A Study into the Accent Attitude and Preferences of Korean EFL Students

As the importance of English continues to spread across Korea, EFL teachers and institutions in Korea are faced with two prominent questions. First, which English accent is most preferred by Korean learners? Second, do Korean learners attach values to accents, and if so what implications does this have for EFL institutions and EFL teachers in Korea? In order to explore these questions this study administered a questionnaire, as well as a listening survey consisting of twenty different English speakers with varying accents, to a group of one-hundred and eighteen first year Korean college English majors. The results of this study suggest that while Korean EFL learners have a strong preference for an American English accent, this preference is overtly stereotypical in nature, resulting more from educational and corporate policies, than from opinions derived from knowledge resulting from exposure to various English accents. In response to these suggestions, this study concludes by suggesting that it might be beneficial for EFL teachers and institutions in Korea to gradually incorporate accented materials into their lessons in order to gradually help increase Korean EFL students’ exposure to various English accents.