Language: That Thing That Binds Us… Or Does It?

There is a general, almost unconscious consensus that language reflects intelligence. If I was to approach a person at random at my local Costco, I would expect he or she should be able to engage in an intelligent conversation with me. This consensus on intelligence is ubiquitous regardless of the country or region and applied in a variety of interpersonal relationships, from choosing a candidate to fill a job to finding Mr. or Miss. perfect. Brainiacs tell us that IQ in the general population has steadily increased throughout the 20th century (Baker et al., 2015; Pietschnig & Voracek, 2015) and gains in IQ have been largely attributed to the overall educational attainment, otherwise known as the Flynn Effect (Flynn, 1984). However, research also shows that vocabulary has actually declined among college educated adults in the United States in the last thirty years (Twenge et al., 2019). Assuming the research is correct, what does this say about our accepted consensus that language reflects intelligence? More specifically and more importantly, how does this assumption affect our own relationships and daily interactions with others that are born with deafness or lose their hearing, exhibit a regional accent, or display a non-native English accent and pronunciation?

“I’m deaf, not intellectually challenged!”

According to the Center for Disease Control’s 2014 national report on vital and health statistics, 15% of adults have some loss of hearing and men are more likely to have hearing loss compared to women (This may explain a few things around the house) (CDC, 2014). Approximately 30 million Americans 12 years and older, have hearing loss in both ears (Lin, 2011). Being born hearing-impaired opens the door to both opportunities and challenges. To those that lost their hearing, it is undoubtedly life altering. Regardless of whether a person is born with hearing loss, or lose their hearing over time, people who are deaf are forced to meet the challenge. In general, I feel most hearing individuals that don’t know or interact with a deaf person misunderstand deafness. This is where education comes into play. Here are a few tips. First, be mindful (Favorite word!). Choose your words. Get rid of expressions such as “Turn up your hearing aids!” or “Are you deaf?” because the person on the other end of that conversation may actually be hearing-impaired (HR nightmare!). Second, when speaking with the hearing impaired, some people speak slow and loudly. It is essential to realize deaf people are not intellectually challenged. You can speak normally. If they don’t understand you, they will ask you to repeat just like everyone else. Third, when engaged in a conversation, do not look away. Try to keep eye contact and be patient. Looking away when a deaf person is either talking or signing is like walking out of the room in the middle of a conversation. This is generally a good practice with hearing people as well.

There are a multitude of talented and intelligent people who happen to be deaf and it’s worth knowing their stories as well as contributions: Dr. Philip Zazove, expert in disability research who has practiced for over forty years and is Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan; Dr. Candace McCullough has over thirty years of experience and she is a pioneer in offering counselling to the hard of hearing; Andrew Foster, the first Black deaf person to receive a Master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University, established schools for the deaf in various developing countries and did so for over thirty years; Steffani Cameron is a writer who has extensively reported on hearing loss; Marlee Matlin is an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, writer, and activist; Nyle DiMarco, male supermodel (I loved that he won America’s Next Top Model!); Linda Bove, actress in Sesame Street introduced millions of children to sign language; and Dr. Glenn B. Anderson is the first deaf Black man to receive a PhD from NYU and author of Still I Rise: The Enduring Legacy of Black Deaf Arkansans Before and After Integration. And the list goes on…

[Fun fact, according to ethnologue.com, there are 147 sign languages in the world (Mind blown!). I always assumed there was one universal sign language. Why wouldn’t there be one sign language, right? Well, shame on me. Again, this is a perfect example of unconscious bias. People are people and deaf people are people too who are subject to cultural norms and national pride. Why wouldn’t there be various independently arisen sign languages and why wouldn’t a deaf person want to stick with their own national sign language?]

National and Regional Accents

Related to deafness and how we perceive other people’s speech, accent related bias has a long-documented history (Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). I was a data conversion supervisor several years ago for a web developer and was reporting to a new manager resulting from a hostile takeover (Always wanted to use “hostile takeover” since I first saw the 1987 film Wallstreet). He was Australian and worked remotely. This translated to lots of phone calls (Zoom wasn’t a thing at the time). During one such call, I was unable to understand his instructions and asked him to please repeat. He became angry and asked me, “Do you speak English!?” Clearly I wasn’t used to hearing Australian English. National and regional accents help create a set of ethnocentric values within a person and this is acceptable. However, the primary reason behind biases is a self-constructed social identity and ethnocentric beliefs that undermine other groups which do not share the same characteristics (Neuliep and Speten-Hansen, 2013). Would this have occurred if he were American, but spoke with a demarcated Southern drawl, Appalachian Mountain accent, or Cajun English? It is important to engage in an honest conversation to prevent discrimination in the form of negative perceptions associated to both regional accents and non-native English pronunciation, such as low intelligence or lack of honestly.

English as a Second Language

I have a wonderful eight-year-old son and an amazing four-year-old daughter. If you were to drop by my house on any given day, you would hear chaos and you would also hear three spoken languages: English, Portuguese, and Spanish. In general, opportunities present themselves to individuals that are bilingual or even multilingual. If my children become fluent in all three languages as adults, they will have an incredible advantage in tomorrow’s economy. However, to individuals permanently residing in the United States whose primary language is anything other than English , their non-native accent can become a significant sometimes enormous disadvantage both from a practical standpoint and the prejudices they may encounter.

