Perceptions of english varieties in the spanish contexteffects of gender, visual priming and question types. An empirical approcach

Abstract

The present dissertation follows the steps of the research tradition of perceptual dialectology (Lambert et al., 1960; Labov, 1972; Giles and Powesland, 1975; Giles and Coupland, 1991; Le Page & Tabouret-Keller, 1985; Preston, 1989, 1996, 1999) and shifts the focus of attention from native to non-native (mainly Spanish) folk perceptions of English varieties. The hypotheses are based on the following developments and assumptions in the field: 1.1. Preference towards standard varieties A substantial number of studies (Labov, 1972; Giles and Powesland, 1975; Giles and Coupland, 1991; Preston, 1989, 1996, 1999) shed light on the perceptions that English native speakers have towards varieties of their own (English) language varieties. Findings from those early experiments indicated that standard varieties are traditionally considered to be used by wealthy and successful speakers, and they are associated with prestige, intelligence, and intelligibility. The present dissertation intends to test the hypothesis that Spanish EFL learners have a statistically significant preference for monolingual and traditionally prestigious English standards, whereas they disfavour non-native accents, especially their own accent...