Attitudes toEnglish teachers' accents in theGulf

While the spread of E nglish as a lingua franca has led to calls for multidialectal competence, EFL learners often still consider inner circle native E nglish speaker ( NES ) pronunciation as their learning goal, and may profess a preference for particular teachers based on their NES or non‐native E nglish speaker ( NNES ) status. This study investigates whether a teacher's NES / NNES status may affect O mani students' level of confidence towards the teacher. Using an adapted matched‐guise technique with almost 350 students, the study reveals a preference for speakers and accents students understand to be from the UK , although students also responded favourably to Arabic native speakers. Where the NES / NNES variable remained constant, no significant difference in student's ratings of the teacher was found.