an analysis of accentedness in speech and employability of malay english speaking undergraduates at...

8/11/2019 An Analysis of Accentedness in Speech and Employability of Malay English Speaking Undergraduates at IIUM

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AN ANALYSIS OF ACCENTEDNESS IN SPEECH ANDEMPLOYABILITY OF MALAY ENGLISH SPEAKING

UNDERGRADUATES AT IIUM

BY

ANAZTASIA NATASHA

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for

the degree of Master of Human Sciences in EnglishLanguage Studies

Kulliyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and

Human Sciences

International Islamic University Malaysia

DECEMBER 2013


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In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.


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ABSTRACT

This study investigates employers attitudes of English-speaking Malay graduates

accented speech to see if they can be considered for employment. Besides, the studyseeks to identify the relationship between the different degrees of Malay accented

English and how they can affect these graduates chance in getting a job in the

Malaysian private educational sector. Thirty final semester students from various

Human Sciences undergraduate programmes were selected from three sections of

LE4500 Language for Occupational Purposes classes at the International Islamic

University Malaysia (IIUM). Their readings of a simplified text were audio-taped to

gather the different degrees of accentedness before being graded by five language

experts based on an impressionistic assessment of each sample on a seven-point scale

ranging from 7 being the most noticeable/marked Malay accent and 1 being the

least noticeable/unmarked Malay accent. Rankings for the 30 speech sample wereobtained from the five language experts but only 10 were selected to be rated for

employability and attitude by 12 representative employers from various colleges and

universities in the Malaysian private sector. The findings of this study indicate that

although accent has a vital effect on employability, there are also other important

criteria to be considered in hiring a good employee including high level of confidence,

comprehensible pronunciation and the extra effort in reading the given text clearly


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.

.

.LE4500

7

1 .

10

12

.

.


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APPROVAL PAGE

I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion, it conforms

to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope andquality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Language

Studies)

Maimunah Bt Abdul Kadir

Supervisor

I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptablestandards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a

thesis for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Language Studies)

....

Rozina Bt Abdul Ghani

Examiner

This thesis was submitted to the Department of English Language and Literature andis accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human

Sciences (English Language Studies)

....

Zahariah Bt Pilus

Head, Department of

English Language and

Literature

This thesis was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Human Sciences and Islamic Revealed

Knowledge and is accepted as fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master

of Human Sciences (English Language Studies)

Ibrahim Mohamed Zein

Dean,Kulliyyah of HumanSciences and Islamic

Revealed Knowledge


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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where

otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently

submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.

Anaztasia Natasha

Signature: Date:


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INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION

OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH

Copyright 2013 by International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights reserved.

AN ANALYSIS OF ACCENTEDNESS IN SPEECH AND

EMPLOYABILITY OF MALAY ENGLISH SPEAKINGUNDERGRADUATES AT IIUM

No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder except

as provided below.

1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may

be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.

2. IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print

or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.

3. The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieval system

and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other

universities and research libraries.

Affirmed by Anaztasia Natasha

.... ..

Signature Date


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I dedicate this dissertation to my loving mom, Faridah Bt Talib.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the name of Allah (S.W.T), the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful

Alhamdulillah, Im forever grateful to Him for the strengths, wisdom, and

perseverance that He has bestowed upon me during the process of accomplishing my

Masters degree.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Maimunah Bt

Abdul Kadir, for guiding me in the dissertation process. I owe my success to her

expert guidance, mentoring, and encouragement, from the very beginning to the very

end of the long journey. I am grateful for her generosity, constructive feedback, a

healthy dose of realism, but above all, for her invariable support along the way and

teaching me to turn every challenge into an opportunity. Thank you for everything.

My examiner, Dr Rozina Bt Abdul Ghani, who patiently provided constructive

detailed comments and countless revisions of my work. I am very indebted to her for

always making herself available to respond to my questions and queries, despite her

busy schedule.

Last but never the least, I am particularly grateful to my mum, Faridah Bt

Talib who supported me fully in any way she was able to, by listening, sending words

of encouragement and making sure that I took care of myself. I love her so much, and

will not have made it this far without her.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ............................................................................................................... ii

Abstract in Arabic ................................................................................................ iiiApproval page ..................................................................................................... iv

Declaration .......................................................................................................... v

Declaration of Copyright ..................................................................................... vi

Dedication ........................................................................................................... vii

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. viii

List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xi

List of Figures ..................................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 1

1.1 Statement of the Problem .................................................................... 31.2 Significance of the Study .................................................................... 4

1.3 Research Objectives ........................................................................... 5

1.4 Research Questions ............................................................................ 5

1.5 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................... 6

1.6 Definition of Terms ............................................................................ 7

1.7 Conceptional Definition: Attitude and Employability ................... 10

1.8 Summary ............................................................................................ 12

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEWS ............................................... 13

2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 13

2.1.1 Language Attitudes ................................................................... 14

2.1.2 Attitude Towards Speech Varieties ........................................... 14

2.1.3 Language Attitudes towards Speakers of Language Varieties .... 15

2.1.4 Status Dichotomy...................................................................... 16

2.1.5 Language Attitudes towards Employment Opportunities ........... 16

2.1.6 Studies In Attitudinal Judgements on Accented Speech ............. 21

2.2 Evaluative Reactions to Varieties of Accents ...................................... 32

2.2.1 Matched Guise Technique Used to Measure Language

Attitudes Towards Foreign Accent..................................................... 33

2.2.2 The Verbal Guise Technique .................................................. 352.2.3 Fossilization.............................................................................. 37

2.2.4 Summary of Chapter Two ......................................................... 38

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ........................................................ 393.0 Introduction ........................................................................................ 39

3.1 Respondents ....................................................................................... 39

3.2 Data Collection Techniques ................................................................ 41

3.2.1 How the Brennan and Brennan (1981) Study is Relevant to thisResearch ............................................................................................ 41

3.2.2 Other Related Study in the Method of Measuring: Cunningham-Andersson and Engstrand (1989) ....................................................... 43

3.3 Data Collection Procedure .................................................................. 45

3.3.1 Judgement of Employability ..................................................... 49


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3.4 Data Analysis ..................................................................................... 52

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION ........................................... 57

4.0 Introduction ........................................................................................ 57

4.1 Findings ............................................................................................. 57

4.2 Discussion .......................................................................................... 64

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION .................................................................. 705.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 70

5.2 Pedagogical Implication ..................................................................... 715.3 Future Research .................................................................................. 72

BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 73

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 80


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LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Page No.

3.1 Distribution of Subjects Selected for the Study 40

3.2 Tabulated Summary of Research Questions 45

3.3 Seven-Point Scale 48

3.4 Ratings by Linguists 48

3.5 Data gathering procedures 51

3.6 The Ten Chosen Speech Samples 53

3.7 The Samples Categorized Under the three Categories of Accentedness 54

3.8 Allocation of New Numbers to the Ten Samples. 55

4.1 Summary of Students Accent Rating 58

4.2 Demographic of the Ten Students Samples & their Accent Rating 60

4.3 Employers Demographic 61

4.4 Employers Decision for Hiring Based on the Samples 62


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Page No.

2.1 Seven-point accented rating scale 18

3.1 Seven-Point Scale with Poles 42

3.2 5-Point Subjective Accentedness Scale with Poles 43

3.3 Seven-Column Scale 47


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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

ALOR SETAR, Oct 26 (Bernama) -- The Kedah/Perlis branch

of Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) is

collaborating with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to

develop a programme to improve English language

proficiency among industry workers.

Its chairman, Dr Haminnuddin Abd Hamid, said the

programme would also be opened to the public, especially

school leavers and unemployed graduates, so that they

could become more employable.

He said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on theprogramme had been signed between Kedah/Perlis FMM and

Kedah UiTM recently, which was also witnessed by Deputy

Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk

Mukhriz Mahathir.

Under the MoU, Kedah UiTM would develop suitable

English modules for the programme, which would be

conducted by Kedah/Perlis FMM Institute as in-house or

public training programme beginning early next year.

"Among the modules to be developed are Basic English,

Workplace English, Critical Thinking, Technical Report

Writing, Presentation Skills, Conducting EffectiveMeetings and Spoken English," he said.

At present, Dr Haminnuddin said a pilot project for

the programme was being conducted for Ideal Healthcare

Sdn Bhd.

Meanwhile, in a bid to further improve the skills of

workers in the northern states, he said Kedah/Perlis FMM

had also signed a Letter of Intent for future

collaboration with Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Polytechnic in

Perlis.

"The collaboration is aimed at exploring futureinter-organisational cooperation for the exchange of

information and expertise pertaining to development,

training and skills upgrading for both employees in

industry as well as students of the Polytechnic," he

said.

