THE 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND LINGUISTICS ON

LANGUAGE TEACHING (I-COLLATE) Oct 20-21,2017

DIALECT PREJUDICE: LANGUAGE ATTITUDE OF ENGLISH TEACHERS

TOWARD LOCAL DIALECT OF SPOKEN ENGLISH IN EFL CLASS

Udiana Puspa Dewi1 and Abdul Aziz Turhan Kariko2

Bina Nusantara University
udewi@binus.edu1 and azizcomi84@gmail.com2

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of dialect prejudice in EFL class. The observation is
done by exploring the perception that English teachers hold toward Standard English
and their attitude toward local dialect of spoken English in EFL class. This research is
intended to be a pilot study to observe dialect prejudice in small scale. The data are
collected through questionnaires which are distributed to the English teachers in Solo to
explore their language attitude and perception. Solo is considered as a precise location
to carry out a pilot study observation about local dialects of Spoken English in EFL
class. The thick Javanese dialect possessed by most of teachers and students in the city
will be a prominent observational tool to explore the existence of dialect prejudice in
EFL class.

Keywords: dialect prejudice, language attitude, EFL

INTRODUCTION self-confidence by speakers of

English has become a world
language which is utilized in various
aspect of international relations,
tourism, global media, science,
technology, and education 1. English is
learned by over 150 million children
in primary or secondary schools as a
foreign language worldwide as a
compulsory or a preferred optional
language in most countries 2,3. The
teaching of English in non English
spoken countries has raised several
issues. In several cases, children who
live in multilingual society experience
a mismatch between the language
spoken at home and the language used
at school4. The dialect and other
language varieties related to social
class, gender, or ethnicity are often
put aside in the process of language
learning in school.
Trudgill have made it clear that
focusing on the standard language in
education is almost certain to fail, and
may lead to the loss of self-esteem and
nonstandard varieties 5. In most of
cases, many English teachers do not
realize. For that reason, the
examination of language attitude of
English teachers toward the use of
local dialects of English Speaking in
EFL class is described in this paper.
The negative attitude toward local
dialect of English is considered as an
indicator of dialect prejudice.
The observation focuses on the
language attitude relates to the way
specific attitudes and/or beliefs toward
language are implemented. The
implementation, in this case, is in the
process of language learning in EFL
class. Therefore, this paper emphasizes
the observation of the attitude of
English Teachers in several schools in
Solo, Central Java, to see whether or
not prejudice toward local dialect exists
in EFL class. Solo is considered as a
precise location to carry out a case
study observation about local dialects
of English Speaking in EFL class. The

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LANGUAGE TEACHING (I-COLLATE)
thick Javanese dialect possessed by
most of teachers and students in the
city will be a prominent observational
tool to explore the existence of dialect
prejudice in EFL class.
LANGUAGE ATTITUDE AND
STANDARD ENGLISH
Not only do attitudes affect
learning a language, but learning a
language also affects the attitudes.
According to Lambert 6 “…an
individual successfully acquiring a
second language gradually adopts
various aspects of behaviour which
characterize members of another
linguistic-cultural group”. In planning
their teaching, teachers have to be
aware that their own attitudes may also
reflect on the achievements of the
students. In the case of English use in
EFL class, accent becomes one of
bizarre issues.
The use of English with particular
local accent has been a thoughtful topic
for several researches in the past years.
The way “standard English” is
perceived by the teacher affects the
learning outcomes and material
delivery to the students.
David Crystal in his article, “What
is Standard English?” frames several
characteristics of Standard English 7:
(1) Standard English considered as
a dialect with no local base. The
grammar rules and vocabularies of
Standard English do not indicate its
origin.
(2) The main linguistics features of
Standard English are grammar,
vocabulary, and orthography (spelling
and punctuation). Standard English is
not matter of pronunciation. It is
spoken in various accents.
(3) In many countries, the use of
Standard English is strongly related to
prestige. In many cases the variety of
English uses by people with high
Oct 20-21,2017
social, material success, political
strength, popular acclaim, or
educational background become the
standard within the community.
(4) The adult members of the
society recognize the prestige attached
to the use of Standard English. As the
result, they try to recommend Standard
English as a desirable educational
target.
(5) Standard English is widely
understood but not widely produced.
The regional Englishes is normally
used by most of people. The Standard
English is only used by few people
such as newscaster.
Trudgill and Hannah 8 define
Standard English as "the variety of the
English Language which is normally
employed in writing and normally
spoken by 'educated' speakers of the
language. Standard English refers to
grammar and vocabulary but not to
pronunciation and accent
(dialect)".Thus, Standard English can
be spoken with a British, American,
Pakistani, Korean, or Javanese accent.
Based on that characterization,
negative evaluation or attitude toward
local dialect of spoken English is
considered as dialect prejudice.
RESEARCH METHOD
The analysis focuses on language
attitude of English teachers in Solo
toward the use of local dialect in EFL
class and their perception of Standard
English. Through the observation of
language attitude and perception, the
existence of dialect prejudice is
explored. The goals of this observation
are to provide clear evidence and
explanation to the following questions:
i. What kind of perception do English
teachers have toward Standard
English?
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ii. What kind of attitude do English Standard English that it focuses on

