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English speaking norms in Sweden: How Swedish university students want to be perceived in their use of English
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of English.
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

English is actively used in Sweden and around 8.5 million Swedes have second language (L2) proficiency in English (SIL International, 2015-). Therefore, the Swedish population mostly consist of L2 speakers of English. L2 English speaking communities such as the Swedish population are affected by attitudes and ideologies that can control how English is perceived and used. One of these ideologies that affects both the attitudes and the use of English is the ideology of native-speakerism. The ideology of native-speakerism states that the native speaker has a special claim to the language itself (Holliday, 2005, p.8). Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine English-speaking norms in Sweden by asking Swedish university students about their attitudes toward English and what they focus on the most when speaking English. This study used a questionnaire which was sent out to Swedish university students. The results showed that Swedish university students believed that English was important to know and that it was important to speak correct English. Furthermore, the participants showed a preference for British accents and displayed negative attitudes towards the presence of Swedish accents when speaking English. The participants also reported that they focus the most on vocabulary and pronunciation when speaking English. It was therefore concluded that Swedish university students strive for native-English speaking norms and their attitudes toward English showed signs of native-speakerism. However, in an international context the participants believed that it was more important to be understood when speaking English rather than following native English-speaking norms.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. , p. 29
Keywords [en]
English as a second language, native-speakerism, language attitudes, native-speaking norms
National Category
Specific Languages
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-182211OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-182211DiVA, id: diva2:1435348
Educational program
Språkkonsultprogrammet
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Available from: 2020-06-04 Created: 2020-06-04 Last updated: 2020-06-04Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
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  • html
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  • asciidoc
  • rtf