Abstract: In this Research Exploratory Essay, I discussed accent discrimination in the United States. I focused on Chinese accents and regional accents. I identify why Chinese accents and regional accents were targeted and the social consequences of accent discrimination. I use logos in my exploratory essay to evoke a cognitive responses from the audiences.I used a variety of sources to support my claims and engage in a collaborative conversation with the authors. I have implies that we should be accept accent speakers rather than mock them or criticize them.

 “Native English Speakers’ Perception on Chinese Accent”

Accent discrimination is very common in the United States. Accent revealed an overall image of an accent speaker, which it has an affect on how an accent speaker perceive by society. One’s accent is linked with its national origin. Accent discrimination affects immigrants in places like school and the workplace. Accent can limit one’s opportunity in life, where one is denied for a work position or a promotion because of its accent. Additionally, accent discrimination may decrease one’s self-esteem and self-confidence. Native English speakers evaluate and perceive Chinese accent negatively because this accent is stigmatized by society and is different from Native English Speakers’ ideal English.

Native English Speaker’s judgement of Chinese accents is built upon their knowledge of China and the correctness, pleasantness, and friendliness of Chinese accent. Stephanie Lindemann, a scholar in linguistics, in her article, “Who Speaks ‘broken English’? US undergraduates’ perceptions of non-native English”, published in the 2005 claims that Chinese accents were not favored by native English speakers because Chinese accent was salient in the United States. Lindemann draws this conclusion by analyzing the two experiments he conducts: map-labeling and country-rating. China was rated in the top fifteen countries for most familiar English. However, China’s rating for correctness, pleasantness, and friendliness were in the 30^th to 50^th places (Lindemann, 192). Most native English speakers’ comments on Chinese accent speaker are they speak choppy, quickly and high toned. Moreover, most of the time Chinese accent speakers forget to put plural “-s” on ends of words. Native English speakers claim that Chinese accent is unpleasant to listen to because Chinese accent speakers make a lot of grammatical errors in their speech. Lindemann also implies that Chinese immigrants were populated in the United States. Therefore, native speakers of English are familiar with Chinese accents and are able to identify the characteristics of Chinese accents and errors that Chinese non-native English speakers tend to make. Extending Lindemann’s interpretation of native English speakers’ negative perception on Chinese accent, I wish to add native English speakers’ purpose of mocking and criticizing Chinese accent speaker. People tend to judge others on their accents because it makes them feel good about themselves. To be more specific, it makes them feel like they are in a higher social hierarchy. Therefore, native English speakers discriminate Chinese accent speakers to reinforce this hierarchy. Evidence of this is revealed when Lippi-Green claims that accent is linked with one’s social and economic status (Lippi-Green, 190). Lindemann’s claim is exemplified by Amy Tan’s, “Mother Tongue” and Arthur Chu’s, “Breaking Out the Broken English”. Arthur Chu is an American Columnist. The authors of these two texts clarifies Lindemann’s claim by illustrating their mother’s cases of accent discrimination. These two authors also expand Lindemann’s claim and further explaining how Chinese accented English Speakers are affected by the bias evaluation made by native English speakers.

Chinese accent speakers are often mock, Amy Tan, a famous American writer, in her essay, “Mother Tongue” published in 1990, stresses that there is no right type of English. Tan reflects on experiences when “people in the department stores, at bank, and at restaurant did not take her (mother) seriously, did not give her (mother) good services, pretended not to understand her (mother), or even acted as if they did not hear her (mother)” (Tan, 7). Tan’s point is that people tend to link her mother’s accent with her mother’s social and academic status. Tan’s mother wasn’t treated seriously by society because her accent was viewed as unprofessional and showed a lack of knowledge. Tan’s mother’s accent limits Tan’s possibilities in life, but also enhances Tan’s development in language. Tan accepts her mother’s accent and writes stories about her relationship with her mother using the English she speaks with her mother. Chu complicates Tan’s claim that native English speakers’ negative perception and bias evaluation limits Chinese accent speakers’ possibilities in life. Chu’s response to accent discrimination challenges Tan’s approach. Tan accepts her mother’s accent, while Chu wants to abandon his Chinese accent. Chu asserts that “The ‘Asian accent’ tells the story of Chinese-American assimilation in a nutshell. Our parents have the accent that white Americans perceive as the most foreign out of all the possible alternatives, so our choice is to have no accent at all” (Chu). Basically, Chu is insisting that accent reveals our background, which we have no other choice other than to have no accent at all or reduce our accent. Although I agree with Chu up to a point, I cannot accept the overall conclusion that one should abandon their accent because society view accent as abnormal. Abandoning or reducing one’s accent is not a solution to accent discrimination. If you don’t accept yourself, how would you expect other to accept who you are. My point can be support by Anzaldua’s view of accents and identity. Gloria Anzaldua is a scholar of Chicana culture. In Anzaldua’s article, “How to Tame a Wilde Tongue”, she emphasizes that she cannot take pride in herself and accept herself until society accept the version of Spanish, she speaks (Anzaldua, 39-40). This suggests that accents are one’s identity. You cannot accept a person without accepting their language and accents. While Lindemann, Tan, and Chu argue that Chinese accents in particular are stigmatized and perceived negatively by society, Lippi-Green and Smitherman write about accent discrimination among other groups. Smitherman in her article, “African American English: From the Hood to the Amen Corner” and Lippi-Green in her article claims that not only foreign accents were targeted by society, but regional accents were also been targeted by society.

