. However, listeners have listening comprehension problems when the speakers
use various accents. The listeners cannot understand when the speakers use unfamiliar accents,
especially Asian accents. Thai students are more familiar with native accents than non-native
accents because Thai teachers use teaching materials based on native accents. This research
aimed to study Thai EFL students' attitudes toward outer and expanding circle Asian accents
in listening comprehension. The participants of this research consisted of three Thai
undergraduate students from the English Language Program at a government university in
Bangkok, Thailand. This research used a qualitative research approach, and the research
instrument consisted of a semi-structured interview. The results showed that Thai students had
positive attitudes toward non-native accents, but they had listening comprehension problems.
When comparing outer and expanding circle Asian accents, Japanese accent is the most
difficult to understand because Japanese people use L1 ending sounds. Thai students should
learn more about various Asian accents. They can practice their listening comprehension from
videos of how to use Japanese accent through many types of social media, such as YouTube,
TikTok, etc.

Keywords: attitudes, expanding circle Asian accents, listening comprehension, outer circle
Asian accents, Thai EFL students

v

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT iv
CONTENTS v

Thai EFL Students’ Attitudes Toward Outer and Expanding Circle 1
Asian Accents in Listening Comprehension 1
1
Introduction 4
Literature Review 4
Methodology 9
Research Findings 10
Conclusion
11
REFERENCES 12

APPENDICES
Questions for the Semi-Structured Interview
Pictures of the seminar

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Thai EFL Students’ Attitudes Toward Outer and Expanding Circle

Asian Accents in Listening Comprehension

Introduction

Communication is a way of transmitting information, and there are four ways of
communication: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening and reading are receptive
skills. Listening is to understand the message from the speakers while reading is to understand
the message from the writers. Although listening and reading skills are equally important,
people use listening skills more than reading skills. People use listening skills in many activities
in their daily lives, and effective listening skills are essential for living and working in the
society.
English is considered a lingua franca. It is widely accepted and used to communicate with
people from different nationalities and cultures. Everyone is required to use English to
communicate. Therefore, in addition to a mother tongue, English is another language that
people all over the world must learn. Although people use English as a medium for
communication, they have problems in using English. Sometimes people misunderstand and
miscommunicate because of different English accents.
Nowadays, in addition to American and British accents, we can hear other accents from
foreigners and various media. Those accents can cause a confusion because we are not familiar
with them. For this reason, our purpose of this study is to study attitudes toward non-native
accents especially Asian accents. We mainly focus on three Asian accents: Singaporean accent,
Japanese accent, and Chinese accent.

Literature Review
English Accents
English language has been being used around the world as a lingua franca. Although the native
speaker norms are important for English language learners, this attitude has not remained
(Arabani, Fathi, & Somehsaraei, 2019). English language has a lot of different accents in each
country. We can communicate with other people by using accents which are not specific
because accents are various. People who use the same mother tongue will have similar accents
in English and they understand each other. Different accents come from some factors such as
culture, country, community, and others (Saipullah, Syahri, & Susanti, 2021). The accent
shows the uniqueness in each country. In addition, it can be used as a representation of culture.

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However, people have various attitudes, both positive and negative, toward a variety of accents.
People think that they can choose the different accents to reach more people with different
cultures. On the other hand, some people think that it is difficult to pronounce every accent
correctly. English is definitely useful, but some people misunderstand or do not understand the
other non-native speaker (Tara, Yanagisawa, & Oshima, 2010).

World Englishes
English is the most spoken language. Although each accent is different, people can still
communicate understandably. According to Kachru (1992 as cited in Lauder, 2008), there are
three circles of world Englishes. Firstly, the inner circle is a group of countries that speakers
use English language as their mother tongue or L1 such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
USA, and UK. Secondly, the outer circle is a group of countries that speakers use English as a
second language or L2 such as Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Philippines. Finally, the
expanding circle is a group of countries that were not established a colony by native speakers,
and they use English language as a foreign language such as China, Japan, Thailand, and
Russia. Kachru’s model focuses on native speaker fluency as an international language, and
this idea leads to the World Englishes phenomenon that works against the concept of
standardized norms (Al-Mutairi, 2020).

