Accent Reduction Strategies for Higher Employability

Abstract

Foreign accents can sometimes have an impact on the credibility of an individual trying to obtain employment. Accents of certain individuals may change the way ones views their intelligence and trustworthiness. There are many strategies that one can take for accent reduction in order to highlight employability. The judgements of those that are interviewing candidates often is reliant upon what they have been exposed to in their own lives. In order to teach those that are interviewing, one must look at those strategies that lessen the gap between the foreign languages at hand. One must look at strategies for not only those that are interviewing, but also the employers and teachers. Many case studies showcase that the majority of those that have an accent are often presented with stating false statements than those that do not. We see this in employment rates where US immigrants have higher unemployment rates. One must look at this correlation between credibility and trustworthiness and accents during the interview process. Language characteristics of the interviewee may allow the future employer to identify the speaker’s ethnicity, creating a blockage in the employability due to lack of knowledge or stereotyping. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is devoted to teaching those with foreign language accents. We can use the levels the ACTFL has created with the accents in individuals looking for employment in order to train those interviewing to fully understand how and why they answer questions the way that they do. Displaying the level that a foreign accent speaker has can allow for proper employability when interviewing for a new position. With these strategies, among others, we can value those that have foreign accents and allow them to highlight their employability and diminish the higher rates of unemployment. "