{"id":281,"date":"2021-07-26T22:57:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T22:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/?post_type=chapter&p=281"},"modified":"2021-07-26T22:57:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T22:57:35","slug":"7-2-4-english-and-linguistic-discrimination-research-essay","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/chapter\/7-2-4-english-and-linguistic-discrimination-research-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"7.2.4 English and linguistic discrimination (research essay)"},"content":{"raw":"

November 2020<\/h3>\r\nAfter the Norman conquest of France in 1066, French rose to the seat of the world's\u00a0lingua franca<\/em>, or a language used to communicate across all other countries\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 2).\u00a0French was the language of power \u2013 anybody who was anyone boasted of speaking it\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para.\u00a03). All the nobility spoke it, great philosophers\u00a0wrote\u00a0books in it, diplomacy was conducted in it \u2013 the reach of the French language and the French influence\u00a0stretched\u00a0across the globe\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 4). But from what we can\u00a0observe\u00a0today, it does not seem to be that way anymore. Instead, there is a new language that has replaced the once dominate French \u2013 and that language is English. But how did this happen? It\u00a0was not\u00a0an overnight thing, where suddenly everyone woke up speaking English and living under its influence. So how, exactly, did English come to\u00a0reside\u00a0in this position at the top of the language hierarchy? And after it did happen, how did it come to a point where any other languages were considered inferior?\r\n\r\nAs mentioned before, English\u00a0did not\u00a0used to hold the seat of power against all other languages. For much of history, it was French that controlled the\u00a0globe.\u00a0But entering 18th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0century,\u00a0it started to look like French\u00a0would not reign supreme for much longer\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 6). The Industrial Revolution in England pushed the country, through technological and scientific advancements, to the fore front of the scene\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 7). In addition, the British Empire began to stretch its sphere of influence across the globe, bringing English culture, and the English language, along with it\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 8). By the 19th\u00a0century, the British impact spanned to all reaches of the Earth, and the barely formed, economically skyrocketing United States contributed its influence as well\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 9).\u00a0According to the article \u201cHow and Why Did English Supplant French\u00a0As\u00a0the World\u2019s Lingua Franca?\u201d by Nuno Marques, \u201cFrench may have been spoken in the courts of Europe all the way to Russia.... but English was the language of money, and money talks louder than philosophy.\u201d And this certainly held true when the United States stole the spotlight from bankrupt England after WWII. In its competition against Russia during the Cold War, all eyes were on the U.S as it put forth unprecedented technologies and\u00a0continued on\u00a0its steady rise in power. And things only escalated from there. Today,\u00a0roughly 1.5\u00a0billion people speak English -\u00a0that is\u00a0about 20% of the\u00a0entire population\u00a0on Earth\u00a0(Stevens\u00a0para. 2).\u00a0Of those 1.5 billion, 75% of them are nonnative\u00a0speakers,\u00a0indicating\u00a0the\u00a0globality and\u00a0rise\u00a0the in\u00a0influence\u00a0of English\u00a0(Stevens\u00a0para.\u00a02).\u00a0It is\u00a0the language of\u00a0almost everything\u00a0of importance \u2013 business, diplomacy, medicine, and so much more.\u00a0And with\u00a0English being the forefront of everything, it can be assumed that native speakers of English are given the upper hand. Any individuals speaking other languages as their primary\u00a0are forced to learn English\u00a0in order to\u00a0spread their ideas or hold any sort of power in the gobal fields.\r\n\r\nAnd there is certainly much evidence to attest to this. In the academic article\u00a0\u201cLanguage\u00a0Bias in\u00a0Randomized\u00a0Controlled Trials Published in English and German,\u201d\u00a0the authors,\u00a0Matthias Egger and Tanja Zellweger-Z\u00e4hner,\u00a0relayed\u00a0their study on academic articles published\u00a0English medical journals versus journals of other languages. They found that it was more likely for authors to publish\u00a0statistically significant findings in English medical journals that it was for them to publish their articles in journals of their first language.\u00a0According to\u00a0the\u00a0article \u201cThe Hidden Bias of Science\u2019s Universal Language,\u201d\u00a0\u201cin some non-English speaking countries... English-language academic papers outnumber publications in the country's own language several times over (para. 1)\u201d.\u00a0This reveals that researchers are\u00a0ultimately forced\u00a0to publish their findings in English\u00a0in order to\u00a0reach a wider audience and\u00a0global\u00a0recognition. It also\u00a0suggests\u00a0the possibility of\u00a0significant scientific findings being overlooked because they were\u00a0not published in English and thus reached a more limited audience.\u00a0In another\u00a0academic article,\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Inferior Science and the Dominant Use\u00a0of English in\u00a0Knowledge\u00a0Production: A Case Study of Korean Science and Technology,\u201d\u00a0author\u00a0Kumju\u00a0Hwang\u00a0interviewed\u00a0Korean scientists and engineers living in the U.K\u00a0on\u00a0perceptions\u00a0of English\u00a0usage.\u00a0She noted that many\u00a0of the\u00a0Korean\u00a0interviewees\u00a0felt that\u00a0they\u00a0had a significant disadvantage because they had to devote more time and effort to learning English that could have been used\u00a0elsewhere in their\u00a0scientific activities (p. 407).\u00a0In one interview, a scientist said\u00a0\u201cIn\u00a0order to learn English, we lose 20 percent of the time that could normally be spent concentrating on science. We cannot fully concentrate con science. This means that our scientific results will be reduced by 20\u00a0percent (p.\u00a0407)\u201d. The\u00a0interviewee\u00a0also\u00a0expressed difficulty in communication at conferences and national meetings, which she felt could lead to a\u00a0disadvantage for everyone\u00a0(p. 407).\u00a0And yet still, if\u00a0researchers\u00a0want their findings to be\u00a0recognized, they\u00a0have to\u00a0learn English and publish in an English journal. As one\u00a0interviewee\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cIt is...much easier to be accepted into Korean journals,\u00a0due to the fact that\u00a0papers of poorer quality are submitted\u00a0[there].\u00a0If I discovered something important, I would not submit it to a Korean journal (p. 412).\u201d\u00a0Yet another\u00a0interviewee\u00a0said that there are\u00a0prejudices\u00a0against\u00a0non-native speakers of English in the sciences that affected their ability to be successful\u00a0in publishing their papers and gaining recognition for their\u00a0work (p. 413).\r\n\r\nBut\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not only countries\u2019\u00a0academic journals that have been affected by English\u2019s rise to power, but also their languages and cultures themselves.\u00a0This first came to my attention in my German class, when my teacher was talking about something in German\u00a0about the internet and she used the word\u00a0googlen<\/em>\u00a0- to google. I thought that\u00a0honestly quite amusing and it led me to think about what other words from the English language have been\u00a0incorporated\u00a0into the vernacular of other languages. In fact,\u00a0the answer to that is\u00a0-\u00a0a lot.\u00a0The article \u201cThe Influence of English\u201d by R.L.G, details many examples of this, such as\u00a0downloaden<\/em>(download) (para. 5),\u00a0and also\u00a0ways in which English sentence structure has rubbed off on other languages. For example, in German you would traditionally say\u00a0Es\u00a0hat mir Sinn\u00a0<\/em>(It has sense to me), but recently people have begun to say\u00a0Es\u00a0macht\u00a0Sinn\u00a0<\/em>(It makes\u00a0sense) (para. 3).\u00a0I find this particularly interesting seeing\u00a0how the tables have turned.\u00a0Before the German language borrowed words from English, they were borrowing words from French.\u00a0One that when I hear for the first time had me a little bewildered is the word\u00a0Chance (<\/em>same meaning in English too).\u00a0The pronunciation of the word,\u00a0shaunz,\u00a0<\/em>sounded so much more\u00a0fluid that the normally harsher tone of the language that I was used to.