Native-Speaker Ideology in English andChinese Language Learning: What Do L2 Learners Say about Their Ultimate Pronunciation Goal?

Abstract

Pronunciation research and pedagogy have long been influenced by two contradictory principles: the nativeness and intelligibility principle. Traditionally, the choice of pronunciation goals in English language education has been guided by the nativeness principle, regarding a native-speaker (NS) model as the ideal and invariable learning target. Over the past decades, however, this NS model has largely been criticised because it no longer serves the diverse needs and functions of most multilingual settings, where second language (L2) speakers are the overwhelming majority. It is argued that contemporary pronunciation teaching should focus on maintaining international intelligibility rather than achieving native-like pronunciation. In recent years, this controversy in pronunciation pedagogy may have been extended to Chinese language learning because of the significant increase in the number of native and foreign Chinese speakers spread around the world. The study reported in this paper aimed to examine and compare L2 learners’ perceptions of learning English and Chinese pronunciation. Specifically, 121 Hong Kong secondary students studying these two languages as a second/foreign language were interviewed to elicit their beliefs in their goals of pronunciation learning for the two languages. The findings suggest that an NS ideology is more prominent in the participants’ English learning owing to its multiple symbolic and pragmatic values, but they tend to only focus on the communicative function of Chinese. The paper concludes by discussing how L2 learners’ attitudes towards pronunciation learning are influenced by their perceived local /global functions and status of a language and, hence, its implications for pronunciation research and teaching.