The effect of British, Dutch and Vietnamese English accentedness and perceived comprehensibility on attitudes towards managers and message effectiveness in interpersonal leadership communication in the Netherlands.
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2017-08-15
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en
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Abstract
In an experiment, 180 Dutch participants responded to British English, Dutch English and Vietnamese English accented managers. The aim of this experiment was to test whether there were different attitudinal evaluations and communication effectiveness for Dutch accented English, Vietnamese accented English, and British speakers. Additionally, the study aimed to test the effects of accent familiarity, perceived comprehensibility, accent similarity, and demographic similarity on attitudinal evaluations and communication effectiveness. The results showed similar evaluations for the Dutch and Vietnamese speakers, and more positive evaluations for the British speakers for attitudinal evaluations, communication effectiveness, and perceived comprehensibility. Perceived comprehensibility had a slight mediating effect
for accent variety and attitudinal evaluations, and a fully mediating effect for accent variety and communication effectiveness. Perceived comprehensibility was shown to be a significant predictor for the communication effectiveness for Dutch speakers, an effect that was not found for the other accent varieties. Moreover, for all speakers, competence, likeability, and demographic similarity were found to be significant predictors for communication effectiveness. These findings highlight the importance of the effects of non-native speech on attitudinal evaluations and communication effectiveness, and show why it is important for MNCs to invest in improving the comprehensibility of their managers.
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