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The prevalence and landscape of accent reduction programs at US institutions of higher education

Tue, March 12, 2:45 to 4:15pm, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Terrace Level, Tuttle South

Proposal

Purpose of study

The purpose of this descriptive research study is to understand the scope and characteristics of accent reduction programs, also known as accent elimination programs and accent modification programs, in colleges and universities in the United States. Many institutions that have accent reduction programs claim they will help international students and scholars modify their accent thereby helping them to be more successful within the higher education/academic context. However, previous research on accent reduction programs within and outside the field of education highlight that accent reduction programs pathologize accents (Derwing et al., 2014; Ennser-Kanenen et al., 2021; Mastuda, 1991; Ramjattan, 2019a; Ramjattan, 2019b), are predatorial (Derwing et al, 2014; Ennser-Kananen, 2021), are deficit-laden (Ennser-Kananen, 2021; Ramjattan, 2019), and perpetuate English language dominance, linguistic racism, and the hierarchization of Englishes (Ensser-Kanenen et al., 2021; Greene et al., 2022).

While research has investigated the harms perpetuated by accent reduction programs and their role in perpetuating linguistic racism and English language dominance, no studies thus far have investigated the prevalence of these programs. This study is guided by the research questions:

1) What are the basic characteristics of accent reduction programs on US college and university campuses?

2) What institutional characteristics are associated with the presence of an accent reduction program at a higher education institution?

This descriptive study will provide a foundation for understanding the prevalence and landscape of accent reduction programs in the United States. As such, the findings from this study will allow for other researchers to build on this topic and advance critical research on accent reduction programs.

Methods

Data

This study’s data represent 1,440 Title IV-participating four-year public and private not-for-profit US higher education institutions. We draw data on these institutions from two sources. The first source is a unique dataset of accent reduction programs and their characteristics collected by the College Crisis Initiative (C2i) in spring 2023. In addition to collecting information regarding whether an institution supported an accent reduction program, this dataset contains key information regarding program characteristics. We combined this dataset with information from our second data source, the US Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which was our source for institutional characteristics potentially associated with the presence of an accent reduction program at a given institution. Among others, these characteristics included percentages of students and instructional staff that were international alongside race/ethnicity of the student population and characteristics of the institution such as its locale, region, and control

Analysis

We analyzed our data in two ways. To respond to our first research question, we conducted a descriptive analysis of program characteristics using percentages, means, and standard deviations. This information derived from the dataset provided by the College Crisis Initiative (C2i). To respond to our second research question, we conducted two logistic regression analyses to explore institutional characteristics associated with the presence of an accent reduction program at a particular institution. The first analysis included all institutions in the dataset (N=1,440) and the second analysis was limited to only institutions that reported international student enrollment during the 2019-20 academic year (N=1,401).

Preliminary Results

Approximately 9% of institutions (N=124) were identified as having accent reduction programs on their campuses. Programs were open to both students and non-students (39%) or students exclusively (39%), and in 34% of the programs, participants were required to pay for the services they received. The average cost of participation in one of these programs was US$1,156.85 (SD=2460) (based on information from 37 programs). As programs were for varying amounts of credit, durations, and formats, charges varied quite widely, with a minimum cost of US$25 and a maximum of US$10,750. Organizationally, accent reduction programs were in a variety of units, but the most frequent were in Intensive English Programs (N=29) and Speech and Hearing Centers, Clinics, or Schools (N=26). Other common locations for these programs included the Office of Global/International Education (N=14) and the Department of English as a Second Language (N=10). Regarding credit, 23% of the programs represented in our dataset were credit-bearing, while 33% were not. Most programs offered at least a face-to-face option for participants (N=51), while online and workshop/training options were much less frequent (N=13 and 16, respectively). Instruction was provided by faculty at 43 of the institutions represented in our dataset, while graduate assistants and staff members were also common instructors (N=15 and 19, respectively).

The results of our two regression analyses suggest that institutions located in urban areas, public institutions, and research institutions were more likely to offer an accent reduction program, all significant associations at standard levels in the model including all institutions and the model including only institutions that enrolled international students.

Significance

The results from this study provide a baseline understanding of the basic characteristics of accent reduction programs in the United States. Future studies can build upon the results and provide a critical examination of how and why accent reduction programs are taught and marketed. For example, many programs are housed in speech and hearing centers, yet few studies exist about how and why accents are pathologized as speech issues.

Ultimately, accent reduction programs contribute to dominance of U.S. English language because “although the language spreading around the world is known as English, the content it carries is American culture” (Xue & Zuo, 2013, p. 2264). The dominance of U.S. English contributes to the United States as a top destination for international scholars, who seek educational opportunities for U.S. English immersion thus resulting in an academic dependency (Yao, 2021). Consequently, accent reduction programs serve as a tool for continued U.S. hegemony and English language domination.

Authors