Accent Bias May Affect Job Prospects

As anyone who has looked for a job can tell you, finding one isn't the easiest process. This experience can be even more challenging if you're new to a country and speak with what is perceived to be a "foreign" accent.

An accent can often impact how we are viewed and judged by others. Despite being proficient in a second language, having an accent considered "foreign" can still feel like a barrier.

At a time when more newcomers are coming to Canada and looking for jobs, it's important to gain a deeper understanding of accent bias.

In our research, we have focused on how second language accents are associated with listener bias, broadly understood as negative responses to a speaker whose pronunciation is influenced by their previously known languages.

We conducted studies on what human resources (HR) instructors, students and professionals know about accent bias, how they understand it and how they enact it in making decisions about a person's employability.

Accents and bias

Accents are normal. They signal that a person speaks a language or dialect from a particular geographic area or that the person is a second language speaker who grew up speaking another language.

People notice accents readily, even though they generally have little difficulty understanding accented speakers. However, many people, including accented speakers themselves, often believe they should change their accent or just work hard to get rid of it.

Some accented speakers may choose or be urged to take accent modification courses. This is despite extensive research showing that accent reduction training is generally ineffective.

There are compelling reasons why someone might want to change the way they speak. Accents provide listeners with information about speakers, such as where they come from or what other languages they speak. However, accents can also be a source of listener bias.

For instance, people who speak with second language accents often elicit negative stereotypes such as being considered less trustworthy, less intelligent or less pleasant to listen to. They can also face outright discrimination in the legal system and the housing market.

Accent bias may also play out in the workplace, with reports of accented speakers facing exclusion, receiving lower pay, being downgraded in employability evaluations (especially in jobs with high communication demands) and having fewer professional opportunities. Accent bias also comes with negative consequences for a person's well-being, including increased stress and poorer mental health.

Because securing a job is crucial for newcomers, it's essential to understand what HR specialists, as gatekeepers to gainful employment, know about second language accents and how they respond to accented speakers.

Research on HR

We began our three-phase research by interviewing 14 HR students, six HR instructors and 16 HR professionals in two Canadian cities, Calgary and Montréal, to hear their perspectives on accent bias.

We found that HR instructors do not generally discuss accents in their university coursework. Nonetheless, students understand and can articulate examples of accent bias and discrimination in their own experiences. We also found that the HR professionals we spoke with consider a person's qualifications and ability to communicate effectively to be more important than speaking without a noticeable accent.

Despite our interviewees' positive outlook and their willingness to engage with accent bias and its real-world implications, many still held stereotypical views of accented speakers.

These findings led us to investigate how accents play a role in HR students' decision-making about a job applicant's employability. We asked 80 HR students from Calgary and Montréal to listen to recordings of simulated job interview responses. The job applicants differed in their language backgrounds, which were Arabic, English or Tagalog. We then asked the HR students to indicate how likely they would be to hire these individuals if they were professionals applying to different roles.

Despite research that often points to bias against applicants whose resumes and speech mark them as newcomers, the HR students in our study could easily distinguish between the more and less qualified candidates regardless of language background. In some cases they preferred the highly skilled applicants from the Tagalog and Arabic language backgrounds to applicants who spoke English as their mother tongue.

Our follow-up study with current HR professionals similarly pointed to their ability to focus on job applicants' skills and knowledge and to their willingness to disregard accent.

Sharing session

Considering that second language speakers express concerns about speaking with an accent and that HR students and professionals desire accent bias training, we conducted a sharing session that brought together recent newcomers to Canada and current HR professionals to grapple with accent bias.

Participants were asked to confront myths about accents, such as those that portray accented speakers as unwilling to integrate into the Canadian workplace. They were also encouraged to consider how accents form part of an individual's cultural heritage rather than a lack of effort to adapt.

Newcomers overwhelmingly expressed that an accent is a sign of their identity. The HR professionals noted a deepened understanding of the implications of speaking with an accent. Everyone agreed on the importance of focusing on potential employees' relevant experience and ability to communicate successfully over speaking with a local accent.

Accents in the real world

Stereotypes develop when people see individuals belonging to certain social groups perform roles considered customary for them. To change stereotypes and reduce prejudice, there must be greater representation of accented speakers in prominent occupations such as a lawyer, a news anchor, and a politician.

Inter-group contact is also a powerful tool for reducing prejudice. Workplaces should arrange opportunities for coworkers to collaborate on teams with skilled and successful second language speakers. This would go a long way toward dispelling various myths about accents, including the expectation that second language speakers and newcomers are only suitable for entry-level, low-prestige jobs, or that their performance is inferior to those who speak English as their mother tongue.

Our accents are part of what makes us who we are, and having a "foreign" one does not mean a person is any less qualified or suited for a job. As Canada becomes more diverse, hearing different accents is a common experience. Nurturing meaningful interactions with newcomers will promote greater inclusion of individuals who speak with accents.

Mary Grantham O'Brien received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Cesar Teló received funding from Global Affairs Canada.

Pavel Trofimovich received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.