Abstract:
Our second assignment was a research paper on accent discrimination in job hiring processes. In this paper, I argue that accent discrimination within business hiring practices is rooted in hatred and bigotry. Over the course of several weeks, we were tasked with researching and analyzing different resources that would support and counter our argument. We also referenced several texts that we read and analyzed from the previous unit. My audience consists of those who endure the effects of these harmful practices and employers who should be knowledgeable about this issue. The purpose of my argument is to draw my audience’s attention to the current issue and find ways to acknowledge and change this practice. From this unit I learned that creating a formal argument requires much research and citation. I also learned that harmful business practices are more commonplace than what I had initially thought, but the only way to reverse such an unfair situation is to start by reversing our own thinking as individuals.
Cover Letter:
During our research for this assignment, I gained insight into the true implications of accent discrimination for those who must endure prejudice. The mental effects of any discrimination, accent included, are detrimental and can cause long-lasting harm to individuals, and the society that has suppressed them, for they are inclined to retaliate. I also learned of the glass ceiling effect that still chokes our business practices. Although change is slow, it is still ever present and will continue to grow in our hiring process. The evidence that I found impacted my learning practices the most, allowing me to grow my perspective of the subject at hand. What most surprised me were the legal loopholes that businesses can use in order to discriminate against potential hirees. There is nothing in our constitutional amendments that explicitly states that accent discrimination is a criminal offense, and thus companies can use this as a support beam for most exclusionary practices, including the magnification of the “glass ceiling”, keeping minorities out of places of high power in business. It is also the fact that accent is associated with social acceptance that shocked me the most. People who share the same accent are more likely to be accepting of each other because of their shared way of speaking and social identities. This unit has helped me to “recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages.” Language discrimination only exists to oppress by those who hold prejudices and biases against people of other, non-American, backgrounds. The societal shunning of those who speak with an accent directly empowers those at the top of the ladder, who control much of American business practices and are responsible for hiring for their companies. It prevents people of other backgrounds from holding positions of power, thus hierarchizing language and accent, specifically the “standard” English accent.
Researched Argument Essay
Everyone has an accent, and a person’s accent is judged by those that surround him/her. Different accents can be considered different variations of English. For example, English from the South sounds very different from New Yorker English, but English is a versatile language, and its rules can be bent. The bias that surrounds certain accents is rooted in racism and discrimination. I strongly believe that accent discrimination plays negatively into our professional lives and that we, as individuals, are responsible for eliminating this bias.
Discrimination in business hiring practices of those who speak English with L2, English as a second language, accents is detrimental to the individual and is rooted in hatred and prejudice. Prejudice against accent is due to stereotypes. “…people’s reactions to accents are informed not just by aspects of the speech stream, but by attitudes and assumptions…naïve native listeners are confident that they can hear an Asian accent when they see an Asian face—even though the accent they are hearing is a mid-west American accent. The only individuals who do not seem to have much confidence are native speakers of English who are nervous about interacting with people who have an L2 accent” (Derwing). A biased individual’s beliefs in regard to accent discrimination is regarded as the “standard language ideology” (Lippi-Green), preference for a homogeneous spoken language upheld by general institutions, like the education system, drawn from the spoken language of the upper middle class. Most stereotypes of minorities come from a contradictory culture to the upper middle class, as well. In addition, the socio-psychological impacts that accent discrimination has on individuals is severe. The trauma of social exclusion and lack of empathy can drive individuals to feel the need to retaliate against the society that excluded them. Oftentimes, those who are not accustomed to or not fluent in English are harassed and degraded because of their limitations. Their dislike to communicate with others causes others to label them as antisocial or shy. (Accent Discrimination). Policy falls short in efficiency of its explanation of discrimination’s relation to intelligence and accent. Title VII included in the New Civil Rights Act of 1946 states that employers are not allowed to discriminate against employees or potential employees on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (Title VII). However, it fails to mention accent as a term of which employees may not be discriminated against. This leaves the topic of accent up for debate, providing room for employers to reject potential employees from jobs. “The research suggests that discrimination based on accent is still widely accepted and continues to happen…Nguyen (1993) suggests testing spoken English in order to put all applicants on the same level and to match vacancies to the required level of spoken English. However, until Title VII (Government, 1964) is updated so that there is less room for interpretation, it will be difficult for employees to win cases against the employers” (Cerrato). Treatment of those who speak with L2 accents is harsh, even when not getting hired in the cutthroat business world. Even daily life can be a struggle. “And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (Tan). Only prejudiced and biased individuals discriminate against immigrants with accents. “These results are the first experimental illustration of the hypothesis that accent triggers intergroup discrimination only among prejudiced individuals because they evaluate native accents as being qualitatively better than accents of immigrants, thereby legitimizing ingroup bias” (De Souza). In order to be successful in a business, managers will have to overcome stereotypes in regard to accent discrimination, especially for businesses on a global scale. “… US corporations are beginning to formulate accent descrimination policies to ensure legal compliance “(Petrick).
