University Presentation Showcase: Undergraduate Poster Gallery
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Creation Date
2023
Major
Psychology
Department
Psychology
Degree
Undergraduate
Mentor
Sara Incera
Mentor Department
Psychology
Abstract
There are around 1 billion people in the world who speak English as a second language and accents are likely to be acquired when a person learns a second language later in life. In this study, we examined accent prestige and the effects that accents have on a speaker’s credibility, specifically, we looked at whether English speakers believed non-native speakers to be less credible than native speakers. Participants listened to a variety of statements and rated a speaker’s credibility from true to false. We used audio recordings from four accented speakers; Cambodian, German, Midwestern, and Appalachian. We predicted that 1) those with an accent from a second language will be rated as less credible than those with a variation of English, 2) those with a low-prestige accent will be rated as less credible than those with a high-prestige accent, and 3) that the more linguistic exposure listeners have, the more credible the speakers will be perceived as. Key words: accents, credibility, second language, native speakers
