[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/cs\/article\/modal\/6992\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n        \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n  \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWhy do people discriminate against speakers with foreign accents?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile most people will insist they do not treat anyone differently on the basis of how they speak, there is growing evidence that foreign accents are discriminated against. Studies in the past few years have shown someone speaking with a non-native accent \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/0950017016630260\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Ecan find it harder to get job\u003C\/a\u003E, and might be \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theseus.fi\/bitstream\/handle\/10024\/129361\/Cerrato_Laura.pdf?sequence=1\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Eperceived as less educated\u003C\/a\u003E and as \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0022103110001459\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Eless trustworthy\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith an estimated \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/development\/desa\/population\/migration\/data\/estimates2\/estimates17.shtml\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E257 million people \u003C\/a\u003Eliving and working outside the country they were originally from, this accent-related bias is a major problem.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027It can lead to discrimination in everyday life,\u0027 said Dr Alice Foucart, a psycholinguistics researcher at Ghent University, Belgium, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. \u0027People make judgements about people with foreign accents in jobs, in criminal cases. They think they are less intelligent and less trustworthy.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Image credit - Horizon\u0022 height=\u0022271\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/accent-factoid-982.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022I work with Annette Ekin at Horizon magazine, she passed on your contact information. I am putting together a short text that highlights what is done to protect astronauts and satellites when particles from CMEs reach them. I have read that astronauts in the ISS are moved to the water storage because the water can act as a shield or that satellites can be oriented in such a way that fragile electronic components are not facing the particles. Do you have any information on the mitigation actions that we take to protect our space assets?\u0022 width=\u0022982\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022italic mb-4\u0022\u003EImage credit - Horizon\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow research conducted by Dr Foucart as part of a project called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/205348_en.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ESocialAccent\u003C\/a\u003E has revealed a possible reason for why this discrimination can occur. She looked at how the brain processes information when it is delivered in a foreign accent and found higher levels of activity compared to when it comes from a native speaker.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027It is more costly at a cognitive level as it requires extra effort to understand the person,\u0027 said Dr Foucart. \u0027The increased levels of activity show difficulties in processing lexical and semantic information. This can trigger negative perceptions.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENegative bias\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Foucart, who conducted the research while at Ghent University in Belgium, studied the brain activity of native Flemish-speaking participants listening to local, Italian, American, German and Czech people speaking Flemish. She also asked each of the participants to rate how intelligent, confident and successful they felt the speakers were and how they felt about the speakers and what they said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027There were significant differences between the two,\u0027 Dr Foucart said. \u0027Native speakers were considered more successful and intelligent than foreign speakers. But there was no difference in how friendly or nice they thought they were. There are social aspects such as stereotypes that can also trigger bias of a foreign speaker, but we didn\u0027t touch on this in the project.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a final experiment, she also had a native Flemish speaker translate what the foreign speaker was saying to compare this with when the foreigner spoke in Flemish themselves. This replicates many international political meetings where delegates will speak themselves or through a translator.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027We are still analysing the results of this but it could have important implications in the real world,\u0027 she said. If the results show a difference in the way information is processed \u2013 say that using a native translator is better than someone speaking in a foreign accent \u2013 \u0026nbsp;it could lead to new advice for politicians, businesses and criminal trials involving foreign defendants or witnesses.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003E\u0026#039;People make judgements about people with foreign accents in jobs, in criminal cases.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EDr Alice Foucart, Ghent University, Belgium, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027What I really want is for people to be aware in the first place that they have this negative bias,\u0027 added Dr Foucart. \u0027It isn\u0027t necessarily because of the person themselves, but because something cognitively is happening.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027One thing we do know is that eventually we get used to an accent and bias can be reduced. Perhaps it would be good for people running job interviews or the jury in a trial to do tasks to get them used to a person\u0027s accent beforehand.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENew accents\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen it comes to a foreigner moving to a new country, the way they speak will slowly change over time as they absorb elements of the accents they hear around them, but they too can have an influence on the accent of their new neighbours. This is because every time we talk with someone else we memorise attributes about their speech and this can have a subtle effect on the way we speak. Over time this can also lead to entirely new accents developing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is this process that a project called InterAccent is studying.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027Accent change is the first stage towards the development of a new language,\u0027 said Professor Jonathan Harrington, director of the Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing at the University of Munich, Germany, who is leading the project. \u0027Around 1,000 years ago, for example, English, Dutch and Swedish were actually intelligible dialects and the people who spoke them could understand each other. With the passage of time they devolved into separate languages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Image credit - Horizon\u0022 height=\u0022343\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/babycries-factoid-982_0.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Image credit - Horizon\u0022 width=\u0022982\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022italic mb-4\u0022\u003EImage credit - Horizon\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027If we can understand and model how spoken accent change actually gets started, then we will have a traceable model of language change and diversity.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Harrington and the InterAccent team are attempting to build a computational model of how accents and so languages emerge, using data from real world observations. One of the studies that is helping them build a picture of how this happens involves recording children twice a year over four years at four schools \u2013 two in Germany and two in Albania. At one school in each country there are few migrants attending, but at the other, just a few kilometres away, the migrant intake is much higher.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMigration\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027Migration is one of the things over a long period of time that will have an affect on accent,\u0027 said Prof. Harrington. \u0027And children change their accents much more rapidly than adults do because they have less experience and memory of speech. Each school is a microcosm of children who will spend the next four years together and will make innovations to develop shared accent characteristics.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough the study is only in its first year of collecting recordings, Prof. Harrington believes that the children at the different schools will develop accents that will diverge in different directions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother of the groups that the InterAccent team will study will be the international teams of scientists and support staff who spend several months together in the Antarctic when they are isolated during the harsh winter. With a mishmash of people from different parts of the world living in confined, close quarters, it is the perfect place to analyse how individual accents can influence each other and how an entirely new accent can emerge over time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027It can tell us a great deal about how the huge variety of accents that we have here in Europe have developed,\u0027 added Prof. Harrington. \u0027But it might also give us some clues about how our accents might change in a world where travel and international migration is so common.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU. 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