teachers hold toward local dialect of grammatical rules, vocabularies, but
spoken English in ESL Class? not to pronunciation and accent
(dialect).
The data of this study were But on the other side, the responds
collected through questionnaire. The from the respondents on the other
questionnaires were distributed to numbers still signify the existence of
English teachers in three high schools dialect prejudice where the assume that
and two junior high schools which are Standard English involves the ability to
randomly selected in Solo. Asking produce native-like English, to have
question about people opinion toward American accent, and/or to have British
certain language variation and practice accent.
through questionnaire is an effective According to Crystal 7, “The main
method to observe language attitude linguistics features of Standard English
and ideology besides interviewing 9, 10. are grammar, vocabulary, and
This method is considered as direct orthography (spelling and punctuation).
method which includes “forms of overt Standard English is not a matter of
questioning about the meanings of pronunciation. It is spoken in various
linguistic varieties”11. accents” including Javanese accent.
Besides, the finding also reveals that
DIALECT PREJUDICE IN EFL the ELF teachers still assume that
CLASS IN SOLO, CENTRAL JAVA Standard English is strongly related to
British and American dialect. Standard
No. Statements Total % English is considered as a dialect with
1. Grammatically 50 100 no local base7. Therefore, there is no
correct sentence origin or local base attached to the use
2. Sounds like native- 20 40 of the language.
speaker The answer from the majority of
3. Having American 30 60 the respondents proves that many EFL
Accent
teachers always linked Standard
4. Correct spelling in 45 90
written English
English to American and British
5. Correct use of tenses 50 100 English. Most of EFL teachers assume
6. Having British 45 90 that Standard English involves
Accent American and British accent. In the
Table 1. EFL Teachers’ Assumption of first section of the questionnaires, there
Standard English are also small numbers of EFL teacher
who agree that having native-like
The data in the Table 1 shows that accent is one of the characteristic of
100% of the respondents agree that Standard English despite the fact that
grammatical correct sentence and native-like accent is just one of dialect.
correct use of sentence as the criteria of The misunderstanding from the EFL
Standard English. 90% of the teacher toward Standard English in this
respondents also agree that correct case is shown through the way they
spelling in written English as the relate it to American and British accent
criteria of Standard English. This result as a part of Standard English
signifies that most of respondents are characteristic.
in the same page as Crystal7 and Crystal7 also mentions that
Trudgill and Hannah 8 in defining “Standard English” is what people

