Accent bias and language as a social construct with Vijay Ramjattan | Ep. #10

Hedvig speaks with sociolinguistics researcher Dr Vijay Ramjattan about accents, societal biases, and perception. We tend not to recognise that language is not just a skill, but a social tool with a deep history in power dominance, colonialism and discrimination. This episode contains a few stories about racist discrimination.

Further learning:

• Nelson Flores & Jonathan Rosa- raciolinguistic ideologies
• Donald Rubin on imagined accent perception: “Effects of accent, ethnicity, and lecture topic on undergraduates’ perceptions of nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants”, Rubin & Smith, 1990
• "Give Me Your Name and I'll tell You Whether You Speak with an Accent": The Effect of Proper Names Ethnicity on Listener Expectations - Prikhodkine, Saavedra & Mamed (2016)
• Quote: “The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.”Pedagogy of the Oppressed- Paolo Friere (1968)
• The question of “Who owns a language?” and the idea of bringing your whole self into a language are also discussed in episode 4 of the Abundate Podcast

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