Foreign Accent, Identity and Accent Discrimination: A Literature Review

Abstract

This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship between foreign accent, identity, accent discrimination, and second language acquisition (SLA). In this regard, the paper first examines the concepts of interlanguage and transfer, ongoing debates of nativeness and intelligibility principles as sound goals for language learning and teaching environments, and current perspectives on accent reduction, as well as the position of foreign accent in SLA. The next section introduces accent as an identity marker and discusses this concept, followed by an examination of the social dimensions of foreign accent and how it can affect identity formation. This includes discussions of how native and non-native speakers, and their foreign accents, are perceived by others in different contexts, the effects of foreign accents on NNSs' social experiences, sense of belonging, and their attitudes towards NS varieties. Then, accent discrimination and bias, particularly native listeners' perceptions of non-native speech, reported instances from employment situations, legal responsibilities and consequences involved are discussed based on the findings of reports and empirical studies. The paper also emphasizes the necessity of a more nuanced understanding of foreign accent and its role in language learning, as well as the importance of addressing the social dimensions of accent in language pedagogy. The study concludes with pedagogical implications of accent-related queries and ideas for further research.

Discrimination of Degrees of Foreign Accent across Different Speakers

“…A foreign accent (FA) refers to the distinct pronunciation characteristics and prosodic patterns that manifest in a non-native speaker's utterance of a second language (L2) (Derwing and Munro 2015;Uzun 2023). These characteristics stem from the influence of the speaker's native language and can vary widely in prominence and nature.…”