Mapping English Landscapes: Korean EFL Learners' Perceptions of English Varieties

Abstract

This paper explores EFL university students' awareness of American dialects and world Englishes by utilizing perceptual dialectology. In particular, the study employed hand-drawn maps to determine the mental spatial distribution of English by Korean EFL learners. Learner variables were correlated with the results of hand-drawing map tasks of American English dialects and English varieties across the world. Results reveal that Korean EFL learners seem to have little awareness of American dialects and cannot dissect dialect boundaries. As for English varieties, the majority of participants were perceptive to inner circle, English as a Native Language (ENL), varieties but not to other varieties. Participants' background did not show significant effects on the map-drawing tasks. It is clear that heightened awareness of regional dialects and varieties of English through explicit instruction is especially important for EFL learners to adopt a more diversity aware view of English as a global language.