Some may argue that we have come a long way and that in today’s age, compared to the past few decades where segregation and discrimination was normalized, we are much better off. In some ways this is true. Diversity in the workplace has increased and many people from various backgrounds and accent-types are hired each day. The opposing side may also argue that almost no one deals with it accent discrimination, and that it is not a prevalent issue. This way of thinking is completely false and could be extremely harmful. “Accents are deep-rooted in social group identity…accents have covert prestige within the communities in which they are spoken” (Bhatia). That being said, those who share the same, or similar accents are more likely to be accepted, and hired, because they share the same social group. This creates a glass ceiling effect within the hiring process, also known as the pervasive resistance, to allow minorities into high ranks of management or positions of power in businesses.
With hundreds of different languages in the world and a constant influx of immigrants to the US, more people now, than ever, are learning, speaking and sharing multiple languages and this means many people are learning English as a second language (or third, or fourth). Yet, stereotypes still seem to linger when immigrants with L2 accents look for work. “…accent triggers intergroup discrimination only among prejudiced individuals because they evaluate native accents as being qualitatively better than accents of immigrants, thereby legitimizing ingroup bias” (De Souza). Although we are in a better place now than we were several decades ago, change is slow for those who face accent discrimination. In order to be successful in a business, managers will have to overcome stereotypes in regard to accent discrimination, especially for businesses on a global scale. U.S. courts will continue to receive cases related to accent discrimination. Federal policy will soon need to be activated and revised in order to maintain an effective working environment. Even though our Civil Rights Act extended policies of Title VII, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race/national origin, it never explicitly states accent as a term of the law in which employees are to be protected from employer bias. It is oftentimes that those who are being discriminated against are not even acknowledged, and people do not see a problem with the way that they are treated. This is a huge part of the issue that we face, acknowledgement. Furthermore, because of the fact that accent discrimination is not explicitly criminalized within our federal law, it can be worked around and used as a catalyst for other discriminatory practices. “There are some cases where an employer can legally dismiss an employee based on their foreign accent…an employer can require their employees to speak fluent English if it is a skill that is necessary to do the job effectively” (Wishnia). These instances where it is allowable for employers to dismiss employees because of accent, are a potential issue for prejudice hirers who can claim accent as a deterrent when, in reality, it is a person’s race or background that they are discriminating against.
The only way to combat the issue of language discrimination is exposure and acceptance.
The more that people, especially younger generations, are exposed to different accents, sounds and languages, the more accepting we, as a society will become in regard to each individual’s way-of-speaking. Starting from a younger age means that children can expand their soundhouses, learning to understand sounds that come from languages other than English. Not to mention the social and cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages at an early age can only be a positive factor in one’s future. Increasing diversity in language promotes acceptance of others’ accents and thus creates a more peaceful community. Acceptance of each other’s differences, language-related or otherwise, should be our main goal in order to promote a healthier and happier future. Once we learn to accept and embrace the uniqueness of each individual, we will then be able to be able to socially progress as humans.
Works Cited:
“Accent Discrimination and the Harmful Effects.” IvyPanda, 14 May 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/accent-discrimination-and-the-harmful-effects/.
Bhatia, Tej. “Accent, Intelligibility, Mental Health, and Trauma – Wiley Online Library.” Accent, Intelligibility, Mental Health, and Trauma, Wiley Online Library, 8 Oct. 2018, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/weng.12329.
Cerrato, Laura. “Accent Discrimination in the US: A Hindrance to Your Employment and …” Metropolia, 27 Apr. 2017, https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/129361/Cerrato_Laura.pdf?sequence=1.
