Investigating Costa Rican English Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Their Native or Non-native Pronunciation:

Abstract

Pronunciation plays a fundamental role on non-native English speaker teachers’ (NNESTs) communication, and some may even think that by having a native accent they could be better instructors. Thus, to analyze and ascertain educators’ view on pronuncia- tion and how it affects their performance, this study has focused on 23 elementary and high school teachers working in Circuit 03, Dirección Regional de Educación de Guápiles. A cross-sectional survey design, which employs a web-based questionnaire with different closed-ended, semi-closed-ended, and open-ended questions, is utilized. The results have shown that there is a rooted idea that the American and British accents must be used by both educators and their students, which reflects native-speakerism. Even though there was a high degree of satisfaction among these teachers when rating their accent, a small percentage felt that it did influence their desire to communicate or avoid any exchange with other speakers. Moreover, a certain percentage of English as a Foreign Language teachers also believed that their pronunciation affected their performance when commu- nicating in different environments, mainly in trainings.