Abstract

Despite the increased demand for legitimization of non-native English speaking teachers
(NNESTs) over the past several decades, these teachers often face continued discrimination.
One example of such discrimination is the 2010-2011 administrative practice that would, if
allowed to continue, have restricted the pedagogical responsibilities of non-native English
speaking teachers in Arizona. In order to inform language education policies that are fair and
just for those affected (i.e., students and teachers alike), we must have a better understanding of
the effects that a teachers speech pattern has within the classroom. While it has been shown that
students attitudes regarding teachers speech (particularly their accent) can affect
comprehension of that teacher (Ahn & Moore, 2011; Rubin, 1992), there is less research has
investigated the specific linguistic features that contribute to favorable or unfavorable
perceptions of teaching suitability (Kang, 2012), especially in a high school context (Boyd,
2003). Likewise, there is another gap in the related research: while undergraduate students are
often the evaluators of instructors speech, other stakeholders (such as high school students,
parents, other teachers, and pre-service teachers) have been generally overlooked. This study
will therefore explore how each of the aforementioned groups evaluates accented teachers based
on perceived comprehensibility, perceived proficiency, perceived accentedness, and perceived
teaching suitability; how their evaluations compare or contrast; and how each of the groups
understands the concept of accent. The teachers speech will then undergo an extensive
phonological, grammatical, lexical, and fluency analysis in order to investigate any linguistic
features that differentiate native English speaking (NES) teachers from non-native English
speaking (NNES) teachers. Results of listeners evaluations will be compared to the results of
the objective linguistic analyses to determine if any relationships exist. The results will be useful

in identifying perceptions surrounding classroom instruction and the appropriateness of any

guidelines for teacher selection and/or teacher training.
Keywords: non-native English speaking teachers, accentedness,
students perceptions, speech evaluations, language planning and policy