Dutch Actors Speaking English
Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate whether Dutch actors can be perceived as native
speakers of English, and if so, to what extent. It is stated by many studies that it is difficult to
become native like when one starts learning a second language from an older age. But it is not
clear if this is also the case for actors, who can practice their film lines and so their
pronunciation of English. The findings of this study suggest that it is possible for Dutch actors
to be perceived as native speakers of English, while acting. However, when the Dutch actors
were speaking rather than acting, not all were perceived as native speakers. This suggests that
context plays a role in the extent to which actors are judged as native or non-native speakers
of English. Furthermore, both Dutch native speaking listeners and English native speaking
listeners had the same perceptions of the actors in this study.