Attitudes to accents: the special case of English Lingua Franca (ELF)

This paper examines data emerging from a survey of attitudes of (mostly) Italian first year university students of modern languages towards accents in second language acquisition. In particular, it focuses on the notion of intelligibility and identity, and seeks to ascertain whether a ‘native-speaker-like’ accent is less important for language students in a context of English Lingua Franca (ELF) than in a traditional second or foreign language learning context, or whether indeed it might be seen as a hindrance to effective communication between non native speakers. The marked preference for a native-speaker-like accent which emerges is contrasted with a growing 'ELF awareness' on the part of teachers, and the paper concludes with a reflection on the special case of English in university teaching programmes.