Initial Draft/Working Outline of International Students' Perceptions of American English and Social Media Influence on Language Learning and Dialect

So the focus of my paper has shifted a little. I was originally going to write about the survey results about smartphones and whether non-American accent speakers can use voice-activated functions on their smartphones effectively. It turns out most of them can. Voice recognition with non-American accents is still an issue but not to the extend that I thought, so I'm focusing my paper on social media influence on non-native speakers learning English and (non American) native speakers maintaining or losing their English dialect. I will also discuss international students perceptions of American English. With social media and all types of communication technology, America has disseminated much of its pop culture and media throughout the world, including its dialects. I wanted to see what foreigners think about American English.

Rough Draft/Outline
Intro

• This project examines native and non-native English speakers’ perceptions about American English through a Qualtrics survey and studies the effect social media has on language learning and dialect.
• This project design was based off a previous study done by Evans and Imai (2011) that examined Japanese university students' perceptions of American English and other Englishes. In their study, they asked open ended questions to elicit the opinions of the students and then divided their responses into five main categories: dynamism, attractiveness, superiority, language learning, and awareness of dialect variation. This study does the same thing, but it only focuses on American English, divides the students’ responses into six categories instead, and also tries to assess the students’ perceptions of American English using a Likert scale question in addition to an open-ended question. This study also examines native English speakers’ attitudes about American English and non-native English speakers’ attitudes rather than just only non-native speakers.  Lastly, there were other perceptual dialectology questions in the survey. One of them asks about the influence of social media on improving or hindering non-native speakers' efforts to learn English. And another question asks native speakers about the influence of social media in helping them maintain their native dialect.

Literature Review

• Previous research on perceptual dialectology has been conducted about non-native English speakers’ perceptions about American and other Englishes. In their study, Evans and Imai (2011) survey Japanese university students using open-ended questions about American English and divide the student responses into five categories. Their findings indicate that the students think very positively of American English and prefer it to British English, which is an atypical result for such a survey. In contrast, Ladegaard and Sachdev (2006) conducted a similar study with Danish students, asking them questions based on dimensions of status, solidarity, and attractiveness but found that Danish students did not think highly of American English and preferred British English. In her thesis, Haeusler (2010) interviewed ESL students at a community college in Northern California about their perceptions of American English. She specifically tested the students to see if they could identify regional American dialects. She discovered novice and intermediate students had difficulty distinguishing different varieties, but they could geographically indicate different American dialect regions, and the students wanted to speak a regional variety of American English. Lastly, Munro, Derwing, and Flege (1999) examined dialect perception in a different way by testing whether adult English speakers could pick up features of a new dialect. Their study dealt with Canadians who had moved to Alabama and lived there for a number of years. They played recordings of their speech for Canadian and Alabamian participants who then rated the features of their speech as more Canadian or American. Their research reveals that adults can in fact replicate features of a dialect different from their native one to a noticeable degree.
• Relation to my study: based on Evans and Imai, conclusion the same in terms of non-American students generally thinking positively about American English. A few contradictions between written response and the Likert scale. 
• Danish students from Ladegaard and Sachdev: Some negative feedback about American English. Even though not asked, some students opened wrote they preferred British English to American, but overall non-native English speakers thought American English was prestigious, attractive, etc.
• Haeusler's questions: I differed in that I did not ask specifically about regions, but a lot of commentary about regional dialects was recorded. Overall, the majority of participants recognized there was great diversity in American dialects. Some of them openly preferred one regional dialect to another. I directly asked students if they would like to sound more American. Some of them indicated yes, but most said no.
• Munro, Derwing, and Flege: Some of the students addressed wanting to improve their accents and have their accent sound more American. Some made comments about understanding American accents and the difficulty of pronunciation.
• Social Media: the majority of non-native speaker participants indicated that social media had helped them improve their English. The majority of native speaker participants indicated they thought social media had no difference on their dialect.    

Methodology

• The general methodology used in this study was two versions of a Qualtrics survey (one for native English speakers and one for non-native English speakers) that were sent out to BYU international students through the International Student Association on campus. The non-native speaker survey was also sent to a specific ESL class of UVU students taught by Dr. Turley. The survey offered an incentive of a $25 BYU Bookstore gift card to be awarded to a random participant who completed the survey. This methodology was chosen in order to get a large sampling of responses and for its ability to collect qualitative and quantitative data about questions focused on dialect perception and social media. 

Results

For the charts with countries, I used the top 15 countries by response numbers and the top 7 countries for the social media influence. I will probably have some more graphs and direct examples from the responses. 

Conclusion/Connections

• American English overall: native, non-native
• social media influence: social media affecting perceptions of American English? Social media and dialects, does it really have no effect? How can its effect be measured?
• Even though respondents generally like American English, do they want to sound more American?
• American English's influence through social media and technology, ubiquitous, does it have prestige and qualities where non-native speakers want to learn American English?

Further Research Possibilities