Regional Accent Discrimination in Hiring Decisions: A Language Attitude Study

Evidence is presented to support the notion that US regional accents influence decisions in the hiring process. Fifty-six people who hire for a variety of corporations participated in a computerized survey, during which they listened to speakers from regions of the US reading the same passage. Respondents judged the speakers on personal characteristics commonly considered in hiring decisions, attempted to identify the speakers' regions, and selected job categories for each speaker, in addition to providing information about their own linguistic security. Results indicate: 1) judgments based on regional accents strongly correlate to selection of job categories, 2) respondents were not able to identify regional accents correctly, and 3) negative judgments were assigned to the speakers of accents that were correctly identified.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2000

Author dc:creator

• Markley, E. Dianne

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cukor-Avila, Patricia
• Becker, Jack D.
• Ross, John Robert, 1938-

• English language -- United States -- Pronunciation.
• Employee selection.
• discrimination in hiring
• regional accent
• hiring process
• linguistic security
• negative judgments

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Markley, E. Dianne
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 47357370
untcat: b2303470
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2623/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc2623

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc2623