The effects of non-native accented English on employability.

Keywords
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Issue Date
2020-06-08
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Due to globalization and migrations, multinational companies have often implemented English as a common corporate language (CCL) for its employees from different language backgrounds to communicate more efficiently. The current study examined the effect of non-native English accents on employability for a high-communication job. In an experiment, 211 Dutch and German non-native speakers of English, evaluated a Spanish English, Arabic English and British accent in terms of status, solidarity, dynamism, employability and comprehensibility. Moreover, the current study examined whether stereotype images might be a possible explanation for differences in evaluations on the accent conditions. The results showed that only the Arabic accent was downgraded on all dimensions. However, the Spanish accent was found to be evaluated similarly to the British accent. With the use of the stereotype content model, it was found that Arabs are stereotyped more negatively than Spaniards and English. For both Dutch and German companies with English as a CCL this study indicated that it is important to base employability on actual competences, and not focus on audio-cues only.
Description
Citation
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren