The Effect of Native English Accents on Comprehensibility Among Dutch Students

Abstract

This thesis aims to find whether there are significant differences between the comprehension of native English accents among young Dutch students of English and if familiarity with these accents might influence comprehensibility. Many researchers found that a speaker’s accent has effect on listening assessment scores (Eisentein and Berkowitz, 1981;Anderson-Hsieh and Koehler, 1988; Bilbow, 1989; Derwing and Munro, 1997) and that there might be a connection between a degree of familiarity and comprehensibility of an accent (Gass and Varonis, 1984; Bradlow and Brent, 2008; Adank, Evans, Stuart-Smith and Scott, 2009; Okay and French 2014). Three native English accents were included in the test, namely British, American and Australian. By means of a listening test, corresponding to the students’ listening level, and a survey, students’ listening comprehension and familiarity with the accents were assessed. The listening test included 15 multiple choice questions and the survey consisted of four Likert scale questions. Findings include: (1) No significant differences between the assessment scores were found, each accent was equally comprehensible; (2) neither male nor female students performed significantly different; (3) there was no correlation found between the familiarity and comprehensibility of an accent.