Salesperson’s accent as a globalization issue

DeShields, Oscar W.; Santos, Gilberto de los

doi:10.1002/1520-6874(200001)42:1<29::aid-tie3>3.3.co;2-g

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Findings in the present study that a Dutch accent in English can lead to a more negative attitude than a native accent in terms of competence and status concur with findings of earlier research into the evaluation of foreign‐accented English by native listeners (e.g. DeShields and de los Santos ; Nejjari et al. ; Tsalikis et al.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Previous studies on the impact of accentedness in a foreign language have generally shown that native speakers evaluate speakers with a non‐native accent negatively with regard to both comprehensibility and speaker evaluation (e.g. Tsalikis, DeShields, and LaTour ; Munro and Derwing ; DeShields and de los Santos ; Bresnahan, Ohashi, Nebashi, Liu, and Morinaga Shearman ; Major, Fitzmaurice, Bunta and Balasubramanian ; Nejjari, Gerritsen, van der Haagen, and Korzilius ; for overviews see Gluszek and Dovidio ; Mai and Hoffman ). For example, Major et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effects of degrees of Dutch accentedness in ELF and in French, German and Spanish

Hendriks

Meurs

Groot

2015

Int J App Linguistics

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In a verbal guise experiment, 178 listeners with three nationalities (58 French, 59 German and 61 Spanish) listened to samples recorded by female speakers with three degrees of accentedness (strong/slight accented-Dutch and native) in English, French, German and Spanish. Findings indicate that a strong accent had a detrimental effect on understanding and attitudinal evaluations, while a slight accent hardly led to negative effects. A speaker with a strong Dutch accent in English was evaluated as less competent than speakers with a slight or native accent. Speakers with a strong Dutch accent in French, German or Spanish were evaluated as less friendly and less competent than speakers with a native accent.Keywords: foreign accent, ELF, attitudes, accent strength, comprehensibility En un experimento que midió el efecto de la acentuación utilizando la técnica de verbal guise, 178 participantes de tres nacionalidades (58 franceses, 59 alemanes y 61 españoles) escucharon unas muestras grabadas de hablantes femeninos con tres grados de acentuación (con acento holandés muy marcado, ligeramente marcado, y con un acento nativo) en inglés, francés, alemán y español. Los resultados indicaron que un acento muy marcado tenía un efecto negativo en la comprensión y evaluación de actitudes, mientras que un acento ligeramente marcado casi no tuvo efectos negativos. Un hablante con un acento holandés muy marcado en inglés fue evaluado como menos competente que los hablantes nativos o los hablantes con un acento ligeramente marcado. Los hablantes que hablaban con un acento holandés muy marcado tanto en francés, alemán como español fueron considerados como menos amables y menos competentes que los hablantes con un acento nativo.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of degrees of Dutch accentedness in ELF and in French, German and Spanish

Hendriks

Meurs

Groot

2015

Int J App Linguistics

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“…Our nationwide study included service encounters of multiple salespersons operating in different regions. In contrast to previous examinations of speech varieties in a business context (DeShields and de los Santos 2000; Lalwani, Lwin, and Li 2005), we used a real customer sample to enhance ecological validity of the study. Of the 297 customers we approached over a 2-month period, 93 participated (a response rate of 30.6%).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, only a few studies in the marketing literature have analyzed how speech variations influence the effectiveness of sales conversations. According to these studies, speech varieties notably affect customer evaluations of a sales representative (e.g., DeShields and de los Santos 2000; DeShields et al 1997; Tsalikis, Ortiz-Buonafina, and LaTour 1992). However, the extant studies are restricted to products and to just a few foreign accents in the English language (e.g., Spanish, Greek, and Asian).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Positive Effects of a Salesperson’s Regional Dialect in Services Selling

Mai

Hoffmann

2011

Journal of Service Research

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This research analyzes how a salesperson’s regional dialect influences the efficacy of services selling. Four dialect effects are derived from theories of information processing, accent prestige theory, and social identity theory. In the first study, 92 industrial buyers, and in the second study, 126 customers evaluated salespersons after actual sales conversations. In contrast to conventional wisdom, both studies show that buyers do not generally devalue salespersons with a dialect. If speech is of high quality, a regional dialect improves satisfaction with the salesperson, rather than reducing it. Favorable sound qualities and prestigious stereotypical associations with the dialect also raise satisfaction with the salesperson. Moreover, the fit between salesperson and buyer dialects enhances satisfaction with the company and fosters purchase intention. In order to increase their persuasiveness, salespersons should be aware of the four dialect effects. Companies would also benefit from training salespersons to improve their speech quality, rather than concealing their dialect. If possible, salespersons should deliberately modify their way of speaking in all phases of the service-selling process.

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“…Just as other shared group memberships such as race or gender can create a sense of linked fate in which an “individual’s life changes are inextricably tied to the group as a whole” (Simien, 2005, p. 529), we expect participants who identify as southern to express characteristics of linked fate that will mute the negative effects of the accent. There is evidence that those who speak with the accent of the in-group are trusted more than those who speak with the accent of an out-group (Birch & McPhail, 1999; DeShields & de los Santos, 2000; Fuertes, Gottdiener, Helena, Gilbert, & Giles, 2012), leading us to believe that accent may cue these feelings of linked fate. Similarly, linguists have argued that there may be a “hidden value associated with nonstandard speech” (Trudgill, 1972, p. 183), and speaking with a regional dialect can provide “covert prestige,” where the speaker is perceived by people who share the accent as having more positive attributes—precisely because they know that the speaker is robbed of “overt prestige” by society at large (Wolfram & Reaser, 2014).…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Southern Accent as a Heuristic in American Campaigns and Elections

Amira

Cooper

Knotts

et al. 2018

American Politics Research

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Are political candidates perceived differently based on the presence or absence of a southern accent? To address this question, we employ an experimental design that explores reactions to political candidates with a southern accent and a regionally neutral accent. We focus on perceptions of three general categories of candidate characteristics: candidate traits, candidate affect, and candidate issue positions. Overall, we discover that candidates with a southern accent are viewed more negatively, and they are thought to hold more conservative policy positions, than candidates with no discernible accent. Our findings suggest that the southern accent provides a heuristic that affects how voters perceive candidates.

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Salesperson’s accent as a globalization issue

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The effects of degrees of Dutch accentedness in ELF and in French, German and Spanish

The effects of degrees of Dutch accentedness in ELF and in French, German and Spanish

Four Positive Effects of a Salesperson’s Regional Dialect in Services Selling

The Southern Accent as a Heuristic in American Campaigns and Elections

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