We are sometimes unaware that many of our work colleagues have a primary language other than English. If not unaware, then indifferent. A non-native English accent carries loads of information about a person, which often results in a stigma. Native English speakers do not realize what a non-native accent means and are often oblivious of the emotional aspect. Accent based discrimination is referred to as accentism or linguicism (Masztalerz, 2021) and, according to psychologists, sociologists, and linguists, non-native English speakers face a multitude of challenges in the United States because of their accent. Regardless of their legal standing, non-native English speakers face fewer employment opportunities, experience differential employee compensation, struggle with lesser housing options, are forced to do with impoverished health care services, and are even given lower credibility in court – not to mention all the other “isms” they have to wrestle with, such as sexism, racism, and classism (Chakraborty, 2017, Ovalle & Chakraborty, 2013; Deprez-Sims & Morris, 2013). In a world on the fast track to globalization and internationalism, addressing the stigma associated to non-native English accents at the workplace is imperative.

Beginning in the mid 1990’s, improved telecommunications allowed for corporations, mainly in the financial markets, to outsource their customer facing departments. Many shopped for overseas companies. The world wide web further catalyzed this trend. In turn, companies, desperate to contract with Anglo-American and British businesses, began to submerge their employees in accent reduction programs in an attempt to be more “customer friendly” by reducing non-native English accent often linked to linguistic prejudices – conscious or unconscious – as well as increasing clarity. This practice continues today. Interestingly, accent reduction or “accent neutralization” programs for foreign born English speakers are just as common in the United States as they are overseas (Riuttanen, 2019). In a 2007 interview with the New York Times, Jennifer Pawlitschek, accent coach who earned a Master’s in Fine Arts from University of California, Irvine (Keeping it local!), stated, “Accent reduction is a misnomer. Accent reduction is learning an accent. It is learning an American accent” (New York Times, 2007). In other words, non-native speakers are trying to assimilate to avoid being stigmatized, their goal is to become inconspicuous. Jason Reynolds, award winning author of Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You would recognize this as an assimilationist way of approaching the problem of accentism or linguicism, this only perpetuates linguistic prejudice (2020). Of course, there is always room for personal growth and improvement particularly when it comes to learning another language. However, recognizing our own unconscious biases would make things easier for many including some of our own colleagues.

At the grassroots, it doesn’t take a PhD to notice that non-native English speakers are often reluctant to contribute ideas because of fear of being misunderstood or ridiculed. At times when they do share their ideas a higher up or colleague – someone who is impatient, insensitive, or downright rude – will interrupt, not take them seriously, and talk over them. Efficiency doesn’t have to be terse. When this happens it not only disrespects the person, who was brave to contribute, but it minimizes and makes the person feel inconsequential. The consequence is they and others will be reluctant to contribute going forward. The person, the team, the company… everyone loses when this happens.

I was a staffing specialist with Manpower, Inc. for a few years. Not enough to boast expert knowledge, but enough to have paired hundreds of professionals with a multitude of companies. I found that non-native English applicants were often very knowledgeable, highly skilled, and resourceful. Most of all they were resilient in their search for an opportunity to get ahead. Often, they provide imaginative and creative problem-solving skills that focused on the solution, not the problem and, in this way, contributed to innovation – illusive holy grail of tech America. Their creativity is intrinsic to being born and raised elsewhere and having a different primary language. Language makes neural connections (Getting scientific now) that allows us to think, which extends to our imagination and, thus, our creativity. Both Howard Garner, author of Frames of Mind (2011), and Sir. Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative (2017), examine how language allows for different ways of “thinking.” Gardner uses the notion of “linguistic intelligence,” which examines the rhetorical potential (convincing), mnemonic capacity (memory), and explanatory aspect (how-to) of language. Summarizing his theory, language makes us intellectually agile and the more languages we master, the more agile we become (Mastery of a musical instrument allows for this as well). It’s no wonder why companies like Glassdoor recommend employers hire more bi-multilingual employees to help foster innovation and diversity in the workplace.

Moving Forward

In the end, this discussion about language is not about intelligence, but about empathy and recognizing each other’s moments of vulnerability. This is true whether a person is hearing impaired, has a regional accent, or a non-native English pronunciation. During one of my client onboarding training sessions, the customer said “Jose, I’m color blind. Is there a way for me to tell the differences in color scheme used by the zoning layer?” This caused me to pause both literally and metaphorically. First, I recognized this was a moment of vulnerability for this customer (Thank you Brené Brown !). I thank him for having shared this with me and proceeded to show him our labeling capabilities. He was ecstatic at the option I provided. This experience led me to begin brainstorming à la Ollie and Moon (Esteemed readers with children of their own will get this) in what ways work groups can begin to be collaborative rather than just cooperative. Every one of us has been an outsider at some point in our lives, so we can steer away from direct and even unbiased prejudice by simply being mindful and aware of our own feelings. Let’s embrace each other’s differences and recognize them as our collective strength. It is widely accepted among linguists, every one of us has an accent whether we know or not. So, I leave you with the following thought: They say don’t judge a book by its cover. I say don’t judge a book by the font it uses either (Okay…that was more than a thousand words).

Bibliography

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