Derwing, Tracey M., et al. “L2 Accent and Ethics: Issues That Merit Attention.” SpringerLink, Springer Netherlands, 1 Jan. 1970, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-8869-4_5.
De Souza, Luana, et al. “The Legitimizing Role of Accent on Discrimination against Immigrants.” Wiley Online Library, 1 July 2016, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2216.
Gadoua, Renée K. “Accent Discrimination: Invisible Source of Social Bias.” SU News, 25 Oct. 2018, https://news.syr.edu/blog/2018/10/25/accent-discrimination-invisible-source-of-social-bias/.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. “Language Subordination”. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. Second ed., Routledge, 2012.
Markley, Dianne. “Regional Accent Discrimination in the Hiring Process: A Language …” ProQuest, University of North Texas ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2000, https://www.proquest.com/openview/aa1bb276e0d4d0b6fc0728f62b961750/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.
Matsuda, Mary. “Voices of America: Accent, Antidiscrimination Law, and a Jurisprudence …” JSTOR, The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc., Mar. 1991, https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/796694.
Petrick, Joseph A. and John F. Quinn. “Emerging Strategic Human Resource Challenges in Managing Accent.” Radford University. Radford.edu, http://applyhrm.asp.radford.edu/1993/Volume4_Number2_Pages79-150/The%20Relationship%20between%20Students’%20grades%20and%20Their%20Evaluati.pdf.
Tan, Amy. “Mother tongue.” The Threepenny Review, 1990, pp. 7-8.
Timming, Andrew. “The Effect of Foreign Accent on Employability: A Study of the Aural …” Sage Journals, 1 Apr. 2016, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0950017016630260.
“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” US EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964#:~:text=Definitions.
Wishnia, Jaclyn. “What Is Accent Discrimination?” LegalMatch Law Library, LegalMatch, 21 July 2020, https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/accent-discrimination-lawyers.html.
Wood, Grace. “Guilty by Accent?” Equinox Publishing, Journal of Language and Discrimination, , 2019, https://api.equinoxpub.com/articles/fulltext/39918#:~:text=Research%20into%20urban%20housing%2C%20employment%2C%20education%20and%20public,against%20protected%20traits%20%28e.g.%20ethnicity%2C%20gender%2C%20religion%2C%20etc.%29.
Revision:
Everyone has an accent, and a person’s accent is judged by those that surround him/her. Different accents can be considered different variations of English. For example, English from the South sounds very different from New Yorker English, but English is a versatile language and its rules can be bent. The bias that surrounds certain accents is rooted in racism and discrimination. I strongly believe that accent discrimination plays negatively into our professional lives and that we, as individuals, are responsible for eliminating this bias.
Discrimination in business hiring practices of those who speak english with L2, English as a second language, accents is detrimental to the individual and is rooted in hatred and prejudice. Prejudice against accent is due to stereotypes. Quoted from one of the authors of the multilingual education textbook series, “…people’s reactions to accents are informed not just by aspects of the speech stream, but by attitudes and assumptions…naïve native listeners are confident that they can hear an Asian accent when they see an Asian face—even though the accent they are hearing is a mid-west American accent.” (Derwing). It is because of these assumptions that people will start to formulate stereotypes before even interacting with a multilanguage speaker. “A biased individual’s beliefs in regard to accent descrimination is regarded as the “standard language ideology”(Lippi-Green), preference for a homogeneous spoken language upheld by general institutions, like the education system, drawn from the spoken language of the upper middle class. Most stereotypes of minorities come from a contradictory culture to the upper middle class, as well. In addition the socio-psychological impacts that accent descrimination has on individuals is severe. The trauma of social exclusion and lack of empathy can drive individuals to feel the need to retaliate against the society that excluded them. Oftentimes, those who are not accustomed to or not fluent in English are harrassed and degraded because of their limitations. Those who do not feel that they can speak English well, or that they do not meet the standard, causes them to not want to communicate with fluent speakers who tend to label them as antisocial or shy. (Accent Discrimination). Policy falls short in efficency of its explination of discrimination’s relation to intelliegence and accent. Title VII included in the New Civil Rights Act of 1946 states that employers are not allowed to discriminate against employees or potential employees on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin”(Title VII). However it fails to mention accent as a term of which employees may not be discriminated against. This leaves the topic of accent up for debate, providing room for employers to reject potential employees from jobs. “The research suggests that discrimination based on accent is still widely accepted and continues to happen…Nguyen (1993) suggests testing spoken English in order to put all applicants on the same level and to match vacancies to the required level of spoken English. However, until Title VII (Government, 1964) is updated so that there is less room for interpretation, it will be difficult for employees to win cases against the employers” (Cerrato). Treatment of those who speak with L2 accents is harsh in the social aspect of everyday life, even when not getting hired in the cut throat business world. Daily life can be a struggle. Amy Tan, a novelist and first generation Chinese American writes about her own experiences with accent discrimination, “…the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her (her mother) seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (Tan). In her personal essay, Tan describes the maltreatment of people towards her mother because of her accent. Only prejudiced and biased individuals discriminate against immigrants with accents. “These results are the first experimental illustration of the hypothesis that accent triggers intergroup discrimination only among prejudiced individuals because they evaluate native accents as being qualitatively better than accents of immigrants, thereby legitimizing ingroup bias” (De Souza). In order to be successful in a business, managers will have to overcome stereotypes in regard to accent discrimination, especially for businesses on a global scale. “… US corporations are beginning to formulate accent descrimination policies to ensure legal compliance “(Petrick).
