THE SOCIAL STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH SPANISH-ENGLISH BILINGUALS

The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether there is a social stigma attached to speaking with a non-native accent. One hundred and eleven participants were recruited for this study. They heard a recording of the same biography by either a neutral, Spanish, or French accented speaker. Participants then had to assess the speaker on various characteristics and complete different scales to evaluate their willingness to engage in different types of relationships with the speaker, and their feelings of racism. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that non-native accented speakers are judged more negatively than a neutral accent. This suggests that accented speakers are unable to live their best life because of the stigmatization they face when they speak.