The influence of accent on comprehension : an investigation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine in the South Afiican tertiary context, and more specifically at the Nelspruit Campus of Pretoria Technikon, whether accent had an influence on comprehension and whether it could be correlated to comprehension in any way. The idea for this study arose from the fact that the Siswati students at the Nelspruit campus of Technikon Pretoria, often ask lecturers to speak slower and to re-explain work. The students mostly speak B 1 E, as described by Lanham, and the English that lecturers speak falls into the other categories. This posed the question as to whether the English accent exhibited, by the mostly White lecturers, had something to do with the students' slow grasping of content, as their accents did not mirror those of the Siswati students. This study took a two pronged approach. One focused on what constituted and contributed to accent and the other focused on elements of comprehension. As comprehension is interwoven with learning it was necessary to describe learning in brief It became apparent that learning had certain elements that could be linked to accent such as certain cognitive and affective levels. Prior knowledge could also be linked to accent. Two groups of students, randomly selected, were tested and rated on a listening comprehension test that was read to them in two different accents. Each group listened to only one accent but was tested on the same material. The accents used were B 1 E and an accent resembling Cons SAE. A questionnaire determining the student's historical background also had to be completed by them for a demographic profile. At-test was used to determine the results. This study showed that for the Black tertiary students at the Nelspruit Campus of the Pretoria Technikon, accent had no influence on comprehension. This study then has relevance in the new South Afiican context today as education is experiencing a multi-culturalism as not yet seen before. According to the results obtained with this study it is reassuring to note that accent does not impact negatively on comprehension.