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Accentuate the positive
The negative impact an accent can have on your academic career .
Celeste Rodriguez Louro interviewed by Emilie Lauer
Speaking with an accent and having English as your second language in the higher education sector can become a hurdle for your career , leading to missed promotion opportunities , funding or even paper publications .
“ In certain settings , having an accented English can be seen as being less competent , less intelligent ,” senior lecturer in Linguistics and Language Lab Director at UWA , Celeste Rodriguez Louro , told Campus Review .
“ People assume that someone with a mainstream accent is more knowledgeable .”
According to Rodriguez Louro , women with an accented English are even more likely to suffer from the situation as they tend to be regarded as having less credibility than their male counterparts .
She joined Campus Review to discuss the impact of having an accent in an academic career .
CR : How is having an accent perceived today in Australia ? CRL : It depends on context . If you are hanging out with a group of people from all over the world , having diverse accents will not necessarily be seen in a negative light .
But if , for example , you are a woman with a very marked English accent trying to get a job , and the other people applying for the same job have a mainstream accent and are male , you are going to be seen as less intelligent and less competent , and it is very likely that you will not get the job .
Is it the same for men who have accents ? Some of the research people have conducted in this area shows that it is not . When women who speak accented English compete against males who also speak accented English , the women tend to be seen in a negative light and not the men .
Gender and ethnicity play a part together to create some sort of a hurdle . I ’ m not necessarily saying someone will
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