Accents on Trial Accent Discrimination in U.K
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Accents on Trial Accent Discrimination in U.K. and U.S. Courts Grace Wood PhD University of York Language and Linguistic Science November 2018 Abstract Research into urban housing, employment, education, and public perception has found evidence of accent discrimination. However, the role of language and discrimination has been under researched in the legal realm. Trials such as the U.S. Zimmerman v. State with witness Rachel Jeantel reveal how damaging accent discrimination can be. In order to research this further, mock trials were put together, collecting “verdicts” from groups of participants in the U.S. who formed mock juries, as well as individual online participants in the U.K. and the U.S. In both countries the national standard accent was compared to a regional accent. This was done by filming a staged cross examination between a prosecutor and a defendant. While the prosecutor’s accent remained standard in both guises, participants were given a video that had the defendant testify in either a standard or regional accent. Unlike previous research, these studies were designed to look like psychological studies into jury decision making so that participants were not primed for the linguistic components. The statistical analysis did not find any significant differences between the two accent conditions. Therefore, while language attitudes affected some of the results, there was no evidence that accent discrimination was present when it came to giving a verdict. Thus the overall findings suggest accent may not always be discriminated against directly; rather it may be the vehicle used to discriminate against protected traits (e.g. ethnicity, gender, religion, etc.). Furthermore, the mock juries differed significantly in their verdicts from the individual online participants. This suggests that the use of individual jurors in any type of trial research significantly inhibits ecological validity. Suggestions for further research are offered to continue learning in what ways language is instrumental in legal contexts. iii Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... iii Contents ...................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ............................................................................................................. vii List of Figures .............................................................................................................. x Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... xi Author’s Declaration:................................................................................................. xii Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Dissertation Overview ...................................................................................... 5 1.2. Terms Defined .................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2. Language Attitudes and Ideologies .......................................................... 11 2.1. The Standardisation Ideal ............................................................................... 16 2.2. Discrimination Reported in the Media ............................................................ 21 2.3. Research into Accent Discrimination ............................................................. 29 2.4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 3. Language Attitudes in the Courtroom ...................................................... 36 3.1. Discrimination in the Courts ........................................................................... 37 3.2. Research into Accent Discrimination within the Courtroom .......................... 47 3.3. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4. Research Questions .................................................................................. 62 4.1. Pilot Studies .................................................................................................... 65 4.1.1. Gender Effect Pilot Study ........................................................................ 65 4.1.2. Stimulus Type Effect Pilot Study ............................................................ 69 4.2. Research Questions and Hypotheses .............................................................. 70 Chapter 5. UK Mock Juror Study .............................................................................. 74 5.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 74 5.2. Yorkshire English and Standard Southern British English ............................. 75 iv 5.3. Methodology ................................................................................................... 80 5.3.1. Accent Guises........................................................................................... 81 5.3.2. Mock Trial Stimulus ................................................................................ 84 5.3.3. Ethics ........................................................................................................ 92 5.3.4. Questionnaire ........................................................................................... 93 5.3.5. Participants ............................................................................................. 101 5.3.6. Analysis .................................................................................................. 103 5.4. Results ........................................................................................................... 105 5.5. Discussion ..................................................................................................... 115 5.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 119 Chapter 6. US Mock Trial Study.............................................................................. 120 6.1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 120 6.2. Southern American English and General American English ........................ 121 6.3. Methodology ................................................................................................. 127 6.3.1. Accent Guises......................................................................................... 128 6.3.2. Mock Trial Stimulus .............................................................................. 131 6.3.3. Ethics ...................................................................................................... 135 6.3.4. Qualtrics Questionnaire .......................................................................... 135 6.3.5. Qualtrics Participants ............................................................................. 136 6.3.6. Mock Jury Design .................................................................................. 140 6.3.7. Mock Jury Participants ........................................................................... 146 6.3.8. Analysis .................................................................................................. 150 6.4. Results ........................................................................................................... 153 6.4.1. Qualtrics ................................................................................................. 153 6.4.2. Mock Juries ............................................................................................ 162 6.4.3. Research Question III ............................................................................. 179 6.5. Discussion ..................................................................................................... 185 v 6.5.1. Qualtrics ................................................................................................. 186 6.5.2. Mock Juries ............................................................................................ 187 6.5.3. Research Question III ............................................................................ 194 6.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 196 Chapter 7. Research Question IV: Comparison of U.K. and U.S. Studies .............. 198 7.1. Analysis......................................................................................................... 200 7.2. Results ........................................................................................................... 201 7.3. Discussion ..................................................................................................... 208 7.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 210 Chapter 8. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 211 8.1. Summary ....................................................................................................... 212 8.2. Further Possibilities .....................................................................................