campusreview . com . au industry & research lose their job , but it may very well be that gender when combined with some form of accented English is not going to allow you to break into a company or obtain a promotion .
How does having an accent affect the careers of researchers or lecturers ? Generally speaking , if you work with people who are used to different accented Englishes , you ’ re not necessarily going to encounter many difficulties based on your accent . But if you are working in an environment where this unconscious bias that we all have to favour the people that we identify with – that ’ s a very human trait – stays unchecked , then whoever speaks an accented variety of English will not necessarily have the best time .
You may be structurally disadvantaged . You will not be able to be promoted to the same extent as other people who speak mainstream English . It may come down to not speaking up in a meeting because you feel as though your self-esteem is being threatened in some way .
Do you think researchers or lecturers lose credibility if they have an accent ? We know that female lecturers and teachers in academia , and I think just in general , tend to have less credibility than their male counterparts . It depends on what area of study you ’ re considering . It may very well be that if you are studying languages , accented Englishes are par for the course , because your teachers are going to be the first language users of a number of different languages .
But if you are , say , studying business or engineering , it may be that there ’ s more of a bias to assume that someone who speaks with a mainstream accent will be more knowledgeable and will be able to express themselves more clearly .
There ’ s less patience , I guess , around those who speak English as a second language . I was chatting with someone last week and I was trying to explain it using the glass half empty or half full analogy . We ’ re probably operating from a glass half empty approach of , ‘ So and so has an accent . I don ’ t know what they ’ re saying .’ I feel like if we shift that we could think , ‘ They may have an accent . I may need to ask for clarification once in a while . But at the same time they are multilingual . The reason their English is accented is because they also speak other languages .’
Let ’ s be honest , a lot of the time it ’ s difficult to communicate even if we share the same mainstream accent . So it all comes down to trying , adapting and really embracing diversity every single day .
How does having an accent impact their career long-term ? It may very well be that at the end of the semester , when students are being asked to rate the quality of the teaching , if someone ’ s accent is seen as an impediment that may be reflected in teacher evaluations .
In the realm of research and publications , the global language in the publishing industry if you want to be cited , referenced and noticed is generally English . A lot of journals used to have protocols saying , ‘ Please make sure that you have a native speaker of English check your manuscript before submission .’
I always felt that ’ s excluding people from the conversation . It is also assuming that in order to be fully fluent and an excellent communicator , you need to have been born into a language , and we know that is not the case . Generally speaking , second language , foreign language students of English have way more advanced grammatical skills than people who were born into English .
When I moved away from Argentina I was only in my early 20s and I did all of my post-graduate education in the US and here in Australia . I basically changed the way that I write completely .
When I need to write in Spanish now , it is extremely difficult for me . It ’ s a different literary tradition . It ’ s a different way of expressing your thoughts . And you need to do that to be able to succeed .
Do you think that academics who speak English with an accent get the same respect from students ? In Australia we have so many international students that I think , generally speaking , will relate to an international accent . I think it depends on how you are approaching your teaching , how much effort you ’ re putting into your slide shows and handouts , and how much you are helping people learn .
The hallmark of good teaching is not really having the right accent , it ’ s caring for your students and making sure that they are your number one priority .
I think the potential to be discriminated against is there in the classroom , but it
There ’ s less patience around those who speak English as a second language .
would be a minority in my estimation . I ’ ve been teaching in Australia for a very long time with minimum disruption or commentary on how I speak .
What can we do to fight accent discrimination in the higher education sector ? I think we just need to learn and unlearn . One thing that we do in linguistics is basically say to everyone , ‘ Linguistics is not about prescribing how people should speak . Linguistics is about describing and understanding how people actually speak .’
Once you let that sink in , instead of judging – and it ’ s human nature to judge – but once you catch yourself doing it , maybe do a quick unconscious bias assessment and ask , ‘ Why am I thinking this way ? Can I listen a bit more ? Can I let go of the fact that this person ’ s English is not sounding like it ’ s mainstream .’
Have a growth mindset . Have patience with each other and don ’ t just pass judgement and move on . Because in doing that you ’ re actually affecting people ’ s lives and it ’ s dangerous .
I ’ m not suggesting that if you ’ re not able to understand someone because their linguistic abilities are not up to scratch , that ’ s going to be a good thing . Obviously , we need to be able to understand one another , but I ’ m referring to cases where someone sounds as though they have a thick accent or an accent of some sort or they are conveying information in a way that you ’ re not a 100 per cent familiar with .
It doesn ’ t mean there ’ s something wrong with them . Maybe there ’ s something wrong with you . So , what we are doing here is flipping it and just having a bit more responsibility around , ‘ Why am I judging ? Could I change this ? Could I talk to someone about it ?’
That ’ s a good thing about academia these days . There ’ s plenty of professional development opportunities where you can talk about unconscious bias , where you can talk about ways to become an ally , and so on . We need to become allies and champions for diversity . ■
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