Second Language Accent Perception and Language Attitude by Mandarin and Cantonese Speakers in Mainland China.

One hundred and fifty-one Mandarin and Cantonese learners of English participated in an accent perception task and a language attitude rating task on Mandarin-, Cantonese- and native-accented English speech excerpts of various accent strengths. The accent perception results show that the native English excerpts received better ratings over both Mandarin- and Cantonese-accented ones. Both Cantonese and Mandarin speakers tended to rate Cantonese-accented excerpts as more accented than Mandarin-accented ones, despite good intelligibility. Language attitude results show that native English speech received the highest ratings on superiority and dynamism whereas Cantonese scored the lowest on both aspects. Mandarin-accented English received the highest score on attractiveness. The findings reveal native-speakerism among English learners in China and the necessity of preserving Cantonese in the Greater Bay Area.