This paper investigates international responses to Singapore English (SgE), in terms of both intelligibility and attitudes toward the speaker, and compares it to responses to American English (AmE). It surveys 200 respondents from over 20 countries as they listen to a set of 15 sound recordings, including read SgE, spontaneous SgE, and read AmE. The results suggest that the intelligibility of SgE and AmE does differ between informants from different regions. However, the intelligibility of the test stimuli does not correlate simply to positive and negative attitudes. While SgE elicits generally positive attitudes, what is interesting is that the judgments of respondents from South-East Asia and East Asia are often more negative than those of English speakers of Inner Circle varieties. This seems to suggest not only an impenetrable mindset of these traditionally “non-native” English speakers, who seem to be still clamoring to speak an idealized “standard”, but also an inferiority complex over their own varieties of English.
2017. Stakeholders’ perceptions of language variation, English language teaching and language use: the case of Hong Kong. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 38:1 ► pp. 2 ff.
Chan, Jim Yee Him
2018. Attitudes and identities in learning English and Chinese as a lingua franca: a bilingual learners’ perspective. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39:9 ► pp. 759 ff.
Foo, Amanda Limin & Ying‐Ying Tan
2019. Linguistic insecurity and the linguistic ownership of English among Singaporean Chinese. World Englishes 38:4 ► pp. 606 ff.
Hansen Edwards, Jette G., Mary L. Zampini & Caitlin Cunningham
2018. The accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility of Asian Englishes. World Englishes 37:4 ► pp. 538 ff.
Hansen Edwards, Jette G., Mary L. Zampini & Caitlin Cunningham
2019. Listener judgments of speaker and speech traits of varieties of Asian English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40:8 ► pp. 691 ff.
McKenzie, Robert M., Patchanok Kitikanan & Phaisit Boriboon
2016. The competence and warmth of Thai students’ attitudes towards varieties of English: the effect of gender and perceptions of L1 diversity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 37:6 ► pp. 536 ff.
Meer, Philipp, Johanna Hartmann & Dominik Rumlich
2022. Attitudes of German high school students toward different varieties of English. Applied Linguistics 43:3 ► pp. 538 ff.
2021. Linguistic Dimensions of Accentedness, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility: Exploring Listener Effects in American, Moroccan, Turkmen and Chinese Varieties of English. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics 44:4 ► pp. 520 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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