Language of Schooling and Perceptions of English Accented Speech in Kazakhstan

This exploratory study examined whether language of secondary schooling was associated with university students' evaluations of English-accented speech in Kazakhstan. Twenty undergraduates, comprising 10 students with predominantly Kazakh-medium schooling and 10 with predominantly Russian-medium schooling, evaluated eight recordings by different speakers. Data were collected in September 2026 during a university phonetics course. Each recording lasted 30–60 seconds and was played once through classroom loudspeakers in a fixed order. Participants rated comprehensibility, perceived accent strength, and perceived speaker competence on separate nine-point scales. Complete responses yielded 160 listener–recording observations per outcome. Ratings were averaged within listeners before two-sided Welch tests, with Holm adjustment across three outcomes. Kazakh-medium listeners gave numerically higher ratings for comprehensibility (6.55 vs. 6.25), accent strength (5.78 vs. 5.58), and competence (6.85 vs. 6.38). All confidence intervals for mean differences included zero, and no Welch comparison was statistically significant after adjustment. Mann–Whitney sensitivity analyses likewise yielded no significant adjusted comparisons. The findings provide preliminary listener-level estimates but do not establish reliable group differences or a causal effect of schooling language. Interpretation is limited by the small convenience sample, fixed presentation order, unadjusted proficiency differences, and the absence of an objective intelligibility measure.