Linguistic Accommodation in Dutch Academia between Native and Non-native Dutch speakers: will they switch to English when I speak Dutch?
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2025-07-14
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en
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This study explores linguistic accommodation in multilingual Dutch academia. It investigated whether features of non-native Dutch speech, such as foreign accent, grammar mistakes, code-switching, and slow speech rate, affect comprehensibility and lead to switching to English. Framed by Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 1971), an experiment was conducted in which Dutch native speakers listened to a non-native student asking a teacher a question in Dutch. Participants indicated whether they would respond in Dutch (maintenance) or English (divergence), and rated the message's comprehensibility, politeness, and effectiveness. Results showed that linguistic features had no significant effect on message comprehensibility, and most participants chose to respond in Dutch. However, switching to English was perceived as more effective when the student code-switched during her question. These findings suggest that Dutch native speakers may prioritize communicative efficiency over linguistic precision, indicating that Dutch language learners should focus on effective communication rather than perfecting minor languistic details.
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