attitudes to accents Flashcards
what is a matched guise and who made this famous linguistically?
listeners pass judgement on a single speaker presenting identical material using differnt regional accents. all other variables are the same (script, tone, body a gauge etc)
this was made famous linguistically by howard giles
what happened in howard giles 1975 matched guise study?
in 1975, giles used this approach when researching the perception of RP and the birmingham accent by two groups of 17 year olds.
what did 1975 howard giles find?
although it was the same speaker using the two different accents when speaking about psychology, the teenagers rated the RP speaker higher in terms of competence and intelligence
what happened in howard giles 1973 matched guise study?
in 1973, giles reported the findings of another group of british teenagers who were presented with the same speech arguing against the death penalty, spoken in different accents.
what did 1973 howard giles find?
he founds that the teenagers were more likely to value the argument and the content if the speaker used a more prestigious accent
what happened in dixon, mahoney and cocks 2002 matched guise study?
dixon, mahoney and cocks used the same ‘matched guise’ approach to see if there was a correlation between accent and how we perceive someone’s guilt, using the birmingham accent as the non-standard form, the participants listened to a dialogue between a policeman and a suspect. for some the suspect spoke with a birmingham accent, while others, listened to a recording when the suspect’s accent was more standard.
what did dixon, mahoney and cocks find?
the results showed that the suspect was perceived to be significantly more likely to be guilty when he spoke with the non-standard birmingham form
what happened in neuliep and speten-hansen 2013 matched guise study?
neuliep and speten-hansen used the ‘matched guise’ approach to research attitudes from an ethnocentric viewpoint.
they were interested in the link between ethnocentrism and the perception of a speaker with a ‘non-native speaker’.
the participants were asked a series of questions so that neuliep and speten-hansen could deduce how ethnocentric they were. once their enthocentrism was established, the participants were split into 2 groups and each watched a video of the same male speaker. the speaker dressed the same, spoke in the same place and used the same elements of body language. the only distinguishing factor was that in one video, the speaker spoke with what they termed a ‘non-native’ accent; in the second video he spoke with a ‘standard american accent’.
what did neuliep and speten-hansen 2013 find?
the results were as followed:
those considered to be ethnocentric gave lower ratings to the non-native speaker. thus, how a non-native speaker is perceived can depend on the ethnocentricity of the person they are speaking to
what did the company sitel survey?
the company sitel surveyed 2,000 people across the uk and found that the northern accents came out top of the poll
what qualities were associated with the geordie accent of the north east of england?
soothing, friendly, unchallenging, honest and relaxed
what qualities were associated with the yorkshire accent?
reassuring and trustworthy
why have so many companies chosen to locate their call centres in the north and north east?
because there seems to be a need for people to hear an accent that sounds amiable, calming and gentle
attitudes to ‘brummie’ accent
dr ursula clark has said that the problem is that most studies tend to link the birmingham accent to low intelligence which is perhaps why people are sensitive about it. however, another study said the birmingham accent actually came out as top foot trustworthiness so it was interesting to see how difficult it is to change perceptions
