“These people I was taking care of their horses for, they owned Tennessee Walkers”: on ‘spokenness’ in English, its acceptance and pedagogical implications.

Abstract

Spoken language is often perceived as a deviation from the norm. This chapter highlights some of the characteristic features of ‘spokenness’ and the rationale behind them. Using English as the exemplar case, it then reports the findings of a study that investigated how the perception and acceptance of such features is influenced by the medium and mode in which spoken language is encountered (face-to-face, video, transcript) and how this differs between native speakers and non-native speakers. At the end, the pedagogical implications of the study will be discussed.

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