Recently, Hernan Diaz, a well-spoken young man in command of at least three languages that he happened to mention did a fascinating segment on The New Hours (IMHO) about accent prejudice, specifically stigmatization of accent in English.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/we-stigmatize-accents-but-language-belongs-to-everyone
As a linguist, I know that some of my older colleagues pride themselves on being able to “tell where you are from” (as in WHAT county in England your family hails from) just by hearing your “accent.” In the 1964 film with Audrey Hepburn, “My Fair Lady”, the premise was that accent could tell you everything you needed to know about a person’s social class. The challenge was to transform a working girl (Hepburn) with a Cockney accent into someone who could pass as an aristocrat. With new accent and great clothes, the heroine conquered London society.
The parlor game of “placing” people BY their accents was intended to put everyone in his or her place literally and figuratively, and to claim for the linguists the role of judge or arbiter over who speaks English “the best” (or in the most prestigious way). Very easily this “game” turns wicked. All speakers are made anxious by the judgment of the listener, a so-called “native speaker” who may claim superiority in the language even if his or her actual educational level is lower than the user before them.
As a language teacher, I can sometimes guess what the first language (L1) of my students is based on what phonological or grammar features may carry over from L1 (maybe Mandarin or Urdu) to L2 (here, English). This can be efficient in, say, helping speakers of Mandarin learn to listen for final consonants (features not in their L1) so that they can develop what is necessary for accuracy. For example, word final consonants in English often carry the plural or verb tense markers and thus are helpful to clarity of meaning.
Accent is a different issue: once grammar and syntax are accurate, there can be plenty of variety in accents without hurting communication clarity. Even within countries that have monolingual English users accent differences do not have to be a big deal. Look at the fact that speakers of South Jersey English can talk to users of Southern American English; Texans can talk with Bostonians; Brits can communicate with Scots and Irish.
For decades I have facilitated international students along their journey to academic English skills and for years I have trained masters’ level English teachers to do the same. In my graduate course on teaching English in a global context, we grapple with the idea of who “owns” English and whether or not a so-called “native speaker” may have some unique claim or hold on English that maybe newer users do not. It seems that sometimes monolingual (English only) users find their identity somewhat expanded, if not threatened, by the idea that new users can function highly in English “even if” their accent is slightly different. We speak of “English as an International Language” whose family of users is diverse indeed.
A monolingual English user can make the leap to using an additional language and can discover that his or her new perspective on “worlds beyond” is exhilarating. That person will then start thinking about his or her own accent in Mandarin, Arabic, or Spanish and be very grateful for the generosity of the so-called “native speakers” who are listening with tolerance and generosity!
Diaz’s conclusion is that the fact that we can all talk with one another regardless of accent is “proof of the hospitality at the heart of every language.” There is hospitality at the heart of every language – in fact human language in itself is social—it is learned and used in a community from the very beginning of life.
So, welcome, new speakers; welcome, new accents! As my friend, Florida Brown, used to say, “Ain’t that just the variety of it?!”
Susan Olmstead Wang 