Concepts related to the comprehension of English speech varieties

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Although causal relationships cannot be made between these factors based on these correlations, it can be assumed, for instance, that proficient learners have had more exposure to English in the first place because they have spent more time studying English compared to less proficient learners. As a result of their success in comprehension, they may also seek more opportunities to listen to English through various means which, in turn, gives them more experience with various accents of English and more awareness of their features.

The correlations between phonological awareness and high comprehension scores suggest that while learners may become better at understanding different English pronunciations automatically as they progress with their mastery of English, learners who pay conscious attention to phonological differences between speech varieties and show a higher degree of awareness of English pronunciation in general tend to be more successful in comprehension than the learners who do not show such qualities. This suggests that developing listening skills involves the process of language acquisition as well as language learning on the part of EFL learners (cf. Krashen, 1983). Acquisition in this case entails picking up pronunciation features automatically as learners are exposed to English speech, while learning involves the conscious studying of the different pronunciations of English words and sounds whereby learners can make sense of language input in a systematic way, recognising patterns and regularities in phonological variation.

The relationship between successful comprehension and exposure to different types of speech varieties of English would suggest that acquisition of comprehension skills takes place automatically when learners are exposed to spoken English of different kinds. However, the very fact that some learners indicated on the scales in the questionnaire that they often hear British, American, non-native, European, non-European accents of English implies that they show some

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degree of awareness of the type of pronunciation that they hear. Nevertheless, this finding seems to corroborate the suggestions, for instance, of Jenkins (2000), Jenkins (2012) or Walker (2010) that instead of focusing on one or two standard varieties of English speech such as RP or GA English pronunciation in ELT listening materials, including a variety of English accents in ELT is beneficial for learners‟ comprehension skills.

The connection between high comprehension scores and different means of exposure to spoken English also suggests that learners who are successful at comprehending different accents of English listen to English outside the classroom, while learners who rely on exposure to English mainly in school where they hear predominantly RP (Jenkins, 2012) are less successful in this respect. Based on the questions in the means of exposure scale (cf. Section 3.2.2.1), these types of exposure include listening to English on You Tube, watching English-language movies and series or being exposed to English speech in real life conversations outside school. Again, it is not possible to determine causal relationships between successful comprehension and various means of exposure based on the statistical data in the present research, since it cannot be determined whether learners listen to English outside school because they are better at understanding it, or they develop advanced comprehension skills as a result of such exposure to English. However, it can be assumed that this causal relationship can be a two-way interaction in the following way. Learners who have a certain degree of competence in the comprehension of English speech listen to more spoken English through various channels, which develops their comprehension skills further. This, in turn, gives them the sense of achievement and confidence to engage in such activities, which enhances their comprehension skills even more. Conversely, the same process can result in a downward spiral if learners do not understand spoken English and thus develop an aversion to spoken English and avoid exposure to English speech varieties.

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This suggests that it might be helpful to scaffold and facilitate learners‟ listening to different pronunciations of English to provide them with a positive experience, which can become a catalyst for a positive cycle of exposure to speech varieties and developing adaptive comprehension skills. Examples for such scaffolding techniques may be using extensive listening (Renandya & Farrell, 2010), complementing listening with reading the transcript simultaneously (Chang & Millett, 2014) or using graded audio materials which are only just above the learners‟

level (cf. Krashen, 1982). Besides, these listening activities need to feature a variety of English accents to develop listening skills that learners can adapt to real-life situations (Walker, 2010).

Last but not least, learners‟ scores in the comprehension tasks also showed correlations with the perceived comprehensibility of the different accents. This can be interpreted in a way that learners‟ judgement of the comprehensibility of a speech variety can function as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If learners deem it comprehensible, they might pay more attention to it and make more effort to understand it despite the potential difficulties, while if they decide that the accent is incomprehensible, they might give up and stop making an effort to understand it.

Deeming a speech variety difficult to comprehend might also make learners‟ more anxious when listening to the accent, which can also have a debilitating effect on comprehension skills (cf.

Piniel & Csizér, 2013). Learners‟ judgements about the comprehensibility of an English speech vareity may be related to learners‟ beliefs about what English is supposed to sound like and their attitudes towards diversity in English, that is, the interpretation of the concept of English itself (cf. Jenkins, 2009a). For example, learners might believe that comprehensible English means textbook-like ENL accents or they might consider pronunciations of a range of different ENL, ESL and EFL speakers to be equally suitable for communication. The latter approach would suggest a more realistic conception of English based on the historical development of the

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language into different spoken varieties and the different phases of the spread of English (cf.

Galloway & Rose, 2015; Jenkins, 2009c; Wells, 1982).