Regional Language Effects on Accent Perception and Language Attitude: The Case of Mandarin vs. Cantonese speakers in Mainland China

The
perception of L2 English accents has been extensively studied across disparate
language groups, yet it remains unclear how these judgments operate among
speakers of closely related varieties, where shared linguistic heritage might
heighten sensitivity to phonetic differences. This study investigates how L2
English accent judgments operate among L2 English speakers whose L1s belong to
the same broader language family. We recruited 164 English learners in mainland
China with Cantonese and Mandarin backgrounds defined here by their
first-acquired and dominant spoken Chinese variety (i.e. L1/dominant Cantonese
vs. L1/dominant Mandarin), and
asked them to rate the comprehensibility and accentedness of 12 pre-categorized Mandarin- and Cantonese-accented English
short passages of different accent strengths and to rate 18 attitudinal traits
concerning the superiority, attractiveness and dynamism of those same short
passages. Two native English short passages were also added as controls.
Results show that the native English speakers were rated less accented than and
socially superior to both Mandarin- and Cantonese-accented English regardless
of accent strengths. Both Cantonese and Mandarin speakers tended to rate
Cantonese-accented English as more accented than Mandarin-accented ones,
although both had similar level of comprehensibility. In terms of language
attitude, Cantonese-accented English was rated as more friendly but lower-class
compared to Mandarin-accented English in some aspects, whereas Mandarin-accented
English was rated as more dynamic than and superior to Cantonese-accented
English by both L1 Cantonese and Mandarin speakers. Results show that both
Cantonese and Mandarin speakers of English considered native English as the
superior variant of accent.