How does the pronunciation of a teacher affect young learners’ interest in learning English: A case study in a Hong Kong kindergarten school

This study probes into the effects of a local kindergarten teacher’s pronunciation on her students’ interest in English language learning. It also examines the teacher’s own perceptions of pronunciation competency as a language professional. In Asia, many non-native L2 teachers suffer from the ‘native-speaker fallacy’ due to our historical and colonial backgrounds. A huge inferior complex element is deeply entrenched in our cultures. This study aims to explore how we can change this unhealthy and misperceived self-worth in language teachers and tap into the rich resources from our L1 & L2 learning experiences into teaching experiences. A kindergarten teacher with 11 young learners were interviewed. Though the initial results show the non-native pronunciation of the teacher negatively affected students’ interest in learning, this study has raised an awareness to address the generally non-RP standards of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Further studies are suggested to investigate how language educators can help develop kindergarten teachers as language professionals through teacher training programmes.