World Englishes: Attitude in the Expanding Circle Towards East and Southeast Asian Varieties of English

Abstract: English has become an essential part in our lives. It is inevitable to formulate an opinion when we meet a new person, and in particular we tend to focus our attention on the way this person speaks. The present research aims to answer the questions on how a European audience (Italian audience) perceives different varieties of English to which it is exposed. Four different speakers from four different Southeast and East Asian countries were selected and recorded while reading a short text. These recordings were submitted to the audience, which was asked to answer a set of questions about comprehensibility and likability. Results show that the audience elected as their favourite speaker the clearest accent to hear, thus suggesting that the members of the audience might have been influenced by comprehensibility and accentedness in the first place. Other variables, such as expressiveness, were not significantly considered by the participants.