\u00a0But\u00a0English\u00a0isn\u2019t innocent in this\u00a0endeavor\u00a0either. In fact, the language had\u00a0a large\u00a0habit\u00a0of stealing words from other languages\u00a0that has contributed to many of the common words we use today. These so called \u201cloanwords\u201d (I\u2019d call them\u00a0stolenwords) make up so much of our speech that we don\u2019t\u00a0even realize how much of our language we have absorbed from other languages. For example, the word ketchup comes from the\u00a0Hokkien\u00a0Chinese word\u00a0ketsiap\u00a0<\/em>- which is a sauce made from fermented fish\u00a0(Coleman\u00a0para. 15)\u00a0. Another one is cookie, which comes from\u00a0koekjes<\/em>,\u00a0or\u00a0\u201clittle cakes\u201d, in Dutch\u00a0(Coleman\u00a0para.17).\u00a0But not only language has changed because of English, culture has as well. What I have noticed with specifically the influence of the United States is the seemingly \u201cAmericanization\u201d, so to speak, of other countries.\u00a0The article \u201cAmerica\u2019s Cultural Role in the World Today\u201d goes into detail about this, attributing the first huge rise of American cultural influence on other countries to the United States\u2019s consumer economy\u00a0after the Second World War (Damm\u00a0para. 2).\u00a0\u00a0One of the factors that the article attributes the influence of American culture to is the media.\u00a0The technological advances, such as tv broadcasting, put American media at the\u00a0head\u00a0of\u00a0the scene, and gave them a wider audience\u00a0(Damm para. 6).\u00a0Other factors include the arts \u2013 film, music, literature, art\u00a0\u2013 all of which put international eyes on the United States.\u00a0For example, the\u00a0popularity of Hollywood and American films\u00a0have\u00a0sold\u00a0the \u2018American dream\u2019 to people around the world\u00a0(Daam para. 8).\u00a0Unfortunately, the power the English language has acquired hasn\u2019t\u00a0only resulted in loanwords and domination of the film industry. It has also\u00a0brought about\u00a0biased beliefs that English is superior and prejudice against non-native speakers of English\u00a0and speakers of other languages.\r\n\r\nThe occurrence of prejudice against non-native speakers of English and speakers\u00a0of other languages is nothing new.\u00a0Linguistic discrimination, or when\u00a0someone is treated unfairly based on\u00a0the language that they\u00a0speak (or\u00a0do not\u00a0speak) and the way in which they speak (ex.\u00a0accent,\u00a0span of\u00a0vocabulary) (Loehrke 2),\u00a0has occurred all throughout history.\u00a0This goes hand in hand with linguistic imperialism,\u00a0which\u00a0Rober\u00a0Phillipson\u00a0defines\u00a0in his book\u00a0Linguistic Imperialism<\/em>\u00a0as \u201cthe notion that certain languages dominate internationally on others. It is the way nation states\u00a0privileged\u00a0one language, and often sought to eradicate others, forcing their speakers to shift to the dominant language\u00a0(p. 780).\u201d\u00a0Phillipson also discusses the idea of a \u201clinguistical hierarchy\u201d\u00a0where languages are ranked as superior or inferior to one another, with the dominating language being at the top of the\u00a0hierarchy (p. 2). He describes\u00a0a similar pattern that\u00a0has occurred\u00a0in instances of linguistical hierarchy throughout history, which includes\u00a0stigmatization, glorification, and rationalization\u00a0(p. 2).\u00a0Beginning with stigmatization,\u00a0any other languages, accents, or vernaculars other than the current dominate language are deemed inferior\u00a0(p.2). For\u00a0instance,\u00a0ancient Greeks called non-speakers of Greek\u00a0barbarians,\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0outsiders\u00a0(p. 2).\u00a0Through glorification, speakers of the dominate language\u00a0raise their language up on a pedestal above other languages, and with\u00a0rationalization, establish a justification for why their language remains at the top of the\u00a0hierarchy (p. 2).\u00a0\u00a0A good example of this\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0belief of German as the dominate language in Nazi ideology.\u00a0The Nazis glorified the German language as a language of\u00a0Aryan race, a people\u00a0\u201cphysically and genetically superior to others\u201d (Smith\u00a0p.\u00a0151). Stigmatization, discrimination, and biased thoughts like this are present\u00a0throughout\u00a0the history books, but that doesn\u2019t mean that modern people have not been affected by it.\r\n\r\nLinguistic discrimination is still a very real occurrence and is very harmful\u00a0for everyone involved. But how\u00a0and why does it occur?\u00a0TEDx\u00a0writer Olena\u00a0Levitina, in her article \u201cIs Language Discrimination Still a Thing?\u201d, writes\u00a0that\u00a0prejudice against non-native speakers stems from a lack of understanding\u00a0(para. 6).\u00a0When\u00a0native-speakers\u00a0talk with non-native speakers and cannot understand what they are saying\u00a0because of their accent,\u00a0they might\u00a0associate\u00a0their misunderstanding\u00a0with\u00a0the non-native speaker not\u00a0being\u00a0intelligent (para 6).\u00a0This thought process is extremely harmful and can lead to future beliefs that anyone with that accent is not as intelligent as someone without.\u00a0For example, in the academic article title \u201cWhy Don\u2019t We Believe Non-native Speakers?\u201d, authors Shiri Lev-Ari and\u00a0Keysar\u00a0Boaz\u00a0recounted experiments in which they found that people were more likely to report statements spoked by\u00a0native speakers as believable than those spoken by non-native speakers (p. 1093).\u00a0They noted that when listeners hear accented speech, their \u201cprocessing ability\u201d, or how well they\u00a0are able to\u00a0take in information and understand it,\u00a0decreases, but instead of just deeming\u00a0what the speaker says\u00a0as harder to understand, they perceive what they are saying to be less trustworthy\u00a0(p. 1095).\u00a0Always being thought of as less\u00a0believable than\u00a0native speakers is extremely detrimental, and even in some case\u00a0they can become prepared for it. This\u00a0phenomenon,\u00a0described by\u00a0Agata Gluszek and John Dovidio in their academic article\u00a0\u201cSpeaking\u00a0with\u00a0a Non-native Accent: Perceptions of Bias, Communication Difficulties, and Belonging in the United States\u201d, is called \u201canticipated stigmatization\u201d in which the non-native speaker already expects the\u00a0native speaker to have biases against them before they even\u00a0open their mouth.\u00a0The authors found that accented speakers of English\u00a0in the United States\u00a0who previously experienced conversational problems and difficulties in communication\u00a0were more likely to feel anticipated stigmatization\u00a0(p. 227). They suggested that\u00a0if native speakers expect\u00a0non-native speakers\u00a0to have a harder to communicating\u00a0than they\u00a0actually do,\u00a0they might be more\u00a0likely to avoid instances with\u00a0accented\u00a0speakers or\u00a0similar\u00a0situations\u00a0where they might have communication difficulty\u00a0(p. 227).\u00a0Thus, Gluszek and Dovidio also reported from their\u00a0experiments\u00a0that\u00a0non-natively accent speakers expressed more feelings of not belonging\u00a0in the United States, which they attributed to anticipated stigmatization and difficulty communicating (p. 288).\r\n\r\nLinguistic discrimination directed\u00a0in any situation\u00a0is harmful, but it\u00a0has been especially destructive in the education system.\u00a0In going back to Phillipson\u2019s book, he says about teaching English as a second language: \u201cthe spread of English\u00a0shows clearly that the \u2018development\u2019 of this language has been structurally related to and contingent upon the\u00a0underdevelopment of others (p. 348).\u201d In addition, in her article \u201cEducation Equality: Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination in Second Language Teaching\u201d, Laura Matson says\u00a0that the \u201cideology of English language teaching is rooted in a power structure of linguistic imperialism brought about by a history\u00a0colonialism in which English speaking countries have kept non-English\u00a0speaking countries in a position of subordination (p. 14)\u201d.\u00a0For example, Matson details an explanation on how anxiety affects language learners\u2019\u00a0performance and how the ideologies of teaching\u00a0ESL (English\u00a0as a Second Language)\u00a0have contributed to this.\u00a0Generally, learners at lower proficiency levels are more reserved when learning and less willing to participate because they are afraid of making mistakes and sounding \u201cnon-native\u201d (p. 16).\u00a0This is something that I can relate to as well with my journey learning languages. Especially when I was just starting out, I was afraid to answer question or speak out\u00a0loud\u00a0because I didn\u2019t want to\u00a0seem\u00a0\u201cstupid\u201d.