Author declaration

We confirm that this study is solely done by our team. This report contains no plagiarism from the
previous materials that have been made. Our work doesn’t copy any research reports which have been
accepted or won a prize before.

We confirm that all information we provide is reliable. All participant’s test results are real and have
been collected through an elaborate practical experiment by our team. We also have asked for the
agreement of all participants before conducting the experiment and ensured that the test taker’s data is
kept confidential.

We further confirm that there are no conflicts of interest associated with this report and there has been
no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its final result.

This is our final revisions

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Abstract

This research aims to find out the impact of different accents on the listening performance of ESL
students. Thereby finding possible solutions to help ESL students to improve their listening skills in the
classroom and at home. This study is conducted by assessing the student’s scores through two similar
listening English tests. The first test is in a British accent and the second one is in an American accent.
Specifically, each test has three main parts which are different in the type of question. It includes a
dictation test with 15 items, a listening comprehension test with 15 MCQs, and a comprehensibility
questionnaire with a Likert scale from 1 to 7. There are two K66 classes of foreign language institutions
at Ha Noi University of Science and Technology that take part in this study. It is ensured that the level of
the students of the two classes and the number is equivalent to minimize the confounding variables.
Based on the results that have been collected, this study clearly shows that accents actually affect the
listening ability of ESL students. The evidence is that the students who do the English listening test with
American accent audio have higher scores than those who do the same with British accent audio. It can
be implied that the students tend to perform well in listening tasks with accents that are familiar to
them and have trouble listening to the others. By understanding those problems, educators can provide
some feasible ways for students to improve their listening ability by letting them expose to different
kinds of accents.

Acknowledgment

Conducting this research requires a lot of time and effort. To finish this report, we have gone through
many steps such as reading materials, doing surveys, analyzing data, writing reports, and so on. Without
the help of people, our group could not have completed this work. Thank you all for supporting us.
First of all, we sincerely thank the foreign institution of Ha Noi University of Science and Technology for
launching this competition. This creates a precious chance for students to acquire knowledge of the
research area, which is extremely important for students’ future. Throughout the research process, we
have learned lots of things that we have never known before. Specifically, we not only have learned
about how to complete research but we also have acquired new soft skills. For example, we have
worked as a team to deal with many challenging tasks occurring during the research process. Each
member of our team has their own strength and they enthusiastically contribute to the research.

Secondly, many thank to our supervisor teacher. Despite his hectic schedule at school, he still spends
lots of time instructing us about the research. He has companied with us for several months and
elaborately check every step of our research. Without his advice, we would have not known where to
begin. Additionally, he also helps us to find two speakers for the recording audio source, which is
extremely important to our research, so thank all of them.

Finally, we are so grateful for the attendance of two K66 classes who have taken part in our designed
test. They absolutely are an indispensable part of our research and they make our research more
convinced. We want to sincerely thank you for your enthusiastic cooperation.

Research question 1: Is there a difference in intelligibility scores between non-native listeners of

British accent and American accents?

After finishing marking the score of the first test, the result is shown differently. The listeners to the
American accent achieve higher scores than those who listen to the British accent. The average score in
the intelligibility test of the US listeners is 8.2 while for the UK listeners, it is just 7.2. The result is shown
in the table below

UK US
Intelligibility score M SD M SD
7.6 3.2 8.2 3.5

This result proves that the listeners can recognize the words and the phrases better if it is spoken by
American accent. During the intelligibility test, we witness that the group listening to the American
accent can immediately write down the word right after hearing it, whereas the rest group feel a little
bit hesitant, and they jot down the other words instead. That means the American accent is more
intelligible than the British accent, especially in the dictation test.

The possible reason is that in the British accent, they usually link the sound very fast, or they silent some
sounds, that make the word more difficult for listeners to imagine what the word is. For example, for the
word “urban”, American speakers pronounce it /ˈɜːrbən/ whereas British speakers say it /ˈɜːbən/, ‘’r’’ is
removed. British speakers also use back rounded open sound /ɒ/ for words like “iconic”, and “body”
while Americans don’t round the lip for these sounds.

Apart from the explanation based on the theory, the exposure level of students to different accents can
have a huge impact on the results of the test. It is clear that the American accent nowadays is more
familiar to non-native English learners than the British accent. Because almost all Hollywood films we
are watching nowadays are in American accent, so we are already familiar with the sound, the
intonation, and the way they pronounce the word. Therefore, when we have to listen to a new accent,
although that accent is a little bit changed, we can not be well aware of it right away and it takes us lots
of time to be familiar with the new accent.