Evaluations and Stereotyping of Accented Speakers by Pre-Adolescent Children

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to examine the effect of language accents on children's evaluations and stereotyping. Forty 10-year-old and 40 12-year-old Australian children from monocultural and multicultural schools listened to the same passage read in English by boys with strong and mild Italo-Australian and Viet-Australian accents, and broad (i.e., strong) and general (i.e., mild) Australian accents. In addition, for half the children each accent was given its appropriate ethnic designation, whereas the remaining children listened to unlabeled accents. The children rated the accents on evaluative (status, solidarity) scales and on traits comprising the stereotype of each group. The findings indicated that their evaluations were influenced by accent ethnicity and accent strength. In addition, the older but not the younger children's evaluations were affected by accent identification and ethnic contact. The data also suggested that the accents evoked ethnic stereotypes. The emerging complexity of the language attitude-stereotype relationship is discussed.