Asian English Accents
According to ICOSA (2015), in addition to Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, English is
one of the official languages in Singapore. Singaporean accent has been used since Singapore
was colonized by British. It has been extended to education, business, and communication.
People often hear Singaporean accent on news broadcasting. The uniqueness of Singaporean
accent is lack of “r” sound, and all syllables are almost equal stressed in the sentence. The
intonation of Singaporean accent seems like singing songs (ICOSA, 2015).
China is the biggest country in economy. Therefore, people around the world want to
communicate with Chinese people for trading. However, Chinese accent is hard for people who
are not from Southeast Asia because Chinese accent has fewer vowel sounds and is more tonal
than native English. Chinese accent has a “twang” which is an almost musical change in tones
and is not found in native English (Recine, 2015). In addition, Recine (2015) states that the
sound of connected speech in Chinese accent is different from that of native English and that
of other languages. Chinese accent focuses on syllables while native English focuses on phrases
or sentences.

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Japanese accent is a unique accent because it has L1 at ending sounds and polite and nice
sounds in their accent. However, it has many negative comments. According to Kaur (2014),
Japanese accent sounds like a robot. Japanese accent is not easy to understand. Moreover,
people who use Japanese accent pronounce some words incorrectly and unclearly in
communication. Furthermore, people who use Japanese accent communicate without
intonation, so it is different from native English (Kaur, 2014).

EFL Students' Attitudes Toward Different Accents in Listening Comprehension
There is the variety of English accents besides American and British accents, and different
accents are influenced by mother tongues. The intonation is one of the most important
differences in different accents (Moinzadeh, Rezaei, & Dezhara, 2012). People who have
listening comprehension effectively in different accents will have the opportunity to access
more information and be successful at work, so it is important to be able to understand various
accents.
Because of the variety of English accents, people have different attitudes toward those accents.
It has been found in many research studies that EFL students have positive attitudes toward
native accents. According to Kaur (2014), EFL students prefer native speaker English accents
over non-native speaker English accents. Overall, the native speaker English accents are
described in more positive tones. American and British accents are the norm that is preferred
accents to many Thai students (Tananuraksakul, 2017). Thai students often practice listening
skills through various media from native speakers in their classroom such as videos and audios.
However, the teachers do not teach other accents. Therefore, non-native English accents have
been seen in negative attitudes because students are not familiar with those accents. According
to Moinzadeh, Rezaei, and Dezhara (2012), to increase EFL students' familiarity in non-native
accents, listening exercises with non-native accents should be prepared by teachers to boost
students' listening comprehension.

Objective
This research aimed to study Thai EFL students' attitudes toward outer and expanding circle
Asian accents in listening comprehension.

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Methodology
Research Design
The study employed a qualitative research approach. The data was collected from a semi-
structured interview.

Participants
The participants were three undergraduate students who studied in the English Language
Program at a government university in Bangkok.

Table 1. The Participant's Personal Information

Students Academic Levels
S1 2nd year
S2 3rd year
S3 4th year

Research Procedures
Five interview questions from the semi-structured interview were used as an instrument to
survey the participants' attitudes toward outer and expanding circles Asian accents in listening
comprehension as shown in Appendix A. The questions were adapted from Sangnok and
Jaturapitakkul (2019).

Data Analysis
The interview data was recorded and transcribed. The transcribed information was read and
grouped as the themes and subthemes.

Research Findings
All of the participants’ responses from the five interview questions were transcribed in order
to explore their attitudes toward non-native accents, especially Asian accents in listening
comprehension.

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Table 2. Theme for Attitudes Toward Non-Native Accents

Theme Subthemes Responses

Attitudes toward non- Positive attitudes A different mother tongue
native accents

On the question that asked whether it is important to speak English like a native speaker or not,
all of them agreed that it is not important because each person has a different mother tongue.
It is more important to be able to communicate.
Below are responses from each participant.
S1: It isn’t very important. The accent of speakers from each country depends on the first
language and cultures, so they just have to speak correctly. The way non-native speakers
pronounce words differs from English of native speakers.
S2: It isn’t important. If you can speak a native accent, it will be good for the listener.
Foreigners will more understand, but we don’t need to speak like a native speaker. However,
just you can communicate with foreigners, and they understand. That's good enough.
S3: It isn’t important. I have met many people from many countries, and each person has a
different mother tongue. I think we don’t need to speak English like a native speaker.

Table 3. Theme for Listening Comprehension of Native Accents

Theme Subthemes Responses

Listening a. Negative responses Speak too fast or use unfamiliar
comprehension of words
native accents

b. Positive response Talk about daily lives

When the participants were asked how often they completely understand when they are
speaking to a native speaker, two of them had negative responses. They said that they do not
often completely understand because a native speaker speaks too fast or uses unfamiliar words.
Below are responses from each participant.
S1: I don’t often completely understand. I can understand around 80%. If the vocabulary is
familiar, it makes me easier to understand. For some words I don't know, it is impossible for

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me to understand. So, I try to capture the keyword of that sentence to understand the meaning
of the sentence to understand what it means.
S2: I don’t often completely understand because the speaker's accent is not familiar, or the
speaker speaks too fast and makes me understand only about 50%. Even if I don't understand
it, I can understand what it means.
However, one participant had a positive response. She said that she often completely
understands when a native speaker talks about daily lives. Below is a response from this
participant.
S3: I often completely understand. It depends on the situation. I completely understand when
a native speaker asks about daily lives, but if I listen to information about particular jobs, I
listen more than once. I have to ask the native speaker to explain it to me to make me
understand. If they use technical terms, I have to ask them to use simple words.

Table 4. Theme for Listening Comprehension of Non-Native Accents

Theme Subthemes Responses

Listening Negative responses Do not usually listen to non-native
comprehension of accents
non-native accents

On the question that asked how often they completely understand when they are speaking to a
non-native speaker, all of them agreed that they do not often completely understand because
they don't usually listen to non-native accent and non-native speaker use their own accents to
communicate. As a result, they cannot understand every word. Below are responses from each
participant.
S1: I don’t often completely understand. When comparing to speaking with a native speaker,
it's more difficult. For example, American and British accents are available on YouTube, and
I frequently communicate with native speakers. But for non-native accents, I don't usually listen
to their accents, so it makes more difficult to understand.
S2: I don’t often completely understand. I might not be able to understand every word they say.
But sometimes I can make sense of what they're saying and get the point.
S3: I don’t often completely understand because non-native speakers have their own accents.
Sometimes I ask them to repeat some words to make sure that I understand what they say. For
example, I used to talk to Vietnamese people. I spent a lot of time talking to them because I

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didn’t understand what they said. They used their own accents to talk to me, so it was difficult
to understand.

Table 5. Theme for Comparison between Native and Non-Native Accents

Theme Subthemes Responses

Comparison between a. Native accents are A linking sound between words
native and non-native more difficult to
accents understand

b. Native accents are Listen to a lot of native accents
easier to understand

When the participants were asked do they think that a native speaker’s accent is easier to
understand than that of non-native speaker, two of them had negative responses. They said that
each accent has different characteristics and native speakers have a linking sound between
words. Below are responses from each participant.
S2: No. Native speakers have a linking sound between words in sentences, so it can cause
misunderstanding. On the other hand, non-native speakers pronounce the word more clearly
and their accents are similar to Thai accent.
S3: No. Each accent has different characteristics which make it difficult to understand, but
some accents are easy to understand. For example, I think Singapore accent is the easiest to
understand. It might be because Singaporean people use simple structures.
However, one participant had a positive response. They said that they understand native accents
more than non-native accents because he has listened to a lot of native accents. Below is a
response from this participant.
S1: Yes. Native speaker’s speech can be more understandable than non-native speaker because
I've listened to a lot of native speakers, and they can pronounce the word more correctly.
However, I can’t understand non-native speakers.

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Table 6. Theme for Comparison between Outer and Expanding Circle Asian Accents

Theme Subthemes Responses

Comparison between a. Japanese accent is Use L1 ending sounds
outer and expanding more difficult to
circle Asian accents understand

b. Singaporean accent is Short tones, and longer
difficult to understand pronunciation of some words

When the participants were asked which accent they think is the most difficult to understand,
two of them had answered Japanese accent because Japanese people use L1 ending sounds
when they speak English, so there are some words that participants cannot understand. Below
are responses from each participant.
S2: I think Japanese accent is the most difficult accent to understand because there are some
words that I cannot understand. I listened to interviews of Japanese journalists interviewing
foreign singers, and I did not understand what the Japanese reporter was saying.
S3: I think Japanese accent is the most difficult to understand. Japanese people use L1 ending
sounds when they speak English. However, it is not too difficult to understand Japanese accent.
I think I can ask them to repeat what they say to make me understand more.
However, one participant had answered Singaporean accent as the most difficult because there
are short tones, and the pronunciation of some words is longer than usual. Below is a response
from the participant.
S1: I think Singaporean accent is the most difficult to understand because there are short tones
and the pronunciation of some words are longer than usual. It also lacks ending sounds.

