RETHINKING NATIVE-SPEAKER NORMS: VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARD GLOBAL ENGLISHES

ABSTRACT: The diversity of English on a global scale contradicts the belief that the norms of English of the British or American native speakers are supposed to be the only goals of English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction. This paper suggests conducting an explanatory sequential mixed methods study of the attitudes towards the norms of native speakers, knowledge about Global Englishes, appreciation of various accents, and communicative priorities of Vietnamese EFL university students. The study is expected to employ a five-point Likert survey and semi-structured interviews for assessing the nature of participants’ attitudes as well as the institutional and personal experiences behind their formation. The first phase of the study will consist in estimating the scores of constructs and their relationships, while in the second phase, thematic analysis will be used to provide explanations for the contradictions between the endorsement of intelligibility and the prestige associated with native varieties. In the absence of original participant-level data, the findings section includes analytical tables and interpretative framework rather than fabricated findings. Keywords: Global Englishes; native-speakerism; Vietnamese EFL students; language attitudes; explanatory sequential mixed methods; intelligibility.