Acute accents: research grant for Education student
Is language testing affected by judges’ understanding of accents?
For the second year running, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) has awarded a doctoral research grant to a student in our School of Education.
Last year Jong-Il Yi was awarded a grant for her research comparing computer-mediated tests with face-to-face interaction. This time it’s Kevin C Browne who has been recognised by the ETS, the American organisation which has been administering the standard Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) test since the 1960s. Like Yi, Kevin is supervised by Professor Glenn Fulcher.
Kevin’s research will examine the effect of accents on spoken English language tests: to what extent does a judge’s familiarity with the subject’s native accent affect their judgement of English pronunciation.
