Perception of English Accent by EFL Students and Teachers: Subjective Ideals and Objective Realities

In the paper the authors examine the issue of EFL students’ perceptions of various EFL accents. Using a questionnaire methodology we try to elicit the students’ views on: a) their own EFL accents ; b) the various ENL accents ; c) the accent(s) that in their opinion should be taught in the EFL context. The results of the study reveal a worrying gap between the EFL reality i.e. practice and the EFL students’ attitudes towards EFL teaching practice(s) i.e. goals. We believe that identifying ways to bridge this gap is one of the key challenges for the developers of EFL materials and ELT.