Award Date

1-1-2000

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Number of Pages

59

Abstract

Researchers have found that variations in listeners' judgments of speakers are associated with the speakers' accent. It was hypothesized that: (1) Spanish accented speakers would be evaluated less favorably than standard English speakers; (2) listeners would rate both accented and non-accented speakers on the basis of their expectations and not according to the speakers' actual vocal characteristics; (3) listeners would evaluate speakers differently, depending upon the lexical complexity of the speech utilized by speakers; and (4) listeners would evaluate standard and nonstandard English speakers differently, depending upon the speakers' gender. One hundred-twenty subjects evaluated four speakers on semantic differential type scales. Results indicate that: (1) overall accented speakers were evaluated more favorably than non-accented speakers; (2) listeners did not evaluate the speakers according to their expectations; (3) speakers were rated lower when reading an informal passage than when reading a formal passage; and (4) male and female, accented and non-accented speakers were evaluated differently. Results, limitations, and implications are discussed.

Keywords

Accented; English; Evaluational; Evoked; Expectations; Reactions

Controlled Subject

Social psychology; Language and languages

File Format

pdf

File Size

1658.88 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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