Introduction
It is hard to disagree that the way other people speak can often influence one’s perception of them, whether it is a regular communication or a business meeting. Some persons tend to base their attitudes towards others precisely on their manner of pronouncing words, making pauses and using intonation. However, it is also widespread for individuals to focus on the accent of another person – some even use this as the main factor when selecting professionals from different fields. This interesting language bias has resulted in an assumption that the British accent is favoured over the American accent when looking for representation in the court. In order to test this theory, real people’s perceptions, in addition to relevant peer-reviewed articles, are analysed further.
Analysis of the Data Obtained Through Questionaries
Several factors should be taken into consideration when analysing the data received through the questionnaire. First, while the age and ethnicity of the participants are unknown, their gender is indicated, so it is possible to track whether there are any similarities in how males or females evaluate the voices and accents they hear. Second, attitudes towards each of the speakers (A, B, C and D) will be based on how the participants described them in one word and justify their intent to either trust them or not. Finally, connections will be drawn between responses to see if there is a pattern in preference or not. Finally, the analysis and findings will be supported by the research to verify if previous studies had reported similar findings.
Gender Factor
First, the participants’ gender is considered, but since only 30% of them are males, there may be some limitations and the need for additional studies to support the point. The first four questions ask the participants to describe each speaker in one word. Unfortunately, not all responses were possible to be identified as strongly positive or negative: out of 40 responses total, 20 can be considered favourable, 10 adverse and 10 – neutral. Noticeably, out of 19 positive descriptive words, 8 belonged to the male participants. Considering the unequal number of individuals taking part in the questionnaire, it is possible to calculate that at least 66.6% of males’ responses to the first four questions are favourable. In comparison, only 39.2% of females’ descriptive words were not negative.
As for the accents, among American speakers (B and C), person B is more preferred, and speakers A and D, having British accents, are precepted almost equally positive. Further, 4 positive male evaluations are given to both American and British accents; at the same time, 8 female participants favoured persons A and D, and only 4 positive marks are given to speakers B and C. Further, in their more detailed answers regarding whether they could trust each of the speakers, the male half of the group of participants expressed themselves quite calmly and reasonably. Therefore, since they provide many positive responses, it would be unreasonable to state that females tend to be more favourable ratings. Interestingly, this finding contradicts the conclusion made by Coupland and Bishop (2007). In their study, the authors indicate “differences according to informant gender (with females regularly producing more favourable evaluations)” (Coupland and Bishop, 2007, p. 74). However, the responses analysed in this paper demonstrated that males were more soft, kind and positive when giving their evaluations.
Findings
Overall, it is possible to state that the analysis proves the study’s hypothesis. A British accent is indeed favoured over an American accent, especially when people choose professionals to work with or be protected by (like in the court). Person A is highly favoured by all the participants and received only 2 negative evaluations – the speaker has a Birmingham accent, which is also explored in some selected studies (Coupland and Bishop, 2007; Frumkin and Thompson, 2020). Scottish English (speaker D) is also perceived quite greatly, only having 1 negative and 3 neutral evaluations. Further, while Californian English (speaker B) is also referred to as pleasant to listen to, a Southern accent (speaker C is from Arkansas) is mostly regarded as ‘unintelligent’, ‘uneducated’ and ‘rough’, and one of the descriptions is ‘What’s wrong with America today?’ The participants do not perceive this accent favourably, and speaker C also received the most negative responses when asked whether the participants would trust her and select her as a solicitor. For example, these are some explanations: “I associate a female, mature, southern accent as somewhat villainous, so I wouldn’t trust them” (Aha), “Sounds far too uneducated to represent anyone” (MH), “I can’t take the American accent serious to be able to give such a responsibility” (Noor). At the same time, the last participant, Noor, decided to trust speaker B, who also has an American accent, and this uncertainty is discussed further.
Possible Bias
When listening to speaker B, several participants found her voice, accent, and manner of speaking to be similar to those of Camille Vasquez – Johnny Depp’s lawyer. As a result, this unconsidered detail might have interfered with the results of the study. Camille Vasquez is known to win Depp’s case, which is why some participants familiar with this fact decided to trust a woman who speaks just like Vasquez. On the one hand, this emphasises the ability of some other characteristics to prevailing over the importance of one’s accent – thus, many people still select professionals, including solicitors, based on their experience and skills. On the other hand, it is now impossible to state whether the participants would give this speaker positive evaluations if not for this comparison.
Main Conclusion
Overall, it is possible to say that the findings partly support the research hypothesis. Indeed, one can notice in the first four questions that attitudes are better towards speakers A and D who have British accents. At the same time, the diagrams show that the number of participants willing to trust speakers A and D or hire them as solicitors is lower than the number of those who trust speaker B. Finally, only one person is ready to hire speaker C, but there are no participants who trust her. Thus, considering the data and the possible bias, one may say that British accents are generally favoured over American accents.
