L1-INFLUENCED PRONUNCIATION: IDENTITY & DISCRIMINATION Ruth Williams Sandanona 2016

EXPLANATION Books, articles, and interviews Interviews cannot be entirely objective Submitted to interviewees for review before first presentation Modified slightly since first presentation but the same quotes were used Haifa Soulimi (Tunisia), Anton Guz (Ukraine), Tomoki Yamanaka (Japan), Junko Kinomura(Japan), two anonymous participants

ACTIVITY Borrowed from Cover, Caballero, Alshehri Introduce yourself to your partner using an accent attributed to a group you do not identify with. (British or other) How did it feel? Why?

ACCENT AS IDENTITY “When asked if they would like to lose their accents completely, most of my interviewees said no, noting that accent is a big part of their identity and makes them feel special and original” (Hanson, 2007) "One of my interviewees said she felt that speaking without an accent would be like not telling the truth about herself” (Hanson, 2007)

ACCENT AS IDENTITY Tomoki Yamanaka: “I like my accent.” One anonymous interviewee stated that they valued their accent Anton Guz: May consider adopting a Ukrainian accent to present himself as Ukrainian. “I get typecast as American a lot.” Is an invisible minority when he uses a Northeastern American accent

MANY FACETS Junko Kinomura: wants to acquire language like a “native” speaker’s, but thinks that comprehensibility is the most important Tomoki Yamanaka also believes that content is most important Haifa Soulimi and one anonymous participant did not feel that accent was a part of their identities Study by Shannon McCrocklin and Stephanie Link: students were not worried about losing identity (McCrocklin and Link, 2016) Anton Guz lost his accent at a young age, possibly to fit in

MANY FACETS TESOL 2016 presentation by Kelly Cover, Lisa Tittle Caballero, Mohammed Alshehri found that four of their participants wanted to sound like a “native” speaker, two participants wanted to keep their accent Keep accent: show who they are and display identity Change accent: to fit in or be “more proficient”

REFLECTION Look at a few different opinions from “Accent as Identity” and “Many Facets.” When learning a second language, whose opinion do you identify with? Why? Is accent tied to your identity? Would you change your accent to fit in or be more proficient?

VIEWS OF ACCENTS: DISNEY What accents did you pick out in these clips? What do the movies’ creators expect you to think about the characters from their accents? What characterizations are they attempting to portray?

VIEWS OF ACCENTS Anton Guz: Probably would view a Ukrainian accent as “exotic and sexy” because being from Eastern Europe isn’t “scary” for Americans “There is a hierarchy to how people see you on this continent” (Guz, 2016) If he had an Iraqi accent, for example, he might be seen with fear Anonymous: in their home country, a more American accent is admired "People with accents are not always perceived as competent, educated, or even trustworthy" (Hanson, 2007)

DISCRIMINATION "At times, employers have used claims of 'unintelligible English' to deny jobs to accented, but otherwise qualified, applicants. However, these claims may be mere pretense to discrimination based on national origin" (Nguyen, 1994) "In a situation where the speakers see each other, the non- Asian will sometimes hear a foreign accent that is not there, a phenomenon called accent hallucination" (Lippi-green, 2012). Haifa Soulimi and Anton Guz stated that if you make judgements based on accents that is a form of racism.

REFLECTION Have you ever encountered a case of discrimination in the US or another country based on accent?

COMMUNICATIVE BURDEN "Each of us would group the accents we come across in different configurations. For the majority of Americans, French accents are positive ones, but not for all of us. Many have strong pejorative reactions to Asian accents, or to African American Vernacular English, but certainly not everyone does. The accents we hear must go through our language ideology filters. In extreme cases, we feel completely justified in rejecting the communicative burden, and the person in front of us” (Lippi-Green, p. 73, 2012) The breakdown of communication is usually due to a rejection of the communicative burden; this often happens when there is a negative view toward the accent (Lippi-Green, 2012)

REJECTION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE BURDEN Many interviewees commented that the ability to communicate is what is important without being prompted (Kinomura, 2016, Yamanaka, 2016, Soulimi, 2016). If the communicative burden is rejected then communication fails. If it is shared equally between participants communication is much more likely to succeed. The communicative burden is rejected when there is a negative view of an accent. To what extent do you feel it is acceptable for an employer to deny a position or fire an employee due to accent?

APPLICATION If your student told you that they were embarrassed by their accent, what would you say? What if a student stated they wanted to sound like a “native” speaker, stating that they want a better job? How can we respect students’ identities when teaching pronunciation?

REFERENCES Accent, Identity, and Power [Personal interview]. (2016, April 15). Accent, Identity, and Power [ interview]. (2016, April 15). Beatrice Bich-Dao Nguyen, Accent Discrimination and the Test of Spoken English: A Call for an Objective Assessment of the Comprehensibility of Nonnative Speakers, 1 Asian Am. L.J. 117 (1994) Cover, K., Caballero, L. T., Alshehri, M. (2016) "Accent: Communication Tool or Speaker Identity?“ Retrieved from F04DA201B3FF Guz, A. (2016, April 15). Accent, Identity, and Power [Personal interview]. Hanson, I. (2007, September). Accent and Identity. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from publish/journals/other-serial-publications/compleat-links/compleat-links-volume-4-issue-3-(september- 2007)/accent-and-identity Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge. Soulimi, H. (2016, April 15). Accent, Identity, and Power [Personal interview]. Yamanaka, T., Kinomura, J. (2016, April 15). Accent, Identity, and Power [Personal interview].