Accent Acceptance
About Me
My name is Lexi Azzara and I am a Language, Speech and Hearing major. I think communication is one of the most important things in the world and everyone deserves the ability to be able to affectively and clearly communicate with the world. I have chosen the topic of accent acceptance because people with heavy accents are often discriminated against and judged by people who have difficulties understanding the. This is a global issue but it is also relevant right here in Tampa Bay. I hope to help people with an accent be more widely accepted and understood.
The pervasive problem of 'linguistic racism'
This article talks about the discrimination, that is becoming more and more common in the workplace, against nonnative English speakers. They are being looked over and seen as less competent to fill their role in many companies across the nation, simply because of their accent. This specific article takes this a step further and actually challenges the individual. It challenges the native English speakers to be more intentional in their speak. Slow down. Hold off on the confusing inside jokes and idioms. Just attempt at making room for the people who aren’t quite as comfortable speaking English as the ones who were born speaking it. Just because its not as easy for them or doesn’t come out as quick doesn’t mean the input of the nonnative employees is of any less value. They just need the chance to share it.
Language and Accent Discrimination in the Workplace
This article brings up the issue of how fine the line is, in this case, of whether or not language and accent discrimination is actually discrimination. This is because it is acceptable for a job to have language requirements. These could be as simple as speaking English fluently or even being easily understood. Because of this, sometimes that in itself can put people with a heavy accent at a disadvantage. On one hand, the employer just wants their business to run as smooth as possible and to make sure any and all customers can understand his employees. One the other hand, someone with an accent might be the best fit for the job. This makes this topic a very complex issue.
Accent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination In The Workplace?
Forbes magazine not only discusses the issue of accent bias in the workplace but also goes a step farther and suggests ways in which this issue could be combatted. The first way they suggest is to acknowledge the bias and offer training for the staff. This must be well formulated so that it actually challenges each employee to take the time and recognize their own biases. Second, the recommend inclusive work practices. This includes normalizing asking someone to slow down when they are talking, asking for clarification if you are confused, and checking to make sure you understood the point of their message. Third is to create diverse teams. This will help expose each team member to different types of coworkers and people. Finally, provide strategies and toolkits. Help set your team up for success in order that they don’t revert back to their biased ways.
Why the Brain Doubts a Foreign Accent
This article contrasts accent discrimination from other forms of discrimination such as skin color. This major difference is that discrimination against one’s skin color is widely accepted as wrong at this point in history. On the other hand, accent discrimination has equivalent effect yet is not seen, in many cases, as the prejudice that it is. This is a really big issue. The first step in getting a problem solved is making people aware of the issue. That is exactly what needs to be done in this case.
Accent Discrimination: Drawing Attention to An Invisible Minority
This article gives examples of times where accent discrimination is common. One of these is actually not a negative example. One common time where people discriminate based purely off of one’s accent is with British people. It is very common for people to assume that a person with a British accent is very smart or proper, just because of how they sound when they speak. This has absolutely nothing to do with their actual intelligence and is pure bias. This goes the same way for a nonnative speaker. Based on nothing, people commonly perceive them as less intelligent.
Accent Bias and Perceptions of Professional Competence in England
This article shows that this is a global issue. The same discrimination and biases that are based on different accents and dialects are seen in England. They are seen in regular society but mostly in the professional settings, same as in the United States. Does one’s accent or dialect make them more or less professionally competent? According to underlying bias, that could be seen as true.
Why are Certain Accents Judged the Way they are? Decoding Qualitative Patterns of Accent Bias
One important point that this text points out is the fact that not all accent discrimination and biases happen just based off of nonnative speakers or different languages. Another major area that this is seen is between different regions. Regional dialects, even just in the United States can almost seem as though they are entirely different languages. These dialects give the listener an impression of who that person is right off the bat. In most cases, a southern accent gives off a sweet and homey feeling. A northern accent may tend to come off as rude or harsh. An Appalachian accent may be seen as uneducated. These are examples of different stereotypes associated with different accents and dialects. They give no real information about the actual person who is speaking.
Swedish Youths as Listeners of Global Englishes Speakers With Diverse Accents
This study showed the preference of privileged speakers. When it comes to language, the ways in which we were taught has a big effect and leaves residue on our communication style for what could be forever. Education is a privilege and not everyone has the same access to the same level of it. This leads to privileged kids ending up with a privileged accent. The opposite is true as well. With this being said, we need to broaden our exposure to accents of all kinds to decrease the discrimination against it.
Impact of English regional accents on user acceptance of voice user interfaces
This study had very surprising findings. When natives from Singapore were instructed to interact with two different voice user interfaces, one with a Singapore accent and the other with a British one, in all cases the British one ranked higher. This shows that in even native speakers preferred a British accent, even over their own. This creates a form of accent/dialect hierarchy. This could cause lots of unwanted discrimination and biases.
Celebrity accents and public identity construction : analyzing Geordie stylizations
This article points out how celebrities are perfect examples of how accents and dialects are a big part of a person. Many celebrities, when you think of them, their accent is one of the first (if not the first) things that you think of. One example of this is Sophia Vergara. She has a very heavy hispanic accent. With that being said, they show how people with accents can be very successful. They article uses Cheryl Ann Tweedy as an example. She was a singer and then went on to become a judge on the show “X Factor.” She is a great example of a successful person known for her accented speech.
Should we be concerned about accent discrimination?
We all know about racial discrimination and sexual discrimination, but do we know about accent discrimination? This video brings up the fact that there is a different type of discrimination that tends to be overlooked. People are being seen as “less intelligent” or “less competent” strictly because of the way that they talk.
Talking proper – could accent bias harm your job prospects?
This video highlights how everyone has their own unique accent which reflects who they are as a person and where they come from. It calls into question whether or not this accent puts a affects a person’s ability to get ahead in life. Does one’s accent give them a societal head start? Does someone else’s cause them a set back? This video does a great job addressing these questions and showing the true influence of accents.
Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent
In this video Safwat illuminates how harmful negative comments about one’s accent can be. He enjoyed making video content and using his voice as the narration in order to make the characters come to life. When he did this, he received lots of negativity and backlash because of the way that his voice sounded… it didn’t sound “normal." With every negative comment he received he lost more and more of his self confidence and eventually stopped using his own voice in his animations all together. He then goes on to tell how important it is to not cave to these negative comments and that he needed to be confident in who his is and the way he talks. He also takes the time to challenge the further issue of what “normal” actually is and why people are so reluctant to accept anything that seems to be outside of what they are accustomed to.
Personal Overview
This video is of me explaining what accent discrimination is and why acceptance is so important.
What can we do?
Accent bias and discrimination is a big problem worldwide. It happens in many countries and across many continents. It also happens as locally as Tampa Bay. In order to stop this form of discrimination, matters need to be taken in to the hands of individuals. Instead of listening to “how” something is being said, we must only listen to “what” is being said, of at least trying to be communicated. It is natural to form biases against people who do not speak the same as us. We must consciously fight against this. Just because someone has a different accent or dialect than us, does not make the any less smart or competent. If we can embrace the different ways people talk, we can learn a lot more from the people around us. We also must not put the responsibility of being clearly understood on the person who we are talking to. We should also be making effort to help the conversation. If we were less quick to get frustrated with difficulty understanding accents, the world becomes a much better place for everyone. Tampa is home to a vast variety of cultures, languages, and people groups. Each and every one of them deserve a voice and contribute to the society that we have. We must embrace our differences to help make Tampa the most beautiful and diverse city around.
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By Lexi Azzara
U57813049
© 2022 Lexi Azzara
