A recent survey in the UK has found that regional accents can be “bad for business”. Professor Khalid Aziz, a specialist in communication for business executives, questioned people in high-level management to find out their opinions on regional accents. He discovered that non-English accents are better for business success in England. Speakers with an American, Scottish, Indian or Asian accent are preferred to speakers with a regional variation. Professor Aziz said: “Although it may not be [acceptable] to believe that accents matter nowadays, it is very [clear] from our research that…prejudices still exist.”

The survey also reports that business people think speakers with Indian or Asian accents are more trustworthy and reliable than speakers with American or British accents. Professor Aziz said only 24 percent of the executives he questioned thought speakers with British regional accents were hardworking. He said that people with these accents “will face prejudice in business”. His conclusion was that: “If you want to get ahead in business and don’t speak the Queen’s English, it is better to sound as if you are from America, Europe, India or…Scotland than from any English region.”

WARM-UPS

1. MY ACCENT: In pairs / groups, talk about your accent. Do you like it? Has it changed since you were a child? Do you think it’s a good accent to succeed in business?

2. WORLD ENGLISHES: In pairs / groups, talk about the following English accents. What are your experiences of listening to these accents? Which do you like or dislike?

Queen’s English Regional British accents Standard American Regional American accents Australian English

Chinese English Spanish English French English Russian English Other _________________

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Surveys / business managers / regional accents / high level / prejudices / trustworthiness / Indian accents / executives / Queen’s English / Scotland

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. SPEECHES: Talk with your partner(s) about how important the following are when giving a speech or a presentation in (1) English and (2) your own language:

Accent Perfect pronunciation Speed of speech Use of slang

The volume of your voice Intonation Pauses Other _______________

5. ACCENT OPINIONS: Talk about the following in pairs/ groups. Do you agree with them?

1. I want to speak English without any accent from my own language.
2. Having the right accent is important for business success.
3. The Queen’s English accent is much better than an American accent.
4. In my country, an accent can tell us if someone is intelligent or not.
5. I would pay big money to have an accent that will help my career.
6. There are accents in my own language that I hate listening to.
7. Accents are one of the most difficult parts of understanding English.
8. I want to speak with an accent that doesn’t tell people where I’m from.

6. ACCENT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with accents. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Accents and other punctuation marks are bad for business.	T / F
b.	British English accents are best for business presentations.	T / F
c.	In business in the UK, an Indian accent is preferable to a regional one.	T / F
d.	The survey found prejudices towards accents in Britain.	T / F
e.	Speakers of Queen’s English are thought to be the most diligent.	T / F
f.	People with regional accents  are considered to be hardworking.	T / F
g.	People with regional accents will face prejudice in business.	T / F
h.	The survey suggests changing your accent to get ahead in business.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	survey	says
b.	specialist	asked
c.	questioned	succeed
d.	variation	discrimination
e.	prejudices	diligent
f.	reports	come across
g.	trustworthy	difference
h.	hardworking	expert
i.	get ahead	study
j.	sound	honest

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	a specialist in communication	accents are more trustworthy
b.	find out their opinions	believe that accents matter
c.	non-English accents are better for	as if you are from America
d.	it may not be acceptable to	executives he questioned
e.	it is very clear from our research	on regional accents
f.