You are hired! The effect of non-native accentedness in job interviews.
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2019-06-07
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en
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Abstract
The present study investigates the effects of non-native English accents in job interviews. While some studies have focused on the evaluations of accents by native speakers on contexts ranging from the classroom to the workplace, very little research has paid attention to the evaluations of native vs non-native English accents by non-native listeners, especially in a job interview setting. Dutch respondents listened to one out of six recordings (two Spanish speakers, two German speakers, two American speakers). In all the recordings, the speakers read a script where an interviewee was introducing herself for the job position of junior marketing assistant. After listening to the recording, the Dutch participants filled in a questionnaire where they had to evaluate the speaker, with regards to status, dynamism, solidarity and hiring success. Between the German and the American speakers, the respondents evaluated the German speakers lower on status and dynamism. German speakers were also evaluated lower on dynamism when being compared with the Spanish speakers. However, the Spanish and the American speakers did not differ on the evaluations by the Dutch listeners. Furthermore, the three conditions did not differ on the solidarity nor the hiring success ratings. These results underscore previous research in this area showing that accents are powerful in instigating negative evaluations of speakers.
Keywords: [English accents, native vs non-native, hiring success, status, dynamism, solidarity]
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