Some may argue that we have come a long way and that in today’s age, compared to the past few decades where segregation and discrimination was normalized, we are much better off. In some ways this is true. Diversity in the workplace has increased and many people from various backgrounds and accent-types are hired each day. The opposing side may also argue that accent discrimination is not common enough to be a prevalent issue. This way of thinking is completely false and could be extremely harmful. “Accents are deep-rooted in social group identity…accents have covert prestige within the communities in which they are spoken”(Bhatia). That being said, those who share the same, or similar accents are more likely to be accepted, and hired, because they share the same social group. This creates a glass ceiling effect within the hiring process, also known as the pervasive resistance to allow minorities into high ranks of management or positions of power in businesses.
With hundreds of different languages in the world and a constant influx of immigrants to the US, more people now, than ever, are learning, speaking and sharing multiple languages and this means many people are learning English as a second language (or third, or fourth). Yet, stereotypes still seem to linger when immigrants with L2 accents look for work. “…accent triggers intergroup discrimination only among prejudiced individuals because they evaluate native accents as being qualitatively better than accents of immigrants, thereby legitimizing ingroup bias” (De Souza). Although we are in a better place now than we were several decades ago, change is slow for those who face accent discrimination. In order to be successful in a business, managers will have to overcome stereotypes in regard to accent discrimination, especially for businesses on a global scale. U.S. courts will continue to receive cases related to accent descrimination. Federal policy will soon need to be activated and revised in order to maintain an effective working environment. Even though our Civil Rights Act extended policies of Title VII, outlawing descrimination on the basis of race/national origin, it never explicitly states accent as a term of the law in which employees are to be protected from employer bias. It is oftentimes that those who are being discriminated against are not even acknowledged, and people do not see a problem with the way that they are treated. This is a huge part of the issue that we face, acknowledgement. Furthermore, because of the fact that accent descrimination is not explicitly criminalized within our federal law, it can be worked around and used as a catalyst for other discriminatory practices. “There are some cases where an employer can legally dismiss an employee based on their foreign accent…an employer can require their employees to speak fluent English if it is a skill that is necessary to do the job effectively” (Wishnia). These instances where it is allowable for employers to dismiss employees because of accent, are a potential issue for prejudice hirers who can claim accent as a deterrent when, in reality, it is a person’s race or background that they are discriminating against.
The only way to combat the issue of language discrimination is exposure and acceptance.
In order to teach people, we could include more language courses in the classroom, starting from preschool or kindergarten, and finding ways to incorporate multi language and multi accent speakers in the teaching curriculum. The more that people, especially younger generations, are exposed to different accents, sounds and languages, the more accepting we, as a society will become in regard to each individual’s way-of-speaking. Starting from a younger age means that children can expand their sound houses, learning to understand sounds that come from languages other than English. Not to mention the social and cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages at an early age can only be a positive factor in one’s future. Increasing diversity in language promotes acceptance of others’ accents and thus creates a more peaceful community. Acceptance of each other’s differences, language-related or otherwise, should be our main goal in order to promote a healthier and happier future. Once we learn to accept and embrace the uniqueness of each individual, we will then be able to be able to socially progress as humans.