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understood as a desirable educational table 2 shows that that native-like

target. They try to make the students to accent is still assumed as a “standard”
have native-like accent. The teachers which should be achieved by the
even try to have the native-like accent students and local accent is still
for several reasons; British-accent is negatively valued. The comment made
the standard accent, setting the by the respondents in the question
standard, and to give the students good number 1,2, and 3 shows that native-
example. It reason given by the teacher like accent is considered as an
clearly shows the teachers assumption important thing which should be posses
toward Standard English. The teachers by the students in EFL class. In
try to have British-accent because they question number 1, the majority of the
assume that the British-accent is the respondents agree that accent is an
standard accent. They also mention that important aspect in teaching EFL. On
they want to give “good” example. the following number, 32 respondents
expect their students to have native-like
Questions Answers Reasons accent and the rest 14 respondents
Do you think Yes (32) Clear pronunciation is the think that it is okay if their students do
accent is key of good English
important in not possess a native-like accent but it
teaching will be better if they have it. In the
English as No (18) They can use any accent
as long as their English is
question number 3, 40 respondents
Foreign
Language? understandable claim that they try to sound like a
native speaker to set “the standard” and
Do you Yes (32) Plus point (11) to give the student an example.
expect your Correctness (12)
students to Standardization (10) The negative evaluation toward the
have native- No, but it Grammatical aspect is local accent is clearly implied in the
like accent? will be more important (9) respond of the question 4. 25
better if Native-like accent sounds
they do better but not the only respondents mention that they will ask
(14) important thing (5) the students who has Javanese accent to
No (8) Only few of them who practice more. The other 17
can do that (3)
As long as it is respondents claim that they will give
understandable (5) the students more pronunciation
Do you try to Yes (40) British accent is the exercise if the students still have thick
sound like standard English (10)
native Setting the standard (16)
Javanese accent. Only 8 respondents
speaker when To give the students good who state that it is okay to have
you are example (14) Javanese accent as long as the students
teaching? No (10) I will if I could
are able to produce English with
What will - Tell them to practice more (25) correct grammatical rules.
you do if your - Give them more pronunciation
students have exercise (17)
thick - No problem, as long as their CONCLUSION
Javanese grammar is correct (8) Based the analysis of the finding,
accent when the dialect prejudice toward thick
s/he speak
English?
Javanese Accent of spoken English in
EFL class happens because of the
Table. 2. EFL Teachers’ Attitude wrong perception of Standard English
toward Local Accent of English from the EFL teachers. Most of the
EFL teachers presume that Standard
The result of the language attitude English involve pronunciation. They
observation from the respondents in assume that Standard English is not

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only about grammatically correct
sentence and tense. According to the
questionnaires many of them think that
the students should have British and
American accent or sounds like a
native-speaker. As a result, the students
who speak English with Javanese
accent will be asked to “correct” their
English.
The EFL teachers illustrate
negative attitude toward the use of
Javanese accent of spoken English in
EFL class. Based on the questionnaire,
the majority of the EFL teachers think
that accent is important part in EFL
teaching; they try to sounds like a
native speaker to set an example, and
the try to “correct” the students who
has accent other than English and
America because that is not Standard.
This attitude practice by the EFL
teacher indicates the existence of
Dialect prejudice in EFL class.
Research has shown that negative
attitude perform by the teacher toward
dialects affects the effectiveness of the
teacher with students of those dialects,
making it more difficult for those
students to reach the same level of
interest and achieve the same quality of
education as the speakers of the
majority language and dialect 12.
The use of the standard language
and constant denigration of non-
standard varieties leads to feelings of
inadequacy.
In the case of EFL class in Solo, the
dialect prejudice happen because of the
lack of understanding about linguistics
awareness. Attitudes toward dialect
variation can have a great impact on
the language curriculum. Students
usually reflect the value system of their
parents and teachers, varying from
intolerance to strong personal
allegiance toward the nonstandard
dialect. Therefore, having correct
understanding toward Standard English
Oct 20-21,2017
and Dialect Awareness are an essential
tool to create an effective EFL teaching
without putting aside social equality
and cultural consideration.
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