“It is important to understand that there are not just 3 varieties of English” : Swedish upper secondary school students’ awareness of and attitudes towards varieties of English

The main aim of this study is to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ awareness of and attitudes to varieties of English, especially with a focus on accents. Based on a survey with both open-ended and closed questions, this study is both qualitative and quantitative. The questionnaire was distributed digitally to several teachers at three upper secondary schools in Sweden, one school in Eskilstuna and the other two in Stockholm. The number of participants in total was 88. The results revealed that the students were aware of several varieties of English, but the most known varieties were American, British, Irish and Indian English. Furthermore, the students were enthusiastic about both American and British English, but American English was the most common. In addition, the majority of the students believed that it was essential to learn about varieties of English in school and that American, British and Canadian were the most important varieties to learn about. In conclusion, the students have a general awareness of and an openness to linguistic variation, as well as being positive towards learning about different varieties of English in school.