howard giles' matched-guise technique

Question 1

What is the artificiality of this technique?

Answer 1

• people in real life conversations wouldn’t necessarily speak in such a controlled, single-topic way.
• therefore, this might not capture the full range of how language variety interacts with social perception.

Question 2

What is the detectability of this technique?

Answer 2

• there’s a risk listeners might become suspicious, especially if the speaker changes accents too dramatically.
• if listeners suspect one speaker, the results become unreliable.

Question 3

What is the focus on speech of this technique?

Answer 3

• the technique primarily focuses on spoken language variations, like accents.
• it doesn’t account for other aspects of language use, like vocabulary/slang, which can also influence perceptions.

Question 4

What is the limited scope?

Answer 4

• the results may not be generally applicable to all situations.
• studies might use specific accents/speech styles that don’t reflect the full range of language variation in real-world contexts.

Question 5

What is the conscious vs unconscious bias?

Answer 5

• the technique might be better at revealing conscious biases.
• it might not be as effective in uncovering more unconscious biases that people aren’t even aware of.