\u00a0Whenever I read something out loud, I would internally cringe because even\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>could hear how bad my pronunciation was.\u00a0Matson believes that the reason for\u00a0anxiety\u00a0in learning ESL\u00a0is a direct result\u00a0of the way in which\u00a0the language\u00a0is taught. By stressing\u00a0that\u00a0the \u201cnative speaker\u201d accent\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0correct, and essentially\u00a0the\u00a0\u2018perfect\u2019, way of speaking, pressure is put on the learner\u00a0emulate\u00a0this speech, and when they have difficulty\u00a0with this, their\u00a0willingness\u00a0to\u00a0participate at the risk of making mistakes\u00a0decreases\u00a0(p.\u00a016). This ultimately enforces the idea of standard language\u00a0ideology, which\u00a0is defined by\u00a0Rosina Lippi-Green in her book\u00a0Language in the USA<\/em>\u00a0as \u201ca bias towards an abstracted, idealized, non-varying spoken language (p.\u00a0289)\u201d.\u00a0This can be an extremely\u00a0damaging\u00a0belief, as, in referring to English, it promotes one way to speak it as the \u2018right\u2019 way, when in fact\u00a0this ideology is a fallacy\u00a0(p. 289).\u00a0For example, Lippi-Green\u00a0says\u00a0that accents can be hard to change when they do not do anything to make communication\u00a0difficult (p. 289)\u00a0this makes it hard for there to be one language and only one way to speak it that is \u2018correct\u2019.\u00a0In the article \u201cThe Silencing of ESL Speakers\u201d, Barbara\u00a0Seidlhofer, professor at the University of Vienna, says\u00a0\u201cit is easy to dismiss [various accented forms of English] as the use of incorrect English by people who have not learned it very well, but it is an\u00a0entirely\u00a0natural linguistic\u00a0development, an example of how any language varies and changes as it is appropriated by different communities of users (para.\u00a011).\u201d\r\n\r\nAnother situation in which linguistic discrimination has been detrimental is in the workplace.\u00a0In the academic article \u201cPolitical Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring\u00a0and Entreprenurial Investment Decisions\u201d, Laura Huang et. al investigate\u00a0whether there is persistent bias associated with non-native speakers having weak political skills, and thus being less likely to advance in their careers\u00a0(p. 1).\u00a0The bias being tested in this article, called glass-ceiling bias, occurs when an individual\u00a0is barred from\u00a0attaining\u00a0a higher\u00a0position\u00a0because of implicit bias against them (p. 1).\u00a0Thus the \u2018glass-ceiling\u2019 refers to the idea that the individual is so close to\u00a0reaching the\u00a0position that they can see it through the glass, but bias has created a\u00a0ceiling\u00a0between\u00a0them, preventing the individual from\u00a0being able to climb\u00a0higher up\u00a0the corporate ladder (p. 1).\u00a0In the experiments, Huang et. al found that\u00a0native speakers of English received higher recommendations\u00a0for promotions\u00a0and more\u00a0entrepreneurial\u00a0funding than did\u00a0non-natively accent individuals, therefore signaling\u00a0that non-native speakers\u00a0were considered to have lower political skill (p. 10). This is particularly\u00a0alarming, because it shows that although non-natively accented\u00a0individuals\u00a0may have the same qualifications and\u00a0experience (maybe even better) as native speakers, native\u00a0English\u00a0speakers are\u00a0more frequently chosen for promotions and advancements in their careers.\r\n\r\nBut it is also important to note that not only non-native speakers of a language are discriminated against, but even native speakers as well. The most prominent example of this is discrimination against people who speak African American English, or AAE.\u00a0African American English,\u00a0which also has been referred to as\u00a0Ebonics, African American Vernacular English, or Black English,\u00a0is a dialect\u00a0spoken by\u00a0many African Americans in the United States (Mufwene\u00a0para. 1).\u00a0The linguistic features of AAE have\u00a0often\u00a0been\u00a0criticized and\u00a0denounced as grammatically incorrect compared to \u2018standard\u2019 English.\u00a0For example,\u00a0the usage of \u201cdouble negatives\u201d such as in \u201cYou\u00a0ain\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0getting\u00a0no\u00a0<\/em>thanks from it.\u201d(Poplack\u00a0para. 3) would garner much\u00a0denunciation according to standard English grammatical rules.\u00a0But the fact of the matter is, that AAE is a part of the cultural identity of many African Americans\u00a0just as any other accent is a part of anyone else's.\u00a0Unfortunately, due to lack\u00a0of understanding and racist based biases, speakers of AAE have been, and continue to be, discriminated against. In the book\u00a0Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education? Understanding Race and Disability in Schools<\/em>, authors Beth Harry and Janet Klinger\u00a0offer a powerful example.\u00a0As we discussed before, discrimination against non-native speakers of English in the\u00a0education\u00a0system is extremely\u00a0detrimental, and the same is true for speakers of AAE in schools.\u00a0Harry and Klinger found that speakers of AAE were found more often to be diagnosed with a language disorder\u00a0and thus be placed in special education.\u00a0The reasoned that it was often\u00a0the assessors\u2019 lack of\u00a0knowledge\u00a0regarding AAE and its linguistical traits\u00a0that led to this\u00a0diagnosis (p. 30).\u00a0Assessors unfamiliar with the way that AAE functions might hear a student say something such as \u201che\u00a0walk\u00a0to school\u201d instead of the standard English \u201che walks to school\u201d\u00a0and conclude that they have a language disorder, when in fact they were just speaking their native dialect. This disproportionately affects African American students,\u00a0and students with\u00a0other\u00a0accents\u00a0and dialects, giving them a disadvantage in their education.\u00a0Discrimination also occurs with regional accents, most notably the\u00a0Southern accent. Long held stereotypes of Southern \u2018hillbillies\u2019\u00a0and \u2018rednecks\u2019 have\u00a0twisted many people\u2019s minds, leading them to have biased views of Southerners being less educated or competent that other Americans.\u00a0In the article titled \"Perceptions of Competency as a Function of Accent\u201d, Cheryl Boucher et. al found in their\u00a0experiments\u00a0that participants were more\u00a0likely\u00a0to\u00a0view\u00a0individuals with Southern accents as less competent that those with \u2018neutral accents\u2019\u00a0(p. 27).\u00a0Participants rated the neutral speakers as being more grammatically correct and professional than speakers with Southern accents. This is\u00a0similar to\u00a0the common bias that\u00a0African American English\u00a0is\u00a0grammatically incorrect\u00a0compared to standard English. And it is harmful because it put speakers of AAE, those with Southern accents, and any other speakers of other\u00a0stigmatized\u00a0accents or dialects\u00a0at an unfair disadvantage and puts untrue\u00a0labels\u00a0on\u00a0them.\r\n\r\nSo how, then, can we\u00a0stop\u00a0linguistic discrimination, whether in the education system,\u00a0workplace,\u00a0or anywhere else?\u00a0Going back to the academic article\u00a0by Laura Matson,\u00a0the author\u00a0suggests promoting anti-racist education\u00a0(p. 18).\u00a0Matson argues that anti-racist education\u00a0encourages a deeper look into\u00a0the imbalances created between linguistically dominant and linguistically marginalized groups (p. 19).\u00a0She writes that\u00a0\u201c\u2018merely celebrating differences\u00a0(Kubota\u00a036)\u2019 ...\u00a0creates an illusion of equality that still maintains\u00a0\u2018existing power relations that the people on the margins are expected to assimilate to\u00a0(Kubota 37)\u2019\u00a0(p. 18)\u201d.\u00a0Matson proposes teaching English in a way that leads learners to look critically at the standard language, which allows them to question its\u00a0role as a dominate language (p. 20).\u00a0In the workplace and in the hiring process, writer Bridget Miller suggests\u00a0in her article \u201cAvoiding Discrimination in the Workplace\u201d\u00a0for employers to avoid \u201cEnglish-only\u201d\u00a0policies and train anyone related to the hiring process in unbiased interviewing (para. 3).\u00a0She\u00a0also\u00a0wrote that it was important to note that 100% English fluency does not\u00a0necessarily\u00a0correlate to high job\u00a0performance\u00a0(para. 3).\u00a0Dr. Pragya Agarwal, in her article \u201cAccent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination in the Workplace?\u201d,\u00a0says that\u00a0making a conscious effort to look past bias and prejudice can create a more inclusive and amicable environment (para.\u00a06).\u00a0Through these ways, we can become more aware of our own,\u00a0possibly unconscious, biases towards other\u00a0non-natively accent speakers and work on ending them.\r\n

