This study looks at whether or not a speaker’s identity, identified by accent, has an affect on the perception of that speaker, which is the attitude listeners have about that speaker.
The project involved recording five speakers with different accents reading a news article about a neutral topic. These speakers included one with a Hispanic English accent, one with an African American English accent, one with a Texas English accent, one with a Foreign English accent, and one with a Standard American English accent. Sixty native English-speaking students were given questionnaires asking them to judge the speakers based on five different categories: intelligence, attractiveness, education level, income level, and pleasantness. The scores from the questionnaire were compiled for each speaker and a composite score was calculated for each category per speaker. In addition, scores were recalculated per speaker depending on the identity of the student participant to determine if the student’s ethnicity and gender had an effect on their attitudes.
The results show that the highest scores went to the Standard American English accent and much lower scores went to the Texas, Hispanic, African American accents. Therefore, we can say that speaker accent does have an affect on a listener’s perception of that speaker. The high opinion that students had for the Standard American accent shows that this accent is more acceptable and is considered more normal or with higher prestige than the others. |