Comparing and Contrasting with the Research Available
Some primary ways to compare this research with the selected articles is to look at the methods used to gather data and also contrast the findings. Overall, all studies used to support this paper needed to explore the attitudes of people, so numerous participants were chosen randomly. This paper’s method was to ask the ten selected persons to take a short online survey: there were two choice questions (with the options of yes, no, maybe and other) and a special question. Additionally, the participants were asked to describe each speaker in one word, which enabled them to think independently, not selecting from the options. This analysis does not include any specific variables or dimensions.
First, in the study by Coupland and Bishop (2007), 5010 U.K. informants took part in an online survey. Noticeably, the focus of the paper is on the difference in the perception of various English accents, not involving the American ones. In order to analyse their findings, Coupland and Bishop (2007) use a quantitative method and evaluate the results based on several variables like social attractiveness ratings and prestige ratings. As for the conclusions themselves, the authors discover that Birmingham English is among “the three least prestigious varieties while also being” one “of the four least socially attractive varieties” (Coupland and Bishop, 2007, p. 80). This does not quite correspond with this paper’s findings – speaker A has this accent, and she received quite favourable evaluations. What is more, this study cannot support the authors’ idea that females usually produce more favourable ratings.
Second, Frumkin and Thompson (2020) also do not consider American accents in their study. The authors used a quantitative method as well but chose not to find that many participants. For their research, 90 individuals were selected randomly to watch three videos with different British accents, and the “impact of the accent was measured through eyewitness (1) accuracy, (2) credibility, (3) deception, (4) prestige and (5) trial outcome” (Frumkin and Thompson, 2020, p. 119). These dimensions allowed the authors to track which of the three accents was preferred most among the participants. Interestingly, this research supports the results of the study by Coupland and Bishop (2007), particularly concerning a Birmingham accent. According to Frumkin and Thompson (2020), among the three analysed accents, this one received fewer appreciations and scored lower than the Multicultural London English (MLE) and Received Pronunciation (RP) accent.
As for the third paper selected to support this study, it explored the attitudes of 71 university students from Spain. Carrie (2017, p. 427) conducted questionnaires and interviews to receive qualitative comments to measure “cognitive, affective and conative responses to speech stimuli”. In this study, both American and British accents are explored, which makes this article more related to this current research. Overall, as noticed by Carrie (2017, p. 445), “whilst RP occupies the high-status position and GenAm the low-status position, the latter often rates more highly than the former for solidarity”. As a result, this finding partly supports this paper’s idea about American accents not always being less preferred.
Further, in the article by Levon et al. (2021), the connection between professional attitudes and accents is emphasised. The authors selected 848 participants having five English accents and evaluated the “perceived hirability of ‘candidates’ for a trainee solicitor position at a corporate law firm”, which is highly related to this paper’s topic (Levon et al., 2021, p. 355). As a result, Levon et al. (2021, p. 355) indicate “persistent patterns of bias against certain accents in England, particularly Southern working-class varieties”. A similar conclusion may be made from this analysis, but it will refer to American accents, specifically, a Southern accent (speaker C is from Arkansas, and she received fewer positive evaluations).
Finally, the fifth article selected to add value and information to the topic is by Cardoso et al. (2019). The researchers focus on exploring how 1015 ordinary persons perceive five British accents. The results of the study by Cardoso et al. (2019) support one of this analysis’ conclusions: accents actually impact people’s decisions regarding hiring candidates, so accent bias is present in the employment context. Speakers with non-standard accents (American ones can be added to this group) are considered to be un- or less educated, not intelligent, not reliable and less confident. Precisely these descriptions can be found in the survey in which this study’s participants took part.
Conclusion
To draw a conclusion, one may say that the findings are ambiguous and can be interpreted differently. Generally, it can be stated that the analysis of the data obtained through questionnaires proves that people’s perceptions of each other are based on accents. What is more, the responses received from the ten randomly selected participants indicate, to some extent, that British accents are preferred more than American ones. Thus, a professional with a British accent is more likely to be trusted and hired. At the same time, there were significant differences between this study’s findings and the conclusions made by the authors of the five selected research. First, women do not tend to provide more favourable evaluations than men – this analysis demonstrated that males sometimes give more positive responses. Second, other persons’ own experiences (like Johnny Depp’s case) can impact one’s choice in favour of solicitors with American accents – and this impact can be quite strong. As a result, additional research is needed to support the findings and fill the remaining gaps.
Reference List
Cardoso, A. et al. (2019) ‘Inter-speaker variation and the evaluation of British English accents in employment contexts’, Proceedings of the 19th international congress of phonetic sciences, Melborn, Australia.
Carrie, E. (2017) ‘British is professional, American is urban’: attitudes towards English reference accents in Spain. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 27(2), pp. 427-447.
Coupland, N. and Bishop, H. (2007) Ideologised values for British accents. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11, pp. 74-93.
Frumkin, L. A. and Thompson, A. (2020) The impact of British accents on perceptions of eyewitness statements. Journal of Language and Discrimination, 4(1), pp. 119-137.
Levon, E. et al. (2021) Accent bias and perceptions of professional competence in England. Journal of English Linguistics, 49(4), pp. 355-388.