Works Cited<\/p>\r\n

Lev-Ari, Shiri, and Boaz\u00a0Keysar. \u201cWhy Don't We Believe Non-Native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Experimental Social Psychology<\/em>, vol. 46, no. 6, 2010, pp. 1093\u20131096.,\u00a0doi:10.1016\/j.jesp.2010.05.025.<\/p>\r\n

Gluszek, Agata, and John F. Dovidio. \u201cSpeaking\u00a0With\u00a0a Nonnative Accent: Perceptions of Bias, Communication Difficulties, and Belonging in the United States.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Language and Social Psychology<\/em>, vol. 29, no. 2, 2010, pp. 224\u2013234., doi:10.1177\/0261927x09359590.<\/p>\r\n

Egger, Matthias, et al. \u201cLanguage Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials Published in English and German.\u201d\u00a0The Lancet<\/em>, vol. 350, no. 9074, 1997, pp. 326\u2013329., doi:10.1016\/s0140-6736(97)02419-7.<\/p>\r\n

Hwang,\u00a0Kumju. \u201cThe Inferior Science and the Dominant Use of English in Knowledge Production.\u201d\u00a0Science Communication<\/em>, vol. 26, no. 4, 2005, pp. 390\u2013427., doi:10.1177\/1075547005275428.<\/p>\r\n

Agyekum, Kofi. \u201cLinguistic imperialism and language\u00a0decolonisation\u00a0in Africa through documentation and preservation.\u201d In Jason\u00a0Kandybowicz, Travis Major, Harold Torrence & Philip T. Duncan (eds.), African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 87\u2013104. Berlin: Language Science Press.<\/p>\r\n

Phillipson, Robert. 2009. Linguistic imperialism. In Jacob L. Mey (ed.), Concise encyclopedia of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pragmatics, 2nd\u00a0edn., 780\u2013782. Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd.<\/p>\r\n

Smith, Woodruff D.\u00a0The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism<\/em>. Oxford University Press, 1986.<\/p>\r\n

Matson, Laura. \u201cEducational Equality: Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination in Second Language Teaching.\u201d\u00a0Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English<\/em>, 2019.<\/p>\r\n

Huang, Laura, et al. \u201cPolitical Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring and Entrepreneurial Investment Decisions.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Applied Psychology<\/em>, vol. 98, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1005\u20131017., doi:10.1037\/a0034125.<\/p>\r\n

Harry, and Klinger. \u201cWhy Are so Many Minority Students in Special\u00a0Education?:\u00a0Understanding Race and Disability in Schools.\u201d\u00a0Choice Reviews Online<\/em>, vol. 52, no. 05, 2014, doi:10.5860\/choice.185613.<\/p>\r\n

Boucher, Cheryl J., et al. \u201cPerceptions of Competency as a Function of Accent.\u201d\u00a0Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research<\/em>, vol. 18, no. 1, 2013, pp. 27\u201332., doi:10.24839\/2164-8204.jn18.1.27.<\/p>\r\n

Mufwene,\u00a0Salikoko\u00a0S. \u201cAfrican American English.\u201d\u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia\u00a0Britannica<\/em>,\u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia\u00a0Britannica, Inc.,\u00a0www.britannica.com\/topic\/African-American-English.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAmerica's Cultural Role in the World Today.\u201d\u00a0Access International<\/em>, 2008,\u00a0access-internationalvg2.cappelendamm.no\/c951212\/artikkel\/vis.html?tid=385685.<\/p>\r\n

Huttner-Koros, Adam. \u201cWhy Science's Universal Language Is a Problem for Research.\u201d\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>, Atlantic Media Company, 14 Sept. 2015,\u00a0www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2015\/08\/english-universal-language-science-research\/400919\/<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDid You Know Many English Words Come from Other Languages? Here Are 45!\u201d\u00a0FluentU\u00a0English<\/em>,\u00a0www.fluentu.com\/blog\/english\/english-words-from-other-languages\/.<\/p>\r\n

Levitina, Olena. \u201cIs Language Discrimination Still a Thing?\u00a0 \u2022\u00a0TEDxVienna.\u201d\u00a0TEDxVienna<\/em>, 21 Feb. 2020,\u00a0www.tedxvienna.at\/blog\/is-language-discrimination-still-thing\/.<\/p>\r\n

Miller, Bridget. \u201cAvoiding Language Discrimination in the Workplace.\u201d\u00a0HR Daily Advisor<\/em>, 7 Jan. 2018,\u00a0hrdailyadvisor.blr.com\/2016\/03\/14\/avoiding-language-discrimination-in-the-workplace\/.<\/p>\r\n

Agarwal, Dr. Pragya. \u201cAccent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination\u00a0In\u00a0The\u00a0Workplace?\u201d\u00a0Forbes<\/em>, Forbes Magazine, 30 Dec. 2018,\u00a0www.forbes.com\/sites\/pragyaagarwaleurope\/2018\/12\/30\/bias-is-your-accent-holding-you-back\/?sh=1a2b81181b5a<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

R.L.G. \u201cDeep Impact.\u201d\u00a0The Economist<\/em>, The Economist Newspaper,\u00a0www.economist.com\/prospero\/2015\/07\/16\/deep-impact.<\/p>\r\n

Stevens, Paul. \u201cViewpoint: The Silencing of ESL Speakers.\u201d\u00a0SHRM<\/em>, SHRM, 28 Feb. 2020,\u00a0www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/behavioral-competencies\/global-and-cultural-effectiveness\/pages\/viewpoint-the-silencing-of-esl-speakers.aspx.<\/p>\r\n

Marques, Nuno. \u201cHow\u00a0And\u00a0Why Did English Supplant French\u00a0As\u00a0The\u00a0World's Lingua Franca?\u201d\u00a0Babbel Magazine<\/em>, 2017,\u00a0www.babbel.com\/en\/magazine\/how-and-why-did-english-supplant-french-as-the-world-s-lingua-franca.<\/p>\r\n

Loehrke, Katie. \u201cLanguage Discrimination Is a Real Issue: Here\u2019s How to Avoid It.\u201d\u00a0Bizjournals.com<\/em>, 2017,\u00a0www.bizjournals.com\/bizjournals\/how-to\/human-resources\/2017\/11\/language-discrimination-is-a-real-issue-here-s-how.html<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

