Swedish youths as listeners of global Englishes speakers with diverse accents: Listener intelligibility, listener comprehensibility, accentedness perception, and accentedness acceptance

As reflected in the concept of global Englishes, English mediates global communication, where English speakers represent not merely those from English-speaking countries like UK or US but also global people from a wide range of linguistic backgrounds, who speak the language with diverse accents. Thus, to communicate internationally, cultivating a maximized listening proficiency for and positive attitudes toward global Englishes speakers with diverse accents is ever more important. However, with their preference for American English and its popular culture, it is uncertain whether Swedish youth learners are developing these key linguistic qualities to be prepared for the globalized use of English. To address this, we tested 160 upper secondary students for their listener intelligibility (actual understanding), listener comprehensibility (feeling of ease or difficulty), accentedness perception, and accentedness acceptance of six English speakers with diverse accents. The results showed that the intelligibility scores and perception/attitude ratings of participants favored the two speakers with privileged accents. However, no correlation was detected between their actual understanding of the speakers and their perception/attitude ratings, which often had a strong correlation with their feelings of ease/difficulty regarding the speakers’ accents. This suggests the need for pedagogical intervention to help Swedish youths develop listening proficiency in diverse English accents and widen their views of English as a global contact language and its worldwide users.