Dutch Actors Speaking English

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether Dutch actors can be perceived as native speakers of English, and if so, to what extent. It is stated by many studies that it is difficult to become native like when one starts learning a second language from an older age. But it is not clear if this is also the case for actors, who can practice their film lines and so their pronunciation of English. The findings of this study suggest that it is possible for Dutch actors to be perceived as native speakers of English, while acting. However, when the Dutch actors were speaking rather than acting, not all were perceived as native speakers. This suggests that context plays a role in the extent to which actors are judged as native or non-native speakers of English. Furthermore, both Dutch native speaking listeners and English native speaking listeners had the same perceptions of the actors in this study.