Poplack, Shana. \u201c'It Don't Be like That Now' - the English History of African American English.\u201d\u00a0The Conversation<\/em>, 20 Nov. 2020,\u00a0theconversation.com\/it-dont-be-like-that-now-the-english-history-of-african-american-english-129611.<\/p>","rendered":"

November 2020<\/h3>\n

After the Norman conquest of France in 1066, French rose to the seat of the world’s\u00a0lingua franca<\/em>, or a language used to communicate across all other countries\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 2).\u00a0French was the language of power \u2013 anybody who was anyone boasted of speaking it\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para.\u00a03). All the nobility spoke it, great philosophers\u00a0wrote\u00a0books in it, diplomacy was conducted in it \u2013 the reach of the French language and the French influence\u00a0stretched\u00a0across the globe\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 4). But from what we can\u00a0observe\u00a0today, it does not seem to be that way anymore. Instead, there is a new language that has replaced the once dominate French \u2013 and that language is English. But how did this happen? It\u00a0was not\u00a0an overnight thing, where suddenly everyone woke up speaking English and living under its influence. So how, exactly, did English come to\u00a0reside\u00a0in this position at the top of the language hierarchy? And after it did happen, how did it come to a point where any other languages were considered inferior?<\/p>\n

As mentioned before, English\u00a0did not\u00a0used to hold the seat of power against all other languages. For much of history, it was French that controlled the\u00a0globe.\u00a0But entering 18th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0century,\u00a0it started to look like French\u00a0would not reign supreme for much longer\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 6). The Industrial Revolution in England pushed the country, through technological and scientific advancements, to the fore front of the scene\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 7). In addition, the British Empire began to stretch its sphere of influence across the globe, bringing English culture, and the English language, along with it\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 8). By the 19th\u00a0century, the British impact spanned to all reaches of the Earth, and the barely formed, economically skyrocketing United States contributed its influence as well\u00a0(Marques\u00a0para. 9).\u00a0According to the article \u201cHow and Why Did English Supplant French\u00a0As\u00a0the World\u2019s Lingua Franca?\u201d by Nuno Marques, \u201cFrench may have been spoken in the courts of Europe all the way to Russia…. but English was the language of money, and money talks louder than philosophy.\u201d And this certainly held true when the United States stole the spotlight from bankrupt England after WWII. In its competition against Russia during the Cold War, all eyes were on the U.S as it put forth unprecedented technologies and\u00a0continued on\u00a0its steady rise in power. And things only escalated from there. Today,\u00a0roughly 1.5\u00a0billion people speak English –\u00a0that is\u00a0about 20% of the\u00a0entire population\u00a0on Earth\u00a0(Stevens\u00a0para. 2).\u00a0Of those 1.5 billion, 75% of them are nonnative\u00a0speakers,\u00a0indicating\u00a0the\u00a0globality and\u00a0rise\u00a0the in\u00a0influence\u00a0of English\u00a0(Stevens\u00a0para.\u00a02).\u00a0It is\u00a0the language of\u00a0almost everything\u00a0of importance \u2013 business, diplomacy, medicine, and so much more.\u00a0And with\u00a0English being the forefront of everything, it can be assumed that native speakers of English are given the upper hand. Any individuals speaking other languages as their primary\u00a0are forced to learn English\u00a0in order to\u00a0spread their ideas or hold any sort of power in the gobal fields.<\/p>\n

And there is certainly much evidence to attest to this. In the academic article\u00a0\u201cLanguage\u00a0Bias in\u00a0Randomized\u00a0Controlled Trials Published in English and German,\u201d\u00a0the authors,\u00a0Matthias Egger and Tanja Zellweger-Z\u00e4hner,\u00a0relayed\u00a0their study on academic articles published\u00a0English medical journals versus journals of other languages. They found that it was more likely for authors to publish\u00a0statistically significant findings in English medical journals that it was for them to publish their articles in journals of their first language.\u00a0According to\u00a0the\u00a0article \u201cThe Hidden Bias of Science\u2019s Universal Language,\u201d\u00a0\u201cin some non-English speaking countries… English-language academic papers outnumber publications in the country’s own language several times over (para. 1)\u201d.\u00a0This reveals that researchers are\u00a0ultimately forced\u00a0to publish their findings in English\u00a0in order to\u00a0reach a wider audience and\u00a0global\u00a0recognition. It also\u00a0suggests\u00a0the possibility of\u00a0significant scientific findings being overlooked because they were\u00a0not published in English and thus reached a more limited audience.\u00a0In another\u00a0academic article,\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Inferior Science and the Dominant Use\u00a0of English in\u00a0Knowledge\u00a0Production: A Case Study of Korean Science and Technology,\u201d\u00a0author\u00a0Kumju\u00a0Hwang\u00a0interviewed\u00a0Korean scientists and engineers living in the U.K\u00a0on\u00a0perceptions\u00a0of English\u00a0usage.\u00a0She noted that many\u00a0of the\u00a0Korean\u00a0interviewees\u00a0felt that\u00a0they\u00a0had a significant disadvantage because they had to devote more time and effort to learning English that could have been used\u00a0elsewhere in their\u00a0scientific activities (p. 407).\u00a0In one interview, a scientist said\u00a0\u201cIn\u00a0order to learn English, we lose 20 percent of the time that could normally be spent concentrating on science. We cannot fully concentrate con science. This means that our scientific results will be reduced by 20\u00a0percent (p.\u00a0407)\u201d. The\u00a0interviewee\u00a0also\u00a0expressed difficulty in communication at conferences and national meetings, which she felt could lead to a\u00a0disadvantage for everyone\u00a0(p. 407).\u00a0And yet still, if\u00a0researchers\u00a0want their findings to be\u00a0recognized, they\u00a0have to\u00a0learn English and publish in an English journal. As one\u00a0interviewee\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cIt is…much easier to be accepted into Korean journals,\u00a0due to the fact that\u00a0papers of poorer quality are submitted\u00a0[there].\u00a0If I discovered something important, I would not submit it to a Korean journal (p. 412).\u201d\u00a0Yet another\u00a0interviewee\u00a0said that there are\u00a0prejudices\u00a0against\u00a0non-native speakers of English in the sciences that affected their ability to be successful\u00a0in publishing their papers and gaining recognition for their\u00a0work (p. 413).<\/p>\n

