Czech High School Students' Attitudes and Beliefs about Native and Non-Native English Accents

This bachelor thesis explores Czech high school students' attitudes and beliefs about native and non-native English accents. The theoretical part offers a comparison of the most significant research surveys both in Czech and foreign context. Furthermore, it also deals with the issues of accent discrimination towards native and non-native accents of English. The empirical part is based on a questionnaire survey. Its aim is to discover what knowledge of native and non-native accents Czech high school students have. It focuses primarily on the importance of accent among students and their personal pronunciation goals, for example if they would like to achieve native-like pronunciation. In addition, it explores what factors most influence students' choice of accent and how important they view the pronunciation of their teachers. Two groups of students were examined, students of the first and fourth year of grammar school. KEYWORDS accent attitudes, native accents, non-native accents, accent discriminatio