People with foreign accents can experience discrimination, inequality, lower employability and they can be misunderstood, according to some new research.

Accents can also subconsciously shape the way people interact and how meaning is interpreted, the research says.

In an increasingly globalised world, foreign accents are an inevitable part of communication, but they can create barriers in comprehension and in the perception of the speaker, the studies suggest.

A group of international researchers headed by Dr Alice Foucart and Dr Luca Bazzi, from the universities of Nebrija and Boston, have reviewed recent research into foreign accents.

They say speech habits develop in early childhood, so when the sounds of a foreign language differ from the speaker’s native language, they can be difficult to accurately reproduce.

“This is especially true if a language is learned late in life. In general, the later someone learns a language, the stronger their accent tends to be,” the researchers say.

Even among native speakers, a person’s voice can reveal a lot about where they are from, as well as their social class and ethnic background.

Listeners subconsciously pick up on specific speech patterns to infer traits such as gender, age, or social status, and process these cues very quickly.

These quick judgements about a speaker’s identity can directly influence how their language is understood.

The researchers say our brains find it easier to process a familiar accent, and as a result we tend to feel more positive about ourselves when listening to native speech.

Also, listeners tend to assume foreign-accented speakers have lower language competence, even when their grammar and vocabulary are impeccable.

The researchers carried out an experiment in which native Spanish speakers were presented with written dialogues featuring either a native or foreign-accented speaker from Madrid or Romania.

“The results confirmed that irony is perceived as weaker when spoken by a foreign individual. In other words, foreign speakers’ comments are taken more literally,” the researchers said.

“In addition, the study showed that the responses to these comments were rated as less appropriate, suggesting a disruption in social interaction.

“One possible reason for this disconnect could be that processing foreign accents demands more mental effort than processing a familiar native one, which reduces our ability to detect subtle cues like irony. However, in this study, the speakers’ comments were intentionally written to get rid of this issue – the irony of each response was not particularly subtle.”

The researchers say the fact that people do not process foreign-accented speech like native-accented speech has consequences in different contexts,” they say.

“At work, for instance, employees with foreign accents are often seen as less competent than their native-speaking counterparts, which can limit their career opportunities.

“In educational and academic contexts, professors with foreign accents receive lower teaching evaluations, even when their content is clear. Students are also more likely to misinterpret complex or abstract ideas when spoken by a non-native instructor.”

Also, in legal contexts, foreign-accented individuals face disadvantages such as being more likely to be perceived as guilty and receive harsher punishments for the same offences.

But the researchers say that exposure to foreign accents improves comprehension and helps reduce biases.

“With simple exposure, the brain can ‘tune in’ to different accents, gradually reducing the extra cognitive effort initially required,” they say.

“Watching films and listening to podcasts, as well as engaging with foreign speakers, are effective ways to improve understanding and make processing easier.”

The researchers say policies that promote linguistic inclusivity can help combat discrimination and create more equitable opportunities.

“Education plays a crucial role in reshaping these perceptions. The fundamental goal is to recognise that foreign accents are a part of a speaker’s identity, not a flaw, and are a natural consequence of our globalised world, where speaking only one language is increasingly not the norm,” they say.

Read more here: How foreign accents subconsciously shape the way we interact