Reducing the Impact of Accentedness in the Workplace: The Effects of Awareness-raising on Dutch HR Students’ and Employees’ Evaluations of a Dutch-accented English and a Native American English Job Applicant.
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2021-06-07
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en
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The increasing number of non-native English speakers in the global workplace has led to a
growing body of literature focusing on the effects of non-native accentedness on listeners’ evaluations. The general finding that speakers with a non-native English accent are more often downgraded compared to native English speakers has required research to examine whether awareness-raising could reduce accent discrimination in the workplace. Up until now, only a few studies investigated whether an awareness-raising intervention could reduce accent-related prejudices. Therefore, the current study examined whether an English prejudice control text could reduce negative evaluations of a non-native English compared to a native
English job applicant. These evaluations were measured through an online questionnaire in which Human Resource students and employees listened to a job pitch of a Dutch non-native English speaker or a native American English speaker. Comparable to earlier studies, it was demonstrated that the Dutch non-native English speaker was more negatively evaluated (on
hirability, understandability of the message and attitudinal evaluations) than the native
American English speaker. The present study showed that an English prejudice control text
did not reduce these negative evaluations of the non-native English speaker for the participants in the prejudice control condition. As the negative evaluations of the non-native English job applicant compared to the native American English job applicant were not reduced by the prejudice control text in the present study, these results implicate an even greater need for future research to continue experimenting with awareness-raising interventions to work towards a future workplace without accent discrimination.
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