Other People's English Accents Matter: Challenging Standard English Accent Hegemony

We live in a society where standard accents are highly valued. Generally, people who speak with a Standard English accent are seen through a positive lens linguistically; those whose English is accented are stigmatized. Accent discrimination affects linguistic minorities from diverse linguistic and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inExcellence in Education Journal Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 120 - 148
Main Author Orelus, Pierre W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Excellence in Education Journal 2020
Subjects
Administrators
Bilingualism
Citizenship
College Faculty
College Students
Dialects
English (Second Language)
Ethnicity
Immigrants
Language Attitudes
Language Minorities
Middle School Teachers
Native Language
North American English
Pronunciation
Race
Social Class
Social Discrimination
New Mexico
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Summary:We live in a society where standard accents are highly valued. Generally, people who speak with a Standard English accent are seen through a positive lens linguistically; those whose English is accented are stigmatized. Accent discrimination affects linguistic minorities from diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, including foreign-accented English speakers. This article uses a sociolinguistic framework and draws from participants' "testimonios" garnered over the course of a year to explore the ways in which linguistic minorities, across ethnicity, race, language, and nationality, experienced various forms of accent discrimination. Participants' testimonios suggest that these factors play a significant role in the different ways and the degree to which they were subjected to accent discrimination.
ISSN:2474-4166