At this point, we're moving into meta-debates about the meaning of the word "accent". But the way most linguists understand the way "accent" is just as a pattern of pronunciation, so even with non-native speakers, they don't have "more" or "less" accent, they rather change their accent to a more native-like accent.
case in point: Standard German doesn't pronounce syllable-final "r", so someone who speaks English with a German accent will tend to speak with a non-rhotic accent, as most English accents. If they subsequently move to the US and adopt rhotacism, are they now having "more" or "less" accent?
case in point: Standard German doesn't pronounce syllable-final "r", so someone who speaks English with a German accent will tend to speak with a non-rhotic accent, as most English accents. If they subsequently move to the US and adopt rhotacism, are they now having "more" or "less" accent?
I think the issue is explained quite nicely here: https://web.archive.org/web/20081008000501/http://linguist.e...