One of the services we provide at The Sound Center is accent modification for foreign and regional accents. Clients work on pronunciation, intonation, speaking rate, style of presentation, and tone of voice, among other areas. The accent we teach is American English, as spoken by most broadcasters in the US.
Some see this work as fundamentally racist. They claim that the group in power dictates the correct way of speaking, and the less powerful are forced to change. Who has the right to say which way of speaking is correct?
I can see their point, especially when people are dismissed or demeaned for the way they speak. However, in my opinion, communication is the goal. If people have ideas to share but their audience cannot understand them, it is to their benefit to make some changes in the way they speak.
I have simplified this debate considerably, but I am curious to find out what you think. Is accent modification a racist goal?
Tags: Accent, accent modification, accent reduction, Communication, foreign, foreign accent modification, foreign accent reduction, Presentation, racism, racist, speak, speaking, tone of voice, Voice
June 25, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I am an accent modification trainer, too. I have occasionally gotten a reaction along the lines of “people should just learn to deal with other people with accents” and was told by a local university that they “don’t believe in” accent modification because it is “anti-diversity.” I have to tell you, none of my clients has ever felt that way (obviously, because they wouldn’t sign up to work with me if they felt that way). It’s generally native-born Americans who feel they will insult someone’s heritage by getting them to change their accents.
I try to educate the public about what accent modification is: a technique to improve spoken communication. My clients gain a tremendous amount of self-esteem when they know that they are finally being understood and can stop repeating themselves.
Personally, I think that it is limiting people’s potential by not allowing them to improve the way they communicate.
June 25, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Erika,
Well-stated! Thank you for your thoughtful comments!
Michelle
October 26, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Racism is such an all encompassing term and an ugly one. Racism has been institutionalized but in the case of Accent Reduction, I beg to differ. Accent Reduction is about communication and communication is vital to everyone.
The accent is not reduced to sound like any particular nation. Accent Reduction is eliminating the distortion of the sound when pronouncing word/words. But if a particular language is deemed standard, then everyone has to communicate clearly in that language. (in this case, English) If I were to speak French with a heavy American accent and distort half my sentence, then I, too would need accent reduction. And if a Frenchman asked me repeatedly what I was saying, I could not consider him racist.
Many Americans from different regions get accent reduction for some of the same reasons that second language speakers of English do. Where’s the racism there? However if, as you say, people are dismissed or demeaned for their way of speaking, then that is Ignorance and racism could be a factor. But to say that a level of speech improvement is racist..well..go figure
Alia
http://www.askalia.squarespace.com