Discussion
From the results of the coding of the semi-structured interview, all students indicated that they
had a positive attitude toward non-native accents. In this study, the students reflected in the
semi-structured interview that it is not important to speak English like a native speaker because
each person has a different mother tongue. It is more important to be able to communicate. The
students’ responses in the present study are supported by the study by Saipullah, Syahari, and
Susanti (2021). The participants had positive perceptions of non-native English speakers'
accents. They thought that comprehending different accents enhanced learning about different

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English accents and improving their listening abilities. The participants thought it was really
helpful and meaningful to comprehend different English accents.
However, according to the students’ responses in the semi-structured interview, all students
mentioned that when they are speaking to a non-native speaker, they do not often completely
understand because they do not usually listen to non-native accents and non-native speakers
use their own accents to communicate. The findings of this study are similar to those of
Kurtuldu and Ozkan (2022). Participants in the study were less familiar to non-native accents.
The feeling of incompetence emerged as the most notable theme. One of the participants
pointed out that lack of exposure to many accent varieties can make language learners feel
incompetent in their listening skills owing to unfamiliarity.
As evidenced by the qualitative findings from the semi-structured interview, when comparing
outer and expanding circle Asian accents, most students believed that Japanese accent is the
most difficult to understand because Japanese people use L1 ending sounds when they speak
English, so there are some words that the students cannot understand. The findings of this
present study align with the findings presented in the research study conducted by Kaur (2014).
Participants stated that Japanese accents had L1 ending sounds. Although Japanese accents had
uniqueness of pronunciation, it was hard to understand because Japanese people added sounds.

Conclusion
Although Thai EFL students have positive attitudes toward Asian accents, there are some
negative effects in listening comprehension. When comparing the outer circle Asian accent
which is Singaporean accent and the expanding circle Asian accents which are Japanese and
Chinese accents, Japanese accent causes some problems in listening comprehension because
Japanese people have L1 ending sounds. Therefore, Thai EFL students should learn more about
a variety of Asian accents, especially Japanese accent. They should listen to videos of how to
speak English in Japanese accent from various media, such as YouTube, TikTok, etc.

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References

Al-Mutairi, M. A. (2020). Kachru's three concentric circles model of English language: An
overview of criticism & the place of Kuwait in it. English Language Teaching, 13(1),
85-88.

Arabani, S. A., Fathi, J., & Somehsaraei, B. R. (2019). The effect of use of native-accent and
non-native accent materials on the Iranian EFL learners’ listening comprehension: An
EIL perspective. International Journal of Research in English Education, 4(3), 42-54.

ICOSA, (2015). Singaporean accent. ICOSA. https://icosa.hkbu.edu.hk/listening/english-
accents/sinagaporean-accent/index.htm

Kaur, P. (2014). Accent attitudes: Reactions to English as a lingua franca. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 134, 3-12.

Kurtuldu, E., & Ozkan, Y. (2022). The investigation of different English accents on listening
comprehension. The Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 22(2), 50-62.

Lauder, A. (2008). The status and function of English in Indonesia: A review of key factors.
Makara, Sosial Humaniora, 12(1), 9-20.

Moinzadeh, A., Rezaei, O., & Dezhara, S. (2012). The effect of non-native accent on Iranian
EFL learners' listening comprehension, focusing on Persian accent of English. Journal
of Language Teaching & Research, 3(5), 967-972.

Recine, D. (2015). Business English skill: Understanding Chinese accents. Magoosh Blog –
TOEFL®️ Test. https://magoosh.com/toefl/business-english-skill-understanding-
chinese-accents/

Saipullah, H. M., Syahri, I., & Susanti, R. (2021). Students’ perceptions on the accents of non-
native English speakers in interactive listening and extensive speaking class. English
Community Journal, 5(1), 1-10.

Sangnok, P., & Jaturapitakkul, N. (2019). Perceptions of Thai undergraduate students toward
the Asian English accents on listening comprehension. REFLections, 26(2), 24-50.

Tananuraksakul, N. (2017). Building up Thai EFL students’ positive attitudes toward their non-
native English accented speech with the use of phonetics website. Teaching English
with Technology, 17(4), 52-63.

Tara, S., Yanagisawa, K., & Oshima, H. (2010). The influence of foreign accent on the listening
comprehension by Japanese EFL learners. ARELE: Annual Review of English
Language Education in Japan, 21, 121-130.

APPENDICES

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Questions for the Semi-Structured Interview

Question 1 - Is it important to speak English like a native speaker?

Question 2 - When you are speaking to a native speaker, how often do you completely
understand?

Question 3 - When you are speaking to a non-native speaker, how often do you completely
understand?
Question 4 - Do you think that a native speaker’s accent is easier to understand than that of
non-native speaker?

Question 5 - Which accent do you think is the most difficult to understand?

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Pictures of the seminar