Presentation given at 5th Waseda ELF International Workshop, Tokyo The data from this study comes from a larger data set which was collected during a year-long phase of Exploratory Practice research into Japanese University students’ perceptions of English as an international language. The data presented here comes from a task in which non-English majors at a Japanese University (n=25) were asked to watch eight videos of different speakers of English, all of whom hailed from different cultural backgrounds and used different spoken varieties of English. The videos featured Singapore English, British and American varieties as well as varieties from so-called expanding circle contexts such as Austria, China, Japan and Korea. Participants rated each speaker for ‘authenticity’ on a scale from 1 to 10 and were asked to write a short comment to explain their choice. The results reveal that students showed an engrained native-speakerism to the way they felt about other speakers’ varieties of English, which is why they reacted negatively to so-called ‘non-standard’ varieties, showing particular prejudice against other East Asian speakers. The reasons for and connotations of this finding will be discussed in this presentation.

1. Japanese Students’ Reactions
to International Speakers of
English: native-speakerism
and authenticity
5th Waseda ELF International Workshop, Tokyo
14th November 2015
11:30-50
CPD-LG07Richard Pinner

2. Overview
Definitions
• Authenticity and Native-speakerism
Context
• Of the study
Samples
• Reactions to international speakers

3. Authenticity
Pinner, R. S. (2014). The authenticity
continuum: Towards a definition
incorporating international voices.
English Today, 30(4), 22-27.
Pinner, R. S. (2016). Reconceptualising
Authenticity for English as a
Global Language. Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.

4. Native-speakerism
Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach
English as an international language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

5. This Study

6. The Students
N=25. 14 M 11 F

8. no. Speaker
English L1
or L2 Nationality Video URL Average Overall
1 Ban Ki-moon EL2 Korean http://youtu.be/BQeUDcne3IE 5.12 133
2 Shinzo Abe EL2 Japanese http://youtu.be/3_FUnfw2grQ 5.77 150
3 Arnold Schwarzenegger EL2 Austrian http://youtu.be/EyhOmBPtGNM 8.58 223
4 Barack Obama EL1
North
American http://youtu.be/ELrUi12cbrM 8.58 223
5 Dynamo EL1
British
(Northern) http://youtu.be/YOaeXRZYNDs 6.58 171
6 Queen Elizabeth II EL1 British (RP) http://youtu.be/6E4v4Dw5Ags 9.00 234
7 14th Dalai Lama EL2
China
(Tibet) http://youtu.be/1U7DYp6flPc 5.54 144
8 Naomi Watts EL1
British/Aus
tralian http://youtu.be/6Nd51Cq3deA 7.88 205

9. 5.12
5.77
8.588.58
6.58
9.00
5.54
7.88
K ORE A N
JA P A NE S E
A US T RIA N
NORT H A ME RIC A N
BRIT IS H (NORT H E RN)
BRIT IS H (RP )
C H INA (T IBE T )
BRIT IS H /A US T RA LIAN
NATIONALITY
Average

10. Overall average 5.12 (lowest)
(4) “He’s Korean” [Chinese student]
(8) “His English is formal and like native
speakers!”
(2) “He is not good at speaking English
natively.”
(4) “He speaks English fluently. But he
doesn't make eye contact with people.
Because his speech isn't persuasive.”
(5) “I don't think he is poor at speaking
English. However, he is a Korean.”
(5) “The way he pronounced "L" and
"R" / "B" and "V" seemed almost the
same, so it sounded unnatural.”

11. Overall average 5.54
• (3) “Chinglish” [Chinese student]
• (3) “He is a suspicious-looking
person.”
• (1) “I don't like him. I think he
isn't a gentleman.”
• (7) “I feel his English is not good.
His English is similar to mine.”

12. Overall average 5.77
• (4) “ He makes eye contact with
people and he try to convey his
thought to people. But his way of
talking is a fool.”
• (5) “His English is easy for me.”
• (10) “He is top of Japanese”
• (4) “He made too many pauses
between phrases, so it sounded
quite awkward.”

13. Overall average 8.58
• (10) “I love Arnold Schwarzenegger
and He is native English speaker.”
• (9) “He is native and it is easy to
hear.”
• (10) “He is a native speaker.”
• (9) “He is very nice guy”
• (8) “The speed and rhythm of his
English was closer to native
speakers but I sometimes felt his
"ur" sound and "or" sound
unnatural.”

14. Overall average 9.00 (highest)
• (8) “I want like Queen Elizabeth II. I want to go to
England someday.”
• (10) “Hers is royal.
• (10) “Se [sic] is more 'authentic' because she must
speak collect [sic] English.”
• (10) “She is queen”
• (10) “She is the queen”
• (10) “She's a Queen”
• (10) “Because It is official British movie”
• (9) “Her native language is English, and her end of a
word is not clear”
• (5) “Because she spoke dispassionately, so I felt it is
difficult to understand what she wanted to say.”

15. 6.25
8.01
E L2 E L1
AVERAGE EL2 VS EL1

16. Self-discrimination
Reves, T., & Medgyes, P. (1994).
The non-native English
speaking EFL/ESL teacher's
self-image: An international
survey. System, 22(3), 353-
367.

17. A matter of life and death
Seidlhofer, B. (2012). Corpora and English as a
lingua franca. In K. Hyland, C. M. Huat &
M. Handford (Eds.), Corpus applications in
applied linguistics (pp. 135-149). London:
Continuum.

18. Summary
• You can download the slides and
additional resources at
www.uniliterate.com
• Please email me!
rpinner@sophia.ac.jp
11/14/2015 18

19. Thanks for your attention!
11/14/2015 19
Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international
language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murata, K., & Jenkins, J. (Eds.). (2009). Global Englishes in Asian
contexts: Current and future debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Pinner, R. S. (2014). The authenticity continuum: Towards a definition
incorporating international voices. English Today, 30(4), 22-27.
Pinner, R. S. (2016). Reconceptualising Authenticity for English as a
Global Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Reves, T., & Medgyes, P. (1994). The non-native English speaking
EFL/ESL teacher's self-image: An international survey. System,
22(3), 353-367.
Seidlhofer, B. (2012). Corpora and English as a lingua franca. In K.
Hyland, C. M. Huat, & M. Handford (Eds.), Corpus applications in
applied linguistics (pp. 135-149). London: Continuum.