Foreign Accented-Speech and Perceptions of Confidence and Intelligence

The purpose of the current study is to explore listeners’ perception of accented speech in terms of confidence and intelligence. To this end, three groups of listeners were asked to rate speakers of English with various accent strengths based on a 9-point scale in terms of accent magnitude, confidence and intelligence. Results show that the two Jordanian listener groups, unlike the English listeners, reacted similarly toward Jordanian-accented speakers of English. Overall, the three groups tended to link accentedness with perceptions of confidence and intelligence. The findings of this study have significant implications for advocating a tolerant attitude toward speakers of English as a foreign language in the fields of education, employment opportunities, and social justice. It is suggested that stereotyping speakers as inferior in terms of qualities such as confidence and intelligence reflects established listener’s bias rather than lack of speaker’s intelligibility.