In an educational setting, like a university classroom, students may not want to contribute for fear of being ridiculed or mocked for their accent.
A 2022 Sutton Trust report found accent anxiety to be particularly pronounced at University:
35% of uni students reported being self-conscious about their accent
33% of uni students were worried accent could affect their ability to succeed in the future
56% of students from the North of England have had their accent mocked in a social setting
Recent news stories from UoE and also at other institutions show that accent bias is a real problem on campus, not just in the student demographic but also within the staff community. In the Sutton Trust report cited above, one student reported that:
I regularly felt disadvantaged. I was once asked (out of context) if my parents worked in the coal mines. I was also asked if I grew up in a council house. In my experience, accent and class are often conflated in these situations. As an undergrad at Edinburgh uni, I was discriminated against regularly because of my Lancashire accent. In the first year of undergrad, I consciously spoke with a stronger Lancashire accent as a form of protest against the difficulties I faced simply due to my accent
In our research, we found that accent bias was particularly experienced amongst state-school educated, working-class, and Scottish students. International students – especially those who are non-White – report similar types of experiences too.
International students often contend with perceptions about how ‘good’ their English might be before they’ve even started to speak.
Perhaps surprisingly, there is less research on accent bias and linguistic discrimination than in other sectors of society. These issues have been studied extensively in professional recruitment, law, and medicine.
The work that does exist is mainly in the US and Australia. The limited research on accent bias in UK HE, however, shows that this is a problem across a range of institutions.
In our work we have argued that accent bias is heightened at university because (for many young people) it is the first time that they have interacted with people who come from very different social backgrounds or speak differently to themselves. At many universities, there is also a historical stereotype of the ‘typical student’. However, the student demographic has changed. Initiatives such as widening participation and internationalisation have led to more diverse streams of student intake (and more diversity in accents represented on campus).
You can watch some more student testimonies of accent bias here.