Disentangling professional competence and foreign accent

Teló, Cesar; Trofimovich, Pavel; O’Brien, Mary Grantham

doi:10.1075/jslp.22013.tel

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…In addition to that, teachers generally revealed that boys don't like English language teachers. This is in line with the reporting of Sprouse et al (2018); Teló et al (2022), who all reported that some boys tend to have a dislike for English language teachers. The administrators also reported that some teachers also witch-hunt certain students.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Perception of Teachers of English Towards Boys in English Lessons in Secondary Schools in Uganda: Implication on Students’ Performance

Kaahwa,

Sentamu,

Muweesi

et al. 2023

East Afr. j. educ. stud.

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The study investigated why boys perform poorly in the English language in secondary schools, with a focus on schools in Uganda. The specific objective was: to establish the perception of teachers of English towards boys in English lessons in Uganda. An explanatory case study research design was adopted, and 20 study participants were included in this study. Purposive sampling techniques were used to reach the respondents and the primary data was collected using interview guides, observation checklist and document analysis. Findings revealed that teachers of the English language perceive boys as not cooperative in class; they are stubborn, disturbing, and much disorganised with low interest in the subject. Findings further revealed that some teachers are supportive and accommodative whereas some are cold-hearted towards them. The administrators also said that the performance of boys in the English language has been deteriorating for the last four years since 2018 when it comes to the UCE results. It was recommended that Teachers need to improve their pedagogical approaches in order to interest boys in English Language subjects. Boys need to be trained in better ways in which they can read the English language and be independent thinkers than always following their peers. In addition, Boys in secondary schools need to change their attitude and feeling towards the English language and take it as a serious subject like other subjects. Developing a positive perception and attitude towards the subject will enable them to improve their grades. Further still, boys should not perceive the English language as a subject for only girls because there are male teachers of the English language and doing it perfectly well with ease.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Perception of Teachers of English Towards Boys in English Lessons in Secondary Schools in Uganda: Implication on Students’ Performance

Kaahwa,

Sentamu,

Muweesi

et al. 2023

East Afr. j. educ. stud.

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“…Although an accent has nothing to do with one’s level of medical knowledge, it seemingly indicates trustworthiness, which is deemed a desirable quality in a doctor (Baquiran and Nicoladis, 2020). This example highlights how accentism operates as a type of individual linguistic profiling and bias in which workers are evaluated in terms of how they sound (Teló et al. , 2022).…”

Section: Theorizing Accentism: From the Interpersonal To The Institut...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although an accent has nothing to do with one's level of medical knowledge, it seemingly indicates trustworthiness, which is deemed a desirable quality in a doctor (Baquiran and Nicoladis, 2020). This example highlights how accentism operates as a type of individual linguistic profiling and bias in which workers are evaluated in terms of how they sound (Tel o et al, 2022). Moreover, from a social-cognitive-career-theoretical (SCCT) perspective, accentism threatens workers' sense of self-efficacy in finding or maintaining employment as having an "undesirable accent" can be believed to be a natural career obstacle (Lent et al, 2002;Yakushko et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Accent modification and workplace accentism: the institutionalization of linguistic profiling and its career implications

Ramjattan

2024

CDI

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PurposeThis paper argues that accent modification acts as a mechanism that (re)produces workplace accentism, which is a set of ideologies and practices positioning some English accents as inherently superior/inferior to others in the context of work and careers.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper draws on existing literature mainly from critical sociolinguistic and labor studies to support its central argument.FindingsThrough acting as a skill, a technology and a commodified service, accent modification naturalizes linguistic hierarchies, which are racist, classist and colonial constructions, and reinforces the structural status quo in different contexts.Practical implicationsIn order to move away from accent modification as a means to enhance oral communication at work, organizational attempts at fostering mutual intelligibility and undoing the role of accent in workplace communication are necessary.Originality/valueContrary to research that presents accentism as a purely interpersonal issue, the paper explores how accentism is institutionalized and is connected to linguistic profiling.

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“…In light of this, Teló et al (2022) investigated how foreign accents are unfavorably compared to "White" accents. In their research, they studied listeners' evaluations of first (L 1 ) and second (L 2 ) language speakers of English.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Costs of African Accents and Benefits of Accent Switching

John,

Almeida

2023

Preprint

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Speakers of English as an additional language (EAL) face challenges when assimilating into international settings because of accent discrimination. We report two studies conducted to investigate this issue. First, we surveyed 32 Africans at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) on their experiences using the English language in an international institution. Multiple Factor Analysis revealed two main dimensions capturing 25% of the variance and interpreted as X and Y. Dimension X represented factual information about participants’ use of English while dimension Y captured subjective attitudes about the relationship between participants’ native English accents and Mainstream American accents. In study two, a speaker evaluation experiment was conducted where 165 participants listened to audio recordings of different voices with six different accents and rated each one across six categories: intelligence, confidence, educatedness, powerfulness, physical attractiveness, and sociability. The study included the manipulation of an accent switch – one voice was presented once with a Ghanaian English accent and emulating what is considered a more prestigious Mainstream American accent. The Mainstream American accent was rated more positively than the Ghanaian accent in most questions, while the Ghanaian emulating an American accent received ratings that were either intermediate or as high as the American.

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Disentangling professional competence and foreign accent

Cited by 9 publications

References 48 publications

Perception of Teachers of English Towards Boys in English Lessons in Secondary Schools in Uganda: Implication on Students’ Performance

Perception of Teachers of English Towards Boys in English Lessons in Secondary Schools in Uganda: Implication on Students’ Performance

Accent modification and workplace accentism: the institutionalization of linguistic profiling and its career implications

Costs of African Accents and Benefits of Accent Switching

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