Accent discrimination in the US: A hindrance to your employment and career development?

Abstract

In today’s globalized world what is the impact of how one speaks? How can you tell if your way of talking hinders your possibilities of getting a job? Discrimination based on accent happens across the world, whether people are aware of it or not. The purpose of this paper is to take a deeper look into why this happens and why employers consider it acceptable practice, especially in the U.S.A.

This paper will address several reasons for why this type of discrimination happens and what could be done to change it in the future. There are several studies done regarding English language involving non-native English speakers as well as native speakers who feel discriminated against. This paper will focus on the non-native speakers in the U.S.A. There is still need for further investigation as to how companies can train their personnel to avoid the bias and how children from an early age can be taught to see beyond the accent bias.