Teachers’ Perceptions Toward The Issue of Teaching Native-Like Accent of English In The Classroom

In many EFL countries, the quest for native speaker or native-like proficiency becomes the most desired goal by the English educators, as people think that language learners should speak like the way the native speakers speak. However, with the increasing number of the non-native speakers around the world, we are now facing two different orientations, which are nativeness and intelligibillity. Nativeness principle starts to be denied by many English practitioners and the emergence of intelligibility principle is believed as the solution for the EFL countries. Considering the clash between nativeness and intelligibillity principles, this research was conducted in order to get the insight of teachers’ perceptions toward the issue of teaching native-like accent of English in the classroom. Using semi-structured interview as the instrument of data collection, and compiling the teachers’ perceptions of native speaker, and native-like accent, ten English teachers from five Senior High Schools in Salatiga were selected to be inquired about their perceptions on the issue. Generally, they still viewed native speakers as the perfect goal in English teaching and learning. The participants admitted that they also include native accents in their teaching materials. Nevertheless, instead of requiring the students to speak using native like accent, the participants expected the students to be aware of the richness of the language that they learn