Panel calls attention to language barriers

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that thicker accents translate into less credibility.

According to the article, listeners encounter a difficulty in processing fluency. Instead of perceiving statements as more difficult to understand, they believe the statements to be less truthful, thus leading the speakers to seem less credible.

This lack of credibility has inconspicuous yet grave implications for millions of people who routinely speak in non-native languages, including ESL students who attend Clark College.

A panel of three students, who struggle with language barriers, convened in Clark's Gaiser Hall Jan. 31 to share their own experiences with this not-so-direct form of discrimination.

"I Speak Differently, Why Don't You Hear Me?" was one student panel discussion in a series titled "Power, Privilege and Inequality in the Classroom." The sequence is designed to give faculty and students a personal perspective and a better understanding of equality issues on campus.

"Even when a person is trained to listen to an accent they would still have the response of not believing it, even if the person with an accent was delivering a message like, ‘My supervisor told me to come at 2 p.m. instead of 2:30 p.m.' They still would not believe it," said Dr. Kathy Bobula, professor of early childhood education and psychology at Clark.

The event's speakers were Fatoumata Diabate from West Africa, Chia-Hui "Jennifer" Chui from Taiwan, and Yoonsuk Choi from South Korea. Felisciana Peralta, manager of multicultural retention, served as event facilitator.

"The complaint I hear most from the international students is in class when put in small groups sometimes other students don't want to be in a group with a student with an accent. They think it will hold them back and slow them down," Chui said.

This one disadvantage can potentially sabotage a student's success when participating in oral presentations or when engaging in small group work. According to Bobula, these struggles can cause a student to avoid on-campus activities and breed a feeling of intimidation.

"This is a global world," said Bobula. "Not everyone is going to speak the King's English, so to speak, and we all have to practice listening to all sorts of other people with all kinds of different strategies."

To see a video of this event, visit: http://www.clark.edu/tlc/panel_discussions.php