Learner Profiles and Attitudes Towards Accent in the Foreign Language
The Role of Language Backgrounds
abstract
This paper is part of collaborative research investigating the attitudes of first-year university students in Italy towards foreign accents. It examines the first part of the survey which aims to define the students’ identity and language profile. The analysis focuses on the characteristics of the group which are hypothesised to correlate with students' attitudes towards foreign accents examined in the other sections of the questionnaire. Factors that could have an impact are gender, motivation for studying languages, bi-/plurilingualism, the nature of the languages studied, the language repertoire and the background of its acquisition.
Keywords: Foreign accent perception • Language learner profiles • Second language acquisition • Language backgrounds • University languages learners