Social judgement of L2 accented speech stereotyping and its influential factors

ABSTRACT

If extraneous information leads listeners to biased judgements, then their speech perceptions are likely to manifest distortion in that direction. This phenomenon is known as reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS), which has been confirmed by 25 years of empirical study. Recent research on effects of listener background on ratings of speaker pronunciation and social judgments are likewise consistent with the concept of reverse linguistic stereotyping. In particular, one way of operationalising listener aberration is measuring a function of listener backgrounds and proclivity toward RLS along with a dimension of speaker social attractiveness, superiority, and dynamism. The current study examined to what extent listeners’ background characteristics and RLS propensity factors affect their social judgements of second language (L2) accented speech. The background factors included learners’ accent exposure, study abroad experience, the degree of foreign language study experience, and three RLS dimensions. Results suggest that listeners who hold negatively stereotyped expectations about LX accents tend to find accented speech less superior and less socially attractive. Findings offer implications to language education and various workforce-related communication in global contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Reverse linguistic stereotyping
• listener bias
• listener judgement
• accented speech
• context-embedded language
• cultural diversity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this paper, we adopt the term ‘LX users’ to refer to anyone who has learned English as an additional language after the age of 3, regardless of whether their English has been learned in a second language (i.e. English-majority) or foreign language (i.e. non-English majority) context. Both ESL and EFL learners may be considered LX users, and the findings of this study offer implications for both groups of speakers. We encourage readers unfamiliar with the term ‘LX users’ to refer to Dewaele (2018) for a more detailed introduction.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Okim Kang

Okim Kang is a Professor in the Applied Linguistics Program at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA. Her research interests are speech production and perception, L2 pronunciation and intelligibility, L2 oral assessment and testing, automated scoring and speech recognition, World Englishes, and language attitudes.

Katherine Yaw

Katherine Yaw is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. She has worked in TESOL since 2007, with experience in teaching, teacher training, and program administration. Her research interests include listener attitudes, perception, and cognitive processing of L2 accented speech.