The importance of interlanguage errors with respect to stereotyping by native speakers in their judgements of second language learners' performance

Abstract

This article reports on a study which investigated how Americans respond to ESL speech depending firstly, on the non-native speaker's accent and secondly, on whether there were errors in the ESL speech. Responses were elicited by means of a questionnaire-type instrument and the resulting patterns of responses were analyzed. It was found that American respondents tended to exhibit different cultural prejudices towards different foreign speakers depending on the accent of the speaker. Different stereotypes were also revealed depending on the absence or presence of errors in the ESL speech. The relative strength of the stereotype elicited, in some cases by the speaker's accent, in other cases by the error content of the speech, was found to be an important factor. Second language errors, therefore, seem either to enhance or hinder communication depending on the accent of the speaker. The pedagogical and socio-cultural implications of the study are discussed.