But\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not only countries\u2019\u00a0academic journals that have been affected by English\u2019s rise to power, but also their languages and cultures themselves.\u00a0This first came to my attention in my German class, when my teacher was talking about something in German\u00a0about the internet and she used the word\u00a0googlen<\/em>\u00a0– to google. I thought that\u00a0honestly quite amusing and it led me to think about what other words from the English language have been\u00a0incorporated\u00a0into the vernacular of other languages. In fact,\u00a0the answer to that is\u00a0–\u00a0a lot.\u00a0The article \u201cThe Influence of English\u201d by R.L.G, details many examples of this, such as\u00a0downloaden<\/em>(download) (para. 5),\u00a0and also\u00a0ways in which English sentence structure has rubbed off on other languages. For example, in German you would traditionally say\u00a0Es\u00a0hat mir Sinn\u00a0<\/em>(It has sense to me), but recently people have begun to say\u00a0Es\u00a0macht\u00a0Sinn\u00a0<\/em>(It makes\u00a0sense) (para. 3).\u00a0I find this particularly interesting seeing\u00a0how the tables have turned.\u00a0Before the German language borrowed words from English, they were borrowing words from French.\u00a0One that when I hear for the first time had me a little bewildered is the word\u00a0Chance (<\/em>same meaning in English too).\u00a0The pronunciation of the word,\u00a0shaunz,\u00a0<\/em>sounded so much more\u00a0fluid that the normally harsher tone of the language that I was used to.\u00a0But\u00a0English\u00a0isn\u2019t innocent in this\u00a0endeavor\u00a0either. In fact, the language had\u00a0a large\u00a0habit\u00a0of stealing words from other languages\u00a0that has contributed to many of the common words we use today. These so called \u201cloanwords\u201d (I\u2019d call them\u00a0stolenwords) make up so much of our speech that we don\u2019t\u00a0even realize how much of our language we have absorbed from other languages. For example, the word ketchup comes from the\u00a0Hokkien\u00a0Chinese word\u00a0ketsiap\u00a0<\/em>– which is a sauce made from fermented fish\u00a0(Coleman\u00a0para. 15)\u00a0. Another one is cookie, which comes from\u00a0koekjes<\/em>,\u00a0or\u00a0\u201clittle cakes\u201d, in Dutch\u00a0(Coleman\u00a0para.17).\u00a0But not only language has changed because of English, culture has as well. What I have noticed with specifically the influence of the United States is the seemingly \u201cAmericanization\u201d, so to speak, of other countries.\u00a0The article \u201cAmerica\u2019s Cultural Role in the World Today\u201d goes into detail about this, attributing the first huge rise of American cultural influence on other countries to the United States\u2019s consumer economy\u00a0after the Second World War (Damm\u00a0para. 2).\u00a0\u00a0One of the factors that the article attributes the influence of American culture to is the media.\u00a0The technological advances, such as tv broadcasting, put American media at the\u00a0head\u00a0of\u00a0the scene, and gave them a wider audience\u00a0(Damm para. 6).\u00a0Other factors include the arts \u2013 film, music, literature, art\u00a0\u2013 all of which put international eyes on the United States.\u00a0For example, the\u00a0popularity of Hollywood and American films\u00a0have\u00a0sold\u00a0the \u2018American dream\u2019 to people around the world\u00a0(Daam para. 8).\u00a0Unfortunately, the power the English language has acquired hasn\u2019t\u00a0only resulted in loanwords and domination of the film industry. It has also\u00a0brought about\u00a0biased beliefs that English is superior and prejudice against non-native speakers of English\u00a0and speakers of other languages.<\/p>\n

The occurrence of prejudice against non-native speakers of English and speakers\u00a0of other languages is nothing new.\u00a0Linguistic discrimination, or when\u00a0someone is treated unfairly based on\u00a0the language that they\u00a0speak (or\u00a0do not\u00a0speak) and the way in which they speak (ex.\u00a0accent,\u00a0span of\u00a0vocabulary) (Loehrke 2),\u00a0has occurred all throughout history.\u00a0This goes hand in hand with linguistic imperialism,\u00a0which\u00a0Rober\u00a0Phillipson\u00a0defines\u00a0in his book\u00a0Linguistic Imperialism<\/em>\u00a0as \u201cthe notion that certain languages dominate internationally on others. It is the way nation states\u00a0privileged\u00a0one language, and often sought to eradicate others, forcing their speakers to shift to the dominant language\u00a0(p. 780).\u201d\u00a0Phillipson also discusses the idea of a \u201clinguistical hierarchy\u201d\u00a0where languages are ranked as superior or inferior to one another, with the dominating language being at the top of the\u00a0hierarchy (p. 2). He describes\u00a0a similar pattern that\u00a0has occurred\u00a0in instances of linguistical hierarchy throughout history, which includes\u00a0stigmatization, glorification, and rationalization\u00a0(p. 2).\u00a0Beginning with stigmatization,\u00a0any other languages, accents, or vernaculars other than the current dominate language are deemed inferior\u00a0(p.2). For\u00a0instance,\u00a0ancient Greeks called non-speakers of Greek\u00a0barbarians,\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0outsiders\u00a0(p. 2).\u00a0Through glorification, speakers of the dominate language\u00a0raise their language up on a pedestal above other languages, and with\u00a0rationalization, establish a justification for why their language remains at the top of the\u00a0hierarchy (p. 2).\u00a0\u00a0A good example of this\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0belief of German as the dominate language in Nazi ideology.\u00a0The Nazis glorified the German language as a language of\u00a0Aryan race, a people\u00a0\u201cphysically and genetically superior to others\u201d (Smith\u00a0p.\u00a0151). Stigmatization, discrimination, and biased thoughts like this are present\u00a0throughout\u00a0the history books, but that doesn\u2019t mean that modern people have not been affected by it.<\/p>\n

Linguistic discrimination is still a very real occurrence and is very harmful\u00a0for everyone involved. But how\u00a0and why does it occur?\u00a0TEDx\u00a0writer Olena\u00a0Levitina, in her article \u201cIs Language Discrimination Still a Thing?\u201d, writes\u00a0that\u00a0prejudice against non-native speakers stems from a lack of understanding\u00a0(para. 6).\u00a0When\u00a0native-speakers\u00a0talk with non-native speakers and cannot understand what they are saying\u00a0because of their accent,\u00a0they might\u00a0associate\u00a0their misunderstanding\u00a0with\u00a0the non-native speaker not\u00a0being\u00a0intelligent (para 6).\u00a0This thought process is extremely harmful and can lead to future beliefs that anyone with that accent is not as intelligent as someone without.\u00a0For example, in the academic article title \u201cWhy Don\u2019t We Believe Non-native Speakers?\u201d, authors Shiri Lev-Ari and\u00a0Keysar\u00a0Boaz\u00a0recounted experiments in which they found that people were more likely to report statements spoked by\u00a0native speakers as believable than those spoken by non-native speakers (p. 1093).\u00a0They noted that when listeners hear accented speech, their \u201cprocessing ability\u201d, or how well they\u00a0are able to\u00a0take in information and understand it,\u00a0decreases, but instead of just deeming\u00a0what the speaker says\u00a0as harder to understand, they perceive what they are saying to be less trustworthy\u00a0(p. 1095).\u00a0Always being thought of as less\u00a0believable than\u00a0native speakers is extremely detrimental, and even in some case\u00a0they can become prepared for it. This\u00a0phenomenon,\u00a0described by\u00a0Agata Gluszek and John Dovidio in their academic article\u00a0\u201cSpeaking\u00a0with\u00a0a Non-native Accent: Perceptions of Bias, Communication Difficulties, and Belonging in the United States\u201d, is called \u201canticipated stigmatization\u201d in which the non-native speaker already expects the\u00a0native speaker to have biases against them before they even\u00a0open their mouth.\u00a0The authors found that accented speakers of English\u00a0in the United States\u00a0who previously experienced conversational problems and difficulties in communication\u00a0were more likely to feel anticipated stigmatization\u00a0(p. 227). They suggested that\u00a0if native speakers expect\u00a0non-native speakers\u00a0to have a harder to communicating\u00a0than they\u00a0actually do,\u00a0they might be more\u00a0likely to avoid instances with\u00a0accented\u00a0speakers or\u00a0similar\u00a0situations\u00a0where they might have communication difficulty\u00a0(p. 227).\u00a0Thus, Gluszek and Dovidio also reported from their\u00a0experiments\u00a0that\u00a0non-natively accent speakers expressed more feelings of not belonging\u00a0in the United States, which they attributed to anticipated stigmatization and difficulty communicating (p. 288).<\/p>\n