-- BERNAMA (2011)

In Malaysia, English is seen as vital for the nations growth in achieving Vision 2020;

a vision thought by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin


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Mohamad. This vision is seen as important for the future course of the nation,

including how Malaysians should go about attaining this objective of developing

Malaysia into an industrialized country (Siregar, 2010). This powerful language has a

steady foothold in the worlds business, education, and entertainment. It is possible for

one to say that English can even cause the death of a language if certain outer circles

(excolonies of the British empire) become less interested in preserving their

grandparents' language than in teaching their children a language that can help them

get better jobs with higher pay. This is based on a research about the attitude of people

(Grinevald, Colette and Bert, 2011).

Studies on listeners attitudinal judgment on speakers different degrees of

accentedness in speech have been of interest to researchers in many disciplines (Sally,

2011; Frumkin, 2007; Nair, 2005; Dixon and Mahoney, 2004; Dixon, Mahoney,

Cocks, 2002). Researchers use different direct methods (i.e. questionnaires and

interviews) and indirect methods (i.e. the matched-guise technique), in measuring

language attitudes towards bilingual speakers depending on the objectives of their

studies, based on various communal, cultural and ethno-social perspectives.

According to Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010), the speakers accent is also being

judged by the listeners across several personality traits and qualities. Other researches

(Sims, 2012; Nguyen, 2010; Hosoda and Stone, 2010; Cargile, 2000) have laid out

biased judgments of employers based on the applicants foreign accent in speaking

English, affecting interview decisions. The employers tend to favour those who use

Standard English in their speech more than the applicants with distinctly heavy accent.

We can easily understand why native speakers of English have an

unfavourable, skeptical and guarded view of other non-natives in their language

community (Cargile, Maeda, Rodriguez and Rich, 2010; Chuang, 2005) but it should


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not happen among non-native speakers themselves since English is not their first

language to begin with. For example in Malaysia, there exist the prejudicial triggers

of employers judgments against the speech style of applicants in certain jobs within

the private sector.

This is what the researcher wants to examine in the present study, the language

attitude of the non-native English language speakers in the local community in

Malaysia; looking at the issue of biased language attitude from the perspective of

socio-psychology.

1.1STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The Malay applicants should not rely solely on their academic qualifications but

concentrate also on the communication demands, sociolinguistic requirements and

goals of their English-speaking employers, if they were to secure suitable jobs in the

private sector. When International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) students

graduate from the university and start to search for employment, they often have to

attend numerous job interviews, either face-to-face or by telephone. Their verbal use

of English will be strongly evaluated, leading the applicants who have a non-native

like accent to suffer from a likelihood of being rejected in job interviews. Perhaps, one

may wonder if there is a potential for triggering biased judgements in the employers

interview process and hiring decision against prospective Malay graduates who speak

English with different degrees of accentedness. If there is discrimination, is there a

relationship between the rating of accentedness and employability that can lead to a

less preferred employability rating in the private sector?

In Malaysia, studies on job employment usually focus on ethnicity (Zuraina,

Norhasni and Abdul, 2009; Lim, 2008; Balasubramaniam, 2006; Mandla, 2006), job


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satisfaction (Safaria, Othman and Wahab, 2011; Noor, 2011; Sharifah and Bahaman,

2009; Yussof, Ismail and Sidin, 2008) and the burden of graduate unemployment that

are not related to the field of phonology. There has been no study in IIUM dedicated

to accentedness and employability; therefore, this study will investigate the

employers attitudinal judgement on the different degrees of accentedness in their

selection of fresh graduates particularly from IIUM to fill the job market.

The focus of the present study is to investigate the attitudes held by English

speaking employers within the private sector, towards the different degrees of Malay

accented English of the English-speaking Malay graduates from IIUM; it also

investigates the opportunities for employment of these graduates. The speech samples

were gathered during the first semester of 2011/2012 from representative students

from all Human Sciences departments, which were later graded by language experts

before being presented to the selected employers.

Text should begin at the left margin, i.e., the first line of the first paragraph in a

section is not indented. The body of the text must be fully justified. The line spacing

of the basic text should be set at 2.0 (double spacing). This includes line-to-line,

paragraph-to-paragraph, text-to-numbered list, sentences within numbered lists, and

subheading to text.

1.2SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The outcome of this investigation would hopefully act as an eye-opener to those who

can relate to the accentedness of speech, namely students, language instructors, as

well as planners at the Ministry of Education in terms of their practices and policies.

