The effects of non-native accents on hireability: A comparison of German- accented English, Spanish-accented English and American English in job interviews
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2019-06-07
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en
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The relevance of high English proficiency has grown with the increase of English as a lingua franca. Accents are often seen as cues of lack of language proficiency, which then influences other judgments, such as status, solidarity, and dynamism. The big question is whether these negative evaluations influence the hireability of a non-native accented candidate. The purpose of this present study is to examine the effects of German-accented English and Spanish-accented English on hireability of job candidates in contrast to American English amongst Dutch listeners. A verbal-guise experiment with six speakers and 116 respondents showed that the German-accented speakers were evaluated significantly lower than the American-accented speakers on status, dynamism, and hireability and lower than the Spanish-accented speaker on dynamism. The fact that significant differences were found between the German and American speakers, or even German and Spanish speakers, but none were found between the Spanish and American speakers, indicate that accent-biases are more complex than just native vs non-native. It is important to become aware of such differences. When such subconscious preferences are known, it might be possible to consciously take the accent variable out of the decision for the best candidate.
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