English-language learners' recognition and evaluations of American and British accents

What is it about?

This paper looks at English-language learners in Spain and their ability to recognise different accents of English. It also explores the strategies they employ when attempting to identify accents, and which features of British and American accents help them to complete the recognition task.

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Why is it important?

Studies on attitudes towards language have generally neglected the role of (mis)identification in the process of evaluating speech. This paper demonstrates the importance of ascertaining the extent to which listeners can correctly identify spoken language varieties prior to interpreting their evaluations of the same.

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