Research

Title of thesis

Accent and Social Evaluation: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Language Attitudes, Stereotypes and Listener Bias in University Settings in Nigeria

Description of thesis research

It has been established that every (speech) community has an accent. A lot of people interact with individuals who speak different accents other than their own. The Guardian (2020) has found that students at some of the leading universities in the United Kingdom are being ridiculed over their accents and backgrounds. O’Sullivan (2020) in his report titled, “You were hot until you opened your mouth: Accent bias in dating” highlights how individuals are discriminated against because of the way they speak. This discrimination portends some psychological dangers. Harrison Jones of the Metro News reported how a third-year doctoral candidate of Kent University, Jessica Small, committed suicide because she was mocked for not being “posh enough”. More so, Levon, Sharma, Watt and Perry (2020) observe that non-standard working-class accents are downgraded by British people and that one’s accents can influence the level of success a candidate will attain during job interviews. Many people are aware of accent discrimination in university settings; but neither linguists, students nor lecturers have a clear understanding of how students discriminate against lecturers who speak with Hausa English, Igbo English and Yoruba English accents.

The research questions for this study are: 

1. To explore the degree to which attitudes to Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba ‘cultures’ relate to Hausa English (HE), Igbo English (IE) and Yoruba English (YE) accent attitudes among participants;
2. To evaluate if negative attitudes towards teachers’ accent have any impact on students’ understanding of the subject matter;
3. To explore the influence of gender on students’ attitudes towards HE, IE and YE accents;
4. To evaluate the educational implications of language attitudes in Nigeria.

This study appears to be the first project to investigate this recurrent issue in university settings in Nigeria by carrying out an interconnected set of empirical studies grounded in sociolinguistics and speech science.

Publications