A Study of Listening Comprehension Differences between American English and British English——Taking Accent Differences for Example

Abstract

This dissertation aims to examine English language learners’ different perceptions about American English (AE) and British English (BE) in terms of accent differences. Thirty Chinese-speaking master’s program students are recruited to this study, divided into two groups: A TESOL program group and a non-TESOL program group. According to the results, the TESOL students outperform the non-TESOL students in the tasks. The participants complete the listening comprehension tasks in AE and BE, as well as interviews. The results of the listening comprehension tasks indicates that participants with higher accuracy scores were not significantly affected by differences in accent types, while participants with medium or lower scores were largely affected by those factors. Another surprising finding is that participants’ major has a profound influence on their tasks’ scores.