Abstrakt
In the current paper, we draw on and further develop our previous research examining pre-service teachers' attitudes and beliefs about accents, in which we proposed a pedagogical intervention reflecting certain aspects of our research outcomes, mainly the positive trend of embracing one's non-nativeness. A set of four classroom activities, namely Nativeness perception test, Four corners, Bank of experiences and Sociodynamic teacher, were incorporated into three different online graduate courses in the winter and summer semesters 2020/2021 at the Department of the English Language and Literature, Faculty of Education in Prague.
The piloting process was partly replicated in face-to-face classes of the following academic year. The common goal was to raise awareness of accent variation, especially in such a linguistically homogenous country as the Czech Republic, and cultivate future teachers' ability to address accent-related issues confidently, objectively and sensitively.
The subsequent data analysis involved participants' recorded group and/or pair discussions, written and/or oral feedback, submitted tasks as well as teachers' observations. The results indicate a good level of confidence in the target area and increased awareness of accent variability.
Particularly, the respondents proved to be highly creative when devising adequate and supportive reactions to imagined negative comments related to accents or preventing them by specifically designing their lesson plans. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the pedagogical intervention was appraised by the participating graduate students in their reflective assessment one year later.