Thus, opening doors for them to identify the main problems in speech so as to create

remedial treatments in reducing the Malay accent in the English spoken by the


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applicants; making the teaching of English to be more efficient, applicable and

functional in accomplishing the needs of intellectual comprehensibility.

Furthermore, the findings may also serve as a key to boost the employability

rate of the graduates, in the hope that the knowledge of the employers expectations

(i.e. most preferable variety of spoken English) in hiring applicants can be

implemented in designing materials for teaching.

1.3RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This study has the following objectives:

To identify the range of accentedness among Malay students who study in

different disciplines in the Kulliyyah of IRKHS, IIUM.

To analyze if the different degrees of accentedness among Malay graduate

employees affect their opportunities of employability.

To examine if English speaking employees, particularly those in the field

of education, require a certain acceptable degree of accentedness in

prospective graduate employees. for teaching.

1.4RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Specifically, the study tries to find answers to the following questions:

1.

What is the range of accentedness among Malay students from various

backgrounds of study in IIUM?

2. To what extent do varying degrees of accentedness among Malay graduate

employees affect their opportunities of employability?

3. To what extent do employers in the field of education require a certain

acceptable degree of accentedness?


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Nevertheless, this is a study that needs to be emphasized since it is crucial for

future graduates to know the expectations and attitudes of these employers if they

were to join multimillion dollar companies. It should be interesting to observe whether

the employers evaluate the English language as a whole or if they have their own

preferences on how it must be spoken.

1.5THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The theoretical framework for this study is based on the accent prestige theory

(Fuertes, Potere, Ramirez, 2002) which suggests that listeners judge a speakers

characteristics based on his accent. The theory further claims that a speaker will be

positively evaluated if he were to speak in a standard accent, belonging to the

dominant group in society since a build-up of negativity in the listeners attitude will

be created if accents other than the standard one were to be used.

According to the accent prestige theory, people are capable in identifying the

various dialects or accents besides having the tendency to pre-judge any individual

based on their experience with accented speakers. The theory also suggests that a

person who speaks with Received Pronunciation (R.P.) dialect is attached with more

positive personal traits as compared to those who speak with a regional dialect (Giles,

1970). He further argues that the non-standard accent may invite a negative feedback

from listeners.

Past studies using this theory (Fuertes, 2000; Foon, 2001) have shown how

standard-accented speakers are more preferred than non-standard-accented speakers in

the solidarity or status dimensions, or both. Even though after knowing the reasons

behind accented speech (i.e. social class and educational background) the listeners

may hold back their judgements, yet, if they failed to reach this relevant information,


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they will continue to judge speakers accent. The speakers believe that discrimination

through identification of ethnicity by voice can lead to preconceived judgements on

the part of the listeners (Fuertes, 2000; Foon, 2001).

The accent prestige theory suggests that speakers with accents coming from

England and America, are highly rated and favoured by those who speak the majority

and the minority accents mainly due to their access to the global community for

economic development. A study conducted by Bayard (2001), carried out in Australia

was done to measure the perceptions of British-, American-, Australian-, and New

Zealand-English accented speakers. This study used Likert-scale questionnaires to

evaluate twenty two personality and demographic traits of voices, selecting them to

represent the average range of the accents. Results indicated that the subjects rated

their own native accent beneath speakers of British-English and American-English,

consistent with the accent prestige theory since England and American are both

politically powerful nations.

This theory is again proven when Rupp (2009) claims that people prefer

accents that are similar to theirs by giving higher ratings as opposed to the speakers

with foreign accents, which in a sense may be portrayed as discrimination. Hence,

leading those with accented speech to undergo an accent modification therapy due to

alienation or to feel belong in a society that uses culturally dominant accent (Ayesha,

2011).

1.6DEFINITION OF TERMS

Categories of definitions are created to elucidate crucial terms utilized in the study,

including the differences between accent and dialect, and standard English and

received pronunciation, along with the definitions of attitude and employability.


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Speech Varieties

Malaysians speak English with different degrees of accentedness, partly due to the

speakers exposure to non-local accents through their social interactions with family,

peers and colleagues, the diversity of mass media (newspapers, TV programmes),

educational and linguistic influence and first language interference.

Standard English and Received Pronunciation (RP)

Crystal (2003: 55-56) explains Standard English as a dialect which conveys nothing

about geographical origin; adding three prominent elements to it: we may define the

Standard English of an English-speaking country as a minority variety (identified

chiefly by its vocabulary, grammar, and orthography) which carries most prestige and

is most widely understood. Those three elements explain that Standard English firstly

is known as a prestigious English variety, but not the most widely used. It is the most

intelligible English variety, and is defined based on syntactic and lexical criteria,

without reference to phonology.

