Can Speaking English Negatively Impact Non-Native Speakers? Investigating the Vocal Cross-Categorizations and Evaluations of Majority and Minority Members Across Language and Accent in a Non-English-Speaking Country

Individuals are quickly categorized as members of a group (e.g., national, migrants) based on their standard or nonstandard accent. However, this has usually been studied in the context of the native language, and less is known about accent-based categorization when individuals speak a second language. In this research, we tested whether speaking in Portuguese or English would influence Portuguese participants’ evaluations and recall of Portuguese-accented and Brazilian-accented speakers. In Study 1, we investigated the perceived warmth and competence, the potentiality of forming relationships, and the assumed economic status of Portuguese-accented and Brazilian-accented men speaking in their native (Portuguese) or non-native language (English). Results indicated that Brazilians speaking English received the worst judgments compared to all other categories by Portuguese listeners. Study 2 used a Who Said What paradigm to test language and accent categorization in a different experimental setting, and predicted that Portuguese participants would be more likely to make errors when recalling Brazilian-accented men speaking in English. However, Portuguese-accented men speaking in English received the most errors (although, Brazilian-accented men speaking English were second). Overall results from this project provide insight into the nuanced effects of social categorization and evaluations of standard and nonstandard accented individuals speaking in their native and non-native languages in Portugal.