Linguistic discrimination directed\u00a0in any situation\u00a0is harmful, but it\u00a0has been especially destructive in the education system.\u00a0In going back to Phillipson\u2019s book, he says about teaching English as a second language: \u201cthe spread of English\u00a0shows clearly that the \u2018development\u2019 of this language has been structurally related to and contingent upon the\u00a0underdevelopment of others (p. 348).\u201d In addition, in her article \u201cEducation Equality: Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination in Second Language Teaching\u201d, Laura Matson says\u00a0that the \u201cideology of English language teaching is rooted in a power structure of linguistic imperialism brought about by a history\u00a0colonialism in which English speaking countries have kept non-English\u00a0speaking countries in a position of subordination (p. 14)\u201d.\u00a0For example, Matson details an explanation on how anxiety affects language learners\u2019\u00a0performance and how the ideologies of teaching\u00a0ESL (English\u00a0as a Second Language)\u00a0have contributed to this.\u00a0Generally, learners at lower proficiency levels are more reserved when learning and less willing to participate because they are afraid of making mistakes and sounding \u201cnon-native\u201d (p. 16).\u00a0This is something that I can relate to as well with my journey learning languages. Especially when I was just starting out, I was afraid to answer question or speak out\u00a0loud\u00a0because I didn\u2019t want to\u00a0seem\u00a0\u201cstupid\u201d.\u00a0Whenever I read something out loud, I would internally cringe because even\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>could hear how bad my pronunciation was.\u00a0Matson believes that the reason for\u00a0anxiety\u00a0in learning ESL\u00a0is a direct result\u00a0of the way in which\u00a0the language\u00a0is taught. By stressing\u00a0that\u00a0the \u201cnative speaker\u201d accent\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0correct, and essentially\u00a0the\u00a0\u2018perfect\u2019, way of speaking, pressure is put on the learner\u00a0emulate\u00a0this speech, and when they have difficulty\u00a0with this, their\u00a0willingness\u00a0to\u00a0participate at the risk of making mistakes\u00a0decreases\u00a0(p.\u00a016). This ultimately enforces the idea of standard language\u00a0ideology, which\u00a0is defined by\u00a0Rosina Lippi-Green in her book\u00a0Language in the USA<\/em>\u00a0as \u201ca bias towards an abstracted, idealized, non-varying spoken language (p.\u00a0289)\u201d.\u00a0This can be an extremely\u00a0damaging\u00a0belief, as, in referring to English, it promotes one way to speak it as the \u2018right\u2019 way, when in fact\u00a0this ideology is a fallacy\u00a0(p. 289).\u00a0For example, Lippi-Green\u00a0says\u00a0that accents can be hard to change when they do not do anything to make communication\u00a0difficult (p. 289)\u00a0this makes it hard for there to be one language and only one way to speak it that is \u2018correct\u2019.\u00a0In the article \u201cThe Silencing of ESL Speakers\u201d, Barbara\u00a0Seidlhofer, professor at the University of Vienna, says\u00a0\u201cit is easy to dismiss [various accented forms of English] as the use of incorrect English by people who have not learned it very well, but it is an\u00a0entirely\u00a0natural linguistic\u00a0development, an example of how any language varies and changes as it is appropriated by different communities of users (para.\u00a011).\u201d<\/p>\n

Another situation in which linguistic discrimination has been detrimental is in the workplace.\u00a0In the academic article \u201cPolitical Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring\u00a0and Entreprenurial Investment Decisions\u201d, Laura Huang et. al investigate\u00a0whether there is persistent bias associated with non-native speakers having weak political skills, and thus being less likely to advance in their careers\u00a0(p. 1).\u00a0The bias being tested in this article, called glass-ceiling bias, occurs when an individual\u00a0is barred from\u00a0attaining\u00a0a higher\u00a0position\u00a0because of implicit bias against them (p. 1).\u00a0Thus the \u2018glass-ceiling\u2019 refers to the idea that the individual is so close to\u00a0reaching the\u00a0position that they can see it through the glass, but bias has created a\u00a0ceiling\u00a0between\u00a0them, preventing the individual from\u00a0being able to climb\u00a0higher up\u00a0the corporate ladder (p. 1).\u00a0In the experiments, Huang et. al found that\u00a0native speakers of English received higher recommendations\u00a0for promotions\u00a0and more\u00a0entrepreneurial\u00a0funding than did\u00a0non-natively accent individuals, therefore signaling\u00a0that non-native speakers\u00a0were considered to have lower political skill (p. 10). This is particularly\u00a0alarming, because it shows that although non-natively accented\u00a0individuals\u00a0may have the same qualifications and\u00a0experience (maybe even better) as native speakers, native\u00a0English\u00a0speakers are\u00a0more frequently chosen for promotions and advancements in their careers.<\/p>\n

But it is also important to note that not only non-native speakers of a language are discriminated against, but even native speakers as well. The most prominent example of this is discrimination against people who speak African American English, or AAE.\u00a0African American English,\u00a0which also has been referred to as\u00a0Ebonics, African American Vernacular English, or Black English,\u00a0is a dialect\u00a0spoken by\u00a0many African Americans in the United States (Mufwene\u00a0para. 1).\u00a0The linguistic features of AAE have\u00a0often\u00a0been\u00a0criticized and\u00a0denounced as grammatically incorrect compared to \u2018standard\u2019 English.\u00a0For example,\u00a0the usage of \u201cdouble negatives\u201d such as in \u201cYou\u00a0ain\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0getting\u00a0no\u00a0<\/em>thanks from it.\u201d(Poplack\u00a0para. 3) would garner much\u00a0denunciation according to standard English grammatical rules.\u00a0But the fact of the matter is, that AAE is a part of the cultural identity of many African Americans\u00a0just as any other accent is a part of anyone else’s.\u00a0Unfortunately, due to lack\u00a0of understanding and racist based biases, speakers of AAE have been, and continue to be, discriminated against. In the book\u00a0Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education? Understanding Race and Disability in Schools<\/em>, authors Beth Harry and Janet Klinger\u00a0offer a powerful example.\u00a0As we discussed before, discrimination against non-native speakers of English in the\u00a0education\u00a0system is extremely\u00a0detrimental, and the same is true for speakers of AAE in schools.\u00a0Harry and Klinger found that speakers of AAE were found more often to be diagnosed with a language disorder\u00a0and thus be placed in special education.\u00a0The reasoned that it was often\u00a0the assessors\u2019 lack of\u00a0knowledge\u00a0regarding AAE and its linguistical traits\u00a0that led to this\u00a0diagnosis (p. 30).\u00a0Assessors unfamiliar with the way that AAE functions might hear a student say something such as \u201che\u00a0walk\u00a0to school\u201d instead of the standard English \u201che walks to school\u201d\u00a0and conclude that they have a language disorder, when in fact they were just speaking their native dialect. This disproportionately affects African American students,\u00a0and students with\u00a0other\u00a0accents\u00a0and dialects, giving them a disadvantage in their education.\u00a0Discrimination also occurs with regional accents, most notably the\u00a0Southern accent. Long held stereotypes of Southern \u2018hillbillies\u2019\u00a0and \u2018rednecks\u2019 have\u00a0twisted many people\u2019s minds, leading them to have biased views of Southerners being less educated or competent that other Americans.\u00a0In the article titled “Perceptions of Competency as a Function of Accent\u201d, Cheryl Boucher et. al found in their\u00a0experiments\u00a0that participants were more\u00a0likely\u00a0to\u00a0view\u00a0individuals with Southern accents as less competent that those with \u2018neutral accents\u2019\u00a0(p. 27).\u00a0Participants rated the neutral speakers as being more grammatically correct and professional than speakers with Southern accents. This is\u00a0similar to\u00a0the common bias that\u00a0African American English\u00a0is\u00a0grammatically incorrect\u00a0compared to standard English. And it is harmful because it put speakers of AAE, those with Southern accents, and any other speakers of other\u00a0stigmatized\u00a0accents or dialects\u00a0at an unfair disadvantage and puts untrue\u00a0labels\u00a0on\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

