Language Attitudes in the Global South

ABSTRACT Research on attitudes toward English varieties has been identified as a crucial contextual issue that is relevant to the implementation of the Teaching English as an International Language approach. Thus, the current study explores the attitudes of 400 Bosnian respondents toward different English varieties, employing a verbal guise technique for attitude elicitation. It also examines the respondents’ perceived intelligibility of these varieties and their conative responses and recognition rates. The results consistently showed that inner‐circle varieties, Standardised British in particular, were rated more favourably than expanding‐circle varieties and were perceived as more desirable and better understood. Their correct recognition rates were also much higher than those for expanding‐circle varieties. Expanding‐circle varieties were rated much less favourably, with the exception of moderately accented Bosnian English. All the other expanding‐circle varieties, heavily accented Bosnian English, Arabic and Turkish English, were not perceived as desirable. They were also considered less easily understood, and their recognition rates were low.