Unit 3: Language and Identity & Language Bias

Unit three explores the connection between language and identity, as well as the intersectionality of language bias with xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination. In this unit, peer tutors will explore the harm created by telling students that the language they use is most appropriate for nonacademic and nonprofessional contexts. They will also be introduced to research-based counter arguments to the assumption that using the “right” English creates opportunities for students who use American English as an additional language or students who use nonstandard dialects of American English.

Go Further

Accent Discrimination

• "The Vocal Fries Pod." This podcast is about linguistic discrimination.

• "Nonlanguage Factors Affecting Undergraduates' Judgements of Nonnative English-Speaking Teaching Assistants" by Donald L. Rubin. This peer-reviewed academic article examines how perceptions of foreignness affect listening comprehension for college students.

• "Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Language Diversity in Education" by Nelson Flores and Jonathan Rosa. This academic article "critique[s] appropriateness-based approaches to language diversity in education."

• "Why You Shouldn't Judge an Accent" by Ethan Kutlu. This 10-minute TEDx video provides an overview of accent discrimination, the cost of this discrimination, and his PhD research into "false" accents that are created by perceptions of difference.

• "What Does Your Accent Say About You?" by Melissa Hogenboom. This BBC article looks at accent discrimination in the United Kingdom.

• "Why the Brain Doubts a Foreign Accent" by Matthew S. McGlone, Barbara Breckinridge. This short Scientific American article summarizes the intersectionality of language perception with racism and xenophobia.