The standard speech or also known as Received Pronunciation (RP) is the

British English accent historically taken from the prestige speech of the Court and

public schools that tends to be associated with the societys elites and is used as the

model to teach English for non-native speakers, even when it is neither superior nor

inferior to other accents. It should be noted that Received Pronunciation is the

British form of Standard English, but this does not apply to every part of the English-

speaking communities in the world since they have their own version of Standard

English.

To illustrate, the standard form of Malaysian English is the variety that is

approved by educated speakers of English in the Malaysian community since it is the


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variety which appears to be most befitting for the teaching and learning of English

language in educational institutions. In this respect, Pillay (2004) who came up with

the models (Malaysian Standard English vs. Manglish) of English for Malaysian

schools, emphasizes intelligibility, which is known as word level recognition.

According to him, if a person understands the words that he hears, therefore the

language or speaker is intelligible to the hearer. This statement is later made as a key

point in choosing the most suitable dialect between the two (i.e. standard Malaysian

English and Manglish) to be applied as a pedagogical model for instructional

purposes.

Dialect

Carlson and McHenry (2006) explain that a dialect is created by a geographical

barrier, which isolates a group of people from another. A dialect is of the same form in

the majority who speaks it, yet different when it comes to the usage of particular

elements, for example, the phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, semantics

which can influence nevertheless. In Malaysia for instance, we own somewhat

contrasting Malay dialects like those originating from Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan,

Kedah, Penang and Terengganu, which can be identified by a special set of structures

in phonology, grammar and vocabulary, portraying linguistic differences between the

locals and outsiders; thus showing an important marker of solidarity for each speech

community. Siregar (2010) explains this concept of solidarity by illustrating it through

the Singapore Colloquial English or Singlish which is used when a Singaporean

speaks with close relations, but when he wants to communicate with superiors and

foreigners, Standard Singapore English is used.


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Accent

The term accent on the other hand is associated directly to this study, therefore is

essential for the researchs development. To define accent according to the field of

sociolinguistics is to see it as referring to speakers or speech communitys

characteristics of speech. Other definitions of accent include the following:

A manner of pronunciation different from standard speech with the

grammatical, syntactical, and lexical levels consistent with the standard

(Brennan, 1977 as cited in Nguyen, 2010: 11).

Accented language is derived from phonological characteristics

influenced by a persons native origin, native language, or social status.

The speech characteristics of this native language may overlap or carryon into the standard English language when spoken as a secondarylanguage, resulting in accented English. (Carlson and McHenry,

2006:1).

The Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (2003) defines accent as the

cumulative auditory effect of those phonological and phonetic features of a persons

pronunciation which identify where he is from, regionally or socially (p.3).

Accentedness

According to Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, language or speech that

is accented is spoken with a particular accent. Kashiwagi and Snyder (2010) further

explain that accentedness can be seen as the degree to which a speakers

pronunciation is perceived to contradict from the native speakers version and can be

measured impressionistically on a scale.

1.7CONCEPTIONAL DEFINITION: ATTITUDE AND EMPLOYABILITY

In order to construct a stable framework for the current study, the meaning of

attitude, its form, classes, characteristics and distinction in dealing with


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employability will need to be verified. Elements of attitude, such as behavioural,

cognitive and affective that can be linked to employability implying a systematic

patterns of judgement, are also conferred. is used.

Language Attitude

For the purposes of this study, the term language attitudes is seen as consisting of

three parts. Edwards (1982) defines language attitudes as having cognitive, affective

and behavioural components (as cited in McBride, 2006: 6):

Language attitudes are cognitive in that they comprise and contain beliefs

about the world.

Language attitudes are affective in that they evoke feelings about an

attitude object.

Language attitudes are behavioral in that they are systematically linked to

behaviour.

Employability

Wilton (2011) quoted two definitions of employability, the first one is by Hillage

and Pollard (1998: 1):

Employability is about having the capability to gain initial

employment, maintain employment and obtain new employment ifrequired.

Watts (2006), on the other hand, explains employability within three concepts:

employability as employment outcome (i.e. the accomplishment of fitting

employment),

employability as a process of learning,

an analysis of accentedness in speech and employability of malay english speaking undergraduates at...

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