So how, then, can we\u00a0stop\u00a0linguistic discrimination, whether in the education system,\u00a0workplace,\u00a0or anywhere else?\u00a0Going back to the academic article\u00a0by Laura Matson,\u00a0the author\u00a0suggests promoting anti-racist education\u00a0(p. 18).\u00a0Matson argues that anti-racist education\u00a0encourages a deeper look into\u00a0the imbalances created between linguistically dominant and linguistically marginalized groups (p. 19).\u00a0She writes that\u00a0\u201c\u2018merely celebrating differences\u00a0(Kubota\u00a036)\u2019 …\u00a0creates an illusion of equality that still maintains\u00a0\u2018existing power relations that the people on the margins are expected to assimilate to\u00a0(Kubota 37)\u2019\u00a0(p. 18)\u201d.\u00a0Matson proposes teaching English in a way that leads learners to look critically at the standard language, which allows them to question its\u00a0role as a dominate language (p. 20).\u00a0In the workplace and in the hiring process, writer Bridget Miller suggests\u00a0in her article \u201cAvoiding Discrimination in the Workplace\u201d\u00a0for employers to avoid \u201cEnglish-only\u201d\u00a0policies and train anyone related to the hiring process in unbiased interviewing (para. 3).\u00a0She\u00a0also\u00a0wrote that it was important to note that 100% English fluency does not\u00a0necessarily\u00a0correlate to high job\u00a0performance\u00a0(para. 3).\u00a0Dr. Pragya Agarwal, in her article \u201cAccent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination in the Workplace?\u201d,\u00a0says that\u00a0making a conscious effort to look past bias and prejudice can create a more inclusive and amicable environment (para.\u00a06).\u00a0Through these ways, we can become more aware of our own,\u00a0possibly unconscious, biases towards other\u00a0non-natively accent speakers and work on ending them.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Lev-Ari, Shiri, and Boaz\u00a0Keysar. \u201cWhy Don’t We Believe Non-Native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Experimental Social Psychology<\/em>, vol. 46, no. 6, 2010, pp. 1093\u20131096.,\u00a0doi:10.1016\/j.jesp.2010.05.025.<\/p>\n

Gluszek, Agata, and John F. Dovidio. \u201cSpeaking\u00a0With\u00a0a Nonnative Accent: Perceptions of Bias, Communication Difficulties, and Belonging in the United States.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Language and Social Psychology<\/em>, vol. 29, no. 2, 2010, pp. 224\u2013234., doi:10.1177\/0261927×09359590.<\/p>\n

Egger, Matthias, et al. \u201cLanguage Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials Published in English and German.\u201d\u00a0The Lancet<\/em>, vol. 350, no. 9074, 1997, pp. 326\u2013329., doi:10.1016\/s0140-6736(97)02419-7.<\/p>\n

Hwang,\u00a0Kumju. \u201cThe Inferior Science and the Dominant Use of English in Knowledge Production.\u201d\u00a0Science Communication<\/em>, vol. 26, no. 4, 2005, pp. 390\u2013427., doi:10.1177\/1075547005275428.<\/p>\n

Agyekum, Kofi. \u201cLinguistic imperialism and language\u00a0decolonisation\u00a0in Africa through documentation and preservation.\u201d In Jason\u00a0Kandybowicz, Travis Major, Harold Torrence & Philip T. Duncan (eds.), African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 87\u2013104. Berlin: Language Science Press.<\/p>\n

Phillipson, Robert. 2009. Linguistic imperialism. In Jacob L. Mey (ed.), Concise encyclopedia of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pragmatics, 2nd\u00a0edn., 780\u2013782. Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd.<\/p>\n

Smith, Woodruff D.\u00a0The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism<\/em>. Oxford University Press, 1986.<\/p>\n

Matson, Laura. \u201cEducational Equality: Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination in Second Language Teaching.\u201d\u00a0Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English<\/em>, 2019.<\/p>\n

Huang, Laura, et al. \u201cPolitical Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring and Entrepreneurial Investment Decisions.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Applied Psychology<\/em>, vol. 98, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1005\u20131017., doi:10.1037\/a0034125.<\/p>\n

Harry, and Klinger. \u201cWhy Are so Many Minority Students in Special\u00a0Education?:\u00a0Understanding Race and Disability in Schools.\u201d\u00a0Choice Reviews Online<\/em>, vol. 52, no. 05, 2014, doi:10.5860\/choice.185613.<\/p>\n

Boucher, Cheryl J., et al. \u201cPerceptions of Competency as a Function of Accent.\u201d\u00a0Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research<\/em>, vol. 18, no. 1, 2013, pp. 27\u201332., doi:10.24839\/2164-8204.jn18.1.27.<\/p>\n

Mufwene,\u00a0Salikoko\u00a0S. \u201cAfrican American English.\u201d\u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia\u00a0Britannica<\/em>,\u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia\u00a0Britannica, Inc.,\u00a0www.britannica.com\/topic\/African-American-English.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica’s Cultural Role in the World Today.\u201d\u00a0Access International<\/em>, 2008,\u00a0access-internationalvg2.cappelendamm.no\/c951212\/artikkel\/vis.html?tid=385685.<\/p>\n

Huttner-Koros, Adam. \u201cWhy Science’s Universal Language Is a Problem for Research.\u201d\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>, Atlantic Media Company, 14 Sept. 2015,\u00a0www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2015\/08\/english-universal-language-science-research\/400919\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid You Know Many English Words Come from Other Languages? Here Are 45!\u201d\u00a0FluentU\u00a0English<\/em>,\u00a0www.fluentu.com\/blog\/english\/english-words-from-other-languages\/.<\/p>\n

Levitina, Olena. \u201cIs Language Discrimination Still a Thing?\u00a0 \u2022\u00a0TEDxVienna.\u201d\u00a0TEDxVienna<\/em>, 21 Feb. 2020,\u00a0www.tedxvienna.at\/blog\/is-language-discrimination-still-thing\/.<\/p>\n

Miller, Bridget. \u201cAvoiding Language Discrimination in the Workplace.\u201d\u00a0HR Daily Advisor<\/em>, 7 Jan. 2018,\u00a0hrdailyadvisor.blr.com\/2016\/03\/14\/avoiding-language-discrimination-in-the-workplace\/.<\/p>\n

Agarwal, Dr. Pragya. \u201cAccent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination\u00a0In\u00a0The\u00a0Workplace?\u201d\u00a0Forbes<\/em>, Forbes Magazine, 30 Dec. 2018,\u00a0www.forbes.com\/sites\/pragyaagarwaleurope\/2018\/12\/30\/bias-is-your-accent-holding-you-back\/?sh=1a2b81181b5a<\/a>.<\/p>\n

R.L.G. \u201cDeep Impact.\u201d\u00a0The Economist<\/em>, The Economist Newspaper,\u00a0www.economist.com\/prospero\/2015\/07\/16\/deep-impact.<\/p>\n

Stevens, Paul. \u201cViewpoint: The Silencing of ESL Speakers.\u201d\u00a0SHRM<\/em>, SHRM, 28 Feb. 2020,\u00a0www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/behavioral-competencies\/global-and-cultural-effectiveness\/pages\/viewpoint-the-silencing-of-esl-speakers.aspx.<\/p>\n

Marques, Nuno. \u201cHow\u00a0And\u00a0Why Did English Supplant French\u00a0As\u00a0The\u00a0World’s Lingua Franca?\u201d\u00a0Babbel Magazine<\/em>, 2017,\u00a0www.babbel.com\/en\/magazine\/how-and-why-did-english-supplant-french-as-the-world-s-lingua-franca.<\/p>\n

Loehrke, Katie. \u201cLanguage Discrimination Is a Real Issue: Here\u2019s How to Avoid It.\u201d\u00a0Bizjournals.com<\/em>, 2017,\u00a0www.bizjournals.com\/bizjournals\/how-to\/human-resources\/2017\/11\/language-discrimination-is-a-real-issue-here-s-how.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poplack, Shana. \u201c’It Don’t Be like That Now’ – the English History of African American English.\u201d\u00a0The Conversation<\/em>, 20 Nov. 2020,\u00a0theconversation.com\/it-dont-be-like-that-now-the-english-history-of-african-american-english-129611.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["anonenglish102"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[68],"license":[],"class_list":["post-281","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-anonenglish102"],"part":260,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/281\/revisions\/282"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/260"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/281\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}