People who have regional accent are also treated unequally. Lippi-Green, a scholar in linguistics, in her journal article “English with an accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States”, stresses that one’s accent it is linked with its race, social, economic, and academic status. Lippi-Green implies that “many times that number of citizens, born in the U.S., speak with a regional accent that is not fashionable, or are native speakers of a variety of English which is directly linked to race, ethnicity, or income” (Lippi-Green, 190). In other words, Lippi-Green believes that one’s accent was discriminated, their race, culture and income were also discriminated. In addition, this applies to foreign accents and regional accents. This is way so many people want to reduce or get rid of their accents. Lippi-Green’s words supports Lindemann’s claim that one’s accent is linked with its national origin. Lippi-Green’s claim is exemplified by Geneva Smitherman’s article, “African American English: From the Hood to the Amen Corner”. Smitherman is a distinguished professor emerita of English at Michigan State University. Smitherman have southern accent. She failed her oral exam because of her accent (Smitherman 9). Smitherman implies that there is nothing wrong with her speaking skills. It was her accent makes the proctor viewed her as unprofessional. Smitherman and Lippi-Green suggests that society could not accept regional and foreign accent because it is different from native English speaker’s ideal English. My own view is that there are standards in ideal English. Chinese accents and southern accents fail to meet these standards, where society perceive these accents as abnormal. Overall, English speaking with a Chinese accent or regional accent is English, it’s just a different version of it.

You will be able to sympathize an accent speaker’s struggles if you been through those struggles yourself or know someone that have those struggles or have knowledge about dialects and accents. Safwat Saleem, an artist and graphic designer, in his Ted Talk, “Why I Keep Speaking Up, Even When People Mock My Accent”, Saleem identifies why does one criticize because of its accent and why people have accent were treated differently. Saleem claims that accent limits one’s possibilities in life. Saleem implies that he accepts the preexisting of normal that normal is good, and anything outside of that very narrow definition of normal is bad. This is why Chinese accent was perceived negatively because it falls outside of the range of normal. Extending Saleem’s observation of society’s view of normal, I wish to add why people viewed accents as abnormal. It’s because they lack of the experiences and ability to sympathies others that have accents. They can’t understand people that have accent have to go through. Moreover, they can’t see their difficulties and problems. My claim can be clarified by Anzaldua’s struggles of having accents. Anzaldua stresses that people that did not acculturate to American’s culture and language will suffer economically. Anzaldua use herself and Chicanos to exemplifies her point. Anzaldua and Chicanos “don’t identify with the Anglo-American culture values and don’t totally identify with the Mexican cultures values (Anzaldua, 43). Anzaldua and her people are stuck in between where, American do not accept their language and accent and Anzaldua and her people do not want to abandon their culture and identity. This is because some people never experience this situation or know someone that has accent problems just like Saleem say “they don’t have the ability to make that color” (Saleem).  Overall things people could not understand would be view as abnormal.

Overall, these articles and journals inform people about accent discrimination and make them aware that it happens very commonly. Although, Lindemann, Chu, Tan, Lippi-Green, Smitherman, and Saleem have different views and approaches toward accent discrimination, they all agree that native English speakers lack knowledge of accent and dialect. They don’t understand that accents and dialects have patterns and rules just like any other languages. Therefore, native English speaker viewed Chinese accents and regional accents as abnormal. Native English speakers need to understand that it’s not easy learning a new language. There are some people that could learn a new language just as easy as their first language and have very little accent. However, there are others that struggle at learning a new language. What people should do is to accept accent speakers rather than mock and discriminate them.

 

Works Cited

Anzaldúa, Gloria E. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands/La Frontera, Aunt Lute Books, 1978, pp. 33–45.

Chu, Arthur. “Breaking Out The Broken English.” NPR, NPR, 31 July 2014, www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/07/31/336380977/breaking-out-the-broken-english.

Lindemann, S. (2005). Who speaks “broken English”? US undergraduates’ perceptions of non‐native English 1. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15(2), 187-212.

Lippi-Green, Rosina. English with an Accent Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. Routledge, 2012.

Saleem, Safwat. “Why I Keep Speaking up, Even When People Mock My Accent.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, www.ted.com/talks/safwat_saleem_why_i_keep_speaking_up_even_when_people_mock_my_accent?language=en&utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare#t-461520.

Smitherman, Geneva. African-American English: from the Hood to the Amen Corner. University of Minnesota, 1996.

Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue. Threepenny Review, 1990.

Reflection

Throughout phase two, our class had read and analyzed serval journals and articles written by creditable linguists. We used rhetorical situation worksheets and charting worksheets to help us to interpret the meanings and messages that these authors had hidden in their texts. I found it very useful to have a class discussion on the rhetorical situation worksheet and charting worksheet. The most meaningful insights I’ve gain in this phase was writing an academic summary. It was completely different from what we have done in high school. In high school we were asked to summarize what the author was saying, while in academic summary we analyze what the author was doing and their purposes and claims.

The concept of synthesizing sources has impacted me the most on my learning and writing practices during phase two. I was confused and struggled when I’m synthesizing sources for my exploratory essay. I have no idea of what I’m doing and not sure if I did the synthesis correctly. I watched videos and read articles about how to synthesize sources however, I still don’t understand it. I contacted Ms. Nagales and make an appointment with her to help me with this assignment. She helped me broke down my essay by section and identify which part is synthesis and which part is not. I found the advices very useful and able to improve my exploratory essay when I’m revising it.

As I was planning and writing my exploratory essay, I believe I have achieved two course goal.  I have practiced “locate research sources in the library’s databases or archives on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, and bias.” Our class have one class in the library, where the librarian taught us how to find sources that is accuracy and have credibility using the CUNY library’s databases. I had found my peer-review article for my exploratory essay using Onesearch. I also “analyze culture, linguistic, and global cultural diversity, and describe an event or process from more than one point of view.”  This is the synthesis part of the exploratory, where we identify each author’s view and claim about a topic. In addition, how each text related.