Accented English

Everyone has an accent, but some people who think they speak “standard English” discriminate against those who don’t sound like them. This is a major problem encountered by immigrants, as well as people of minority races. The women in this program deal with that problem, either personally on a daily basis or professionally in teaching students and professionals to listen to accents not their own.

Featured Speakers/Guests:

Rosina Lippi[-Green] holds a Ph.D in linguistics from Princeton University, taught linguistics for twelve years, and is an award-winning fiction writer. Her nonfiction book, English With An Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States, is in its second edition.

Evelyne Elohat from Cote d’Ivoire was Program Supervisor at the African Women’s Coalition, which addresses the needs of African refugee and immigrant families in the community in Portland, Oregon. She speaks 7 languages.

Anonymous worker with the refugee resettlement program in Portland, who immigrated from Laos in 1976 and speaks 5 languages.

Dora Reina, from Mexico, an accountant who has taken many classes in English.

Dr. Tracey Derwing taught in the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program at the University of Alberta, Canada, from 1990-2014. She is currently in the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University and is co-authoring a book on second-language acquisition.

Credits:

Adapted for WINGS from a radio documentary by Miaie Kim. Host: Frieda Werden.

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