NS – idealized vs real

In discourse on pronunciation, more contradictory views manifested. One viewpoint sees NS targets as a good model, a belief signaling NS language ideologies. A contrasting view, however, regards attaining native-like pronunciation as impractical for ELF communication. Moreover, the belief in ELF users being able to communicate as well as NSs, if not better, is also present. This belief suggests the absence of a hierarchical view

towards ELF communication, which signals the presence of English-as-a- global-language ideology, discussed in 3.5.4.

The accounts in 7.23-7.25 suggest a belief in NS targets being irrelevant and useless for ELF communication. This view is present in 7.24, where the account suggests that trying to attain native-likeness is not worth the enormous effort. Rather, what is believed to be important is to speak in a way that enhances communication.

(7.24) <I> ok, all right, so, you said it's not your goal to try to speak like a native

speaker </I>

<A> erm </A>

<I> and i was wondering why it isn't your goal </I>

<A> er, i think it's just a, it's just on one hand it's quite difficult, you have to be

rehearsing all the time and listening to native speakers all the time and so

on and on the other hand it's not that useful, so you lose a lot of time

learning something which is which is basically not useful because because you can make yourself understood without doing that@@i think the main point in in language is to enhance communication between people, and now if you can communicate with with less effort as good as as well as a native speaker or even sometimes better than a native speaker then then, why why should you try to imitate a native speaker </A>

Like 7.24, the accounts in 7.25-.26 emphasize a belief in the importance of communication. They, however, contain conflicting views about the NS. In 7.25, the account implies leniency towards accent variability, and then targets error-free pronunciation that is ‘more’ native-like than that present in this speaker’s self-perception. It also faults NSs for excessive speed.

(7.25) <I> what do you think about correct language, is it important to speak correctly </I>

<A> no, i think that the most important point is to be able to communicate your ideas and to know that you have been understood, perfect grammar is not important but pronunciation can be a problem, you know there are many

kinds of english in the world today and many of these local accents as well like they have in asia, this is why i want to improve my pronunciation to be more native-like, if you can tell me my systematic errors i know that i can

improve them, but i don’t need to speak like a native speaker, you know these americans at conferences, you can’t understand anything they say when they speak so fast, you ask them to slow down and they do for a

moment and then they are right back at high speed again, they don’t seem to understand why non-native speakers don’t understand them, they have only one way of speaking </A>

Explicit in this account is the need for accommodation in international communication as well as the belief in speakers being able to adjust their communication in NS-NNS

interaction in international contexts. The account also suggests a desire to be more native- like in order to be able to cope with the different varieties of English. In other words, the more native-like the pronunciation, the better it fits all purposes as this would help to reduce variation in pronunciation. Similar to 7.24, this account also views native-likeness as good but not necessarily worth the huge investment. Conflicting views between idealized and real L2 communication targets are also present in 7.26.

(7.26) <I> do you think that measuring your own accent against a native speaker is relevant for your use of english at work </I>

<A> no, no, it's not relevant, although it could be, it could be good, but it's not

relevant, yeah it could be a good reference where you can get most of the right pronunciations, but you should put it in its framework somehow so that you don't exaggerate it, i don't have to compare how how i am speaking with a native, they're they're speaking a different way anyway

</A>

What seems to emerge from these accounts is a clear distinction in the views toward pronunciation as related to a NS model and the NS as an actual participant in international communication. Implicit in the NS-as-a-good-model belief seems to be the assumption that targeting a native-like pronunciation will help to reduce variation in ELF accents. Another assumption appears to be that achieving this target does not entail speaking in the same manner as a NS, which is viewed as inefficient in ELF communication due to the lack of accommodation. These assumptions illustrate a contradiction between an idealized view of pronunciation and the actual experience of communicating with NSs.

On self-perceptions, the accounts suggest that taking NS language ideology as the guide for pronunciation leads to negative perceptions when falling short of idealized NS targets. This view is signaled by the desire to improve in order to become more native- like. Conversely, the opposite is implied in the accounts, that is, pronunciation that closely approximates native-like targets results in positive self-perceptions. These views were present even though NS targets were perceived as impractical and useless for ELF communication.

7.3.3 Different sociolinguistic appropriateness for different social contexts