The Effect of Personality on Accent Acquisition: Case Study of Effat University Students

Walaa Hassan

Effat University Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Accent acquisition is the landmark of fluency in a second language. Different factors have been debated over to be the most important in the process, such as: age and exposure (Oyama 1976). Personality is an additional factor that has been researched comparatively recently and has been proven to be effective (Robinson et al. 1994). The current study investigated personality as an effective factor in the process of accent acquisition. Participants in this study were forty-eight native speakers of Arabic who study and live in KSA; a minority of Effat university students who speak English with a native-like American accent. Their remarkable American accent raised the question of the relationship between the type of personality and accent perfection. The accuracy of their American accent was measured by the means of: (1) semi-structured interviews, (2) reading a text in English, and (3) spontaneous talk on a topic of their choice. The researcher was assisted in the interviews by a native speaker of American English (a PhD in Creative Writing) to evaluate the participants’ accent. Following to that, three Native speakers of American English (all university professors) were asked to assist in the second and third phases of evaluation process; respectively reading and spontaneous talk. The results indicated that personality is an effective predictor of native accent acquisition. Age and level of exposure were not as strong predictors in the case of this study.

Keywords:

accent acquisition, personality, second language acquisition, Arabic speakers, American accent, bilinguals, fluency