Contesting linguistic identities and the persistence of standardised pronunciation

Despite a global paradigm shift towards multilingualism and EIL (English as an International Language) in English language education, a stubborn adherence to so-called ‘standardised’ forms of foreign languages persists in non-English language speaking countries. Language teachers, learners and their parents, as much as policy makers and curriculum designers, insist on the adoption of ‘standard’ varieties of English as normative and unquestioned. These expectations are natural, given language users’ awareness of the cultural capital that these standardised forms of pronunciations can afford to them. This paper discusses how formal education, often through the hidden curriculum, reinforces the pressure to conform to standardised pronunciation and how this can negatively implicate language learners’ identities. One may question why a Vietnamese speaker would want to have a distinct ‘American’ or ‘British’ accent when they speak, and what real privileges these bring to them. One may also question why a Vietnamese accent in English, a distinct identity marker, can be deemed to represent less prestigious capital, and whether this may disadvantage them in certain contexts. In discussing the cognitive and cultural benefits of multilingual and culturally responsive instruction, the paper argues that as language educators we need to make our learners aware of their linguistic identities and how intelligible but non-standardised accents of foreign languages can and should be legitimate markers of one’s identity.