Do Accents Speak Louder Than Words?

As a law student, you can use online drafting tools and academic phrasebanks to help give your writing an authoritative voice, but what about your verbal communication skills? Should you be worried about being treated less favourably if you speak with an obvious accent? In this article, Clare Wood takes a look at the issue of accentism and offers her personal view that what really counts is what you have to say, not how you say it…

Accent as a Class Issue

It must be acknowledged that in England, there is a long-standing traditional association between ‘RP’ and the legal profession. Received pronunciation speakers are perceived to be highly articulate and eloquent, with a natural flair for advocacy and public speaking in general. Often referred to as standard English, RP was the required standard for early 20^th Century radio presenters, all of whom spoke with cut glass or plummy accents. By comparison, today the BBC has a positive accent diversity policy and there is much greater representation of voices across the UK’s nations and regions. It remains the case however that standard English is considered a prestige accent by virtue of the fact it is spoken by many in positions of power in society.[1] A standard accent – perhaps we should again call it the King’s English – can give an impression of ‘unearned privileges’ yet its speakers are more likely to be viewed through a positive intellectual lens.[2]

Recruitment Bias

All human beings are unconsciously biased towards others who sound just like they do, and this similarity attraction isn’t something anyone should feel guilty about. The key is to recognise that this form of bias exists and appreciate when it could be affecting our decision-making processes. This is particularly important for legal recruiters, as a 2019 study found.[3] Researchers asked participants to listen to five mock interviews for a training contract position and then rank the candidates in categories such as expert knowledge and quality of responses. The least preferred candidates had working class accents, namely multi-cultural London and Estuary English (the singer Adele is apparently an example of the latter).

This research suggests accent bias can negatively affect our opinion about a person’s suitability for a professional role. Perhaps one way to address the issue would be to make accentism an actionable type of discrimination? France recently made glottophobie unlawful[4] but in the UK, it must be considered alongside discrimination based on a person’s protected characteristics such as race or nationality.[5]

When looking at the process of recruiting barristers, the issue is even more pronounced. Around 35% of the annual intake stubbornly remains privately educated when the percentage of UK pupils attending fee-paying schools is just 6%. The Bar Council’s new Pupillage Gateway tool will consider applicants’ educational backgrounds in more depth. Former Bar Council Chair, Nick Vineall KC, commented that contextual recruitment will help identify over-performing candidates and recognise the potential in those who, perhaps due to their socio-economic status, ‘might not yet have achieved quite so highly’ as others.[6] Since 2016, solicitor apprenticeships have been available and there is now talk of an equivalent route for aspiring barristers. This could significantly improve diversity at the Bar.

Admission or Call?

When I first studied at university level, I was one of twelve English Law French Law students and I felt relatively confident in my linguistic skills given I could (at the time) speak another language well. Once I started to socialise with my fellow students however, my self-belief was badly shaken. Despite growing up 7 miles away from campus, and very much sounding like it, I felt like an outsider when discussing my background with my new friends. As the daughter of a bricklayer and a customer service advisor, I had very little in common with the former public schoolgirl whose father was an ambassador in Paris, or the student from Finland with an impressive list of European lawyer contacts. I was in danger of feeling like the token local in this elite group. Today, I freely admit to my students that these experiences contributed in part to my decision to change my degree programme and apply for training contracts rather than pupillages. Despite my academic achievements, I didn’t believe I was of the right stock for the Bar, having attended a high school languishing at the bottom of the league table. Thankfully, as my results came in I began to appreciate that I had every right to pursue a career in law. Having qualified as a solicitor, I was able to choose litigation-based practice areas, so I could still enjoy regular appearances in courtrooms up and down the country. I am proud to be a working-class academic lawyer who now has the confidence to apply for judicial roles. I am keen to see a more diverse judiciary which better reflects the society it serves.

Accent Anxiety is Real

Research commissioned by the Sutton Trust[7] confirms how feelings of accent anxiety can suppress social mobility, being more prevalent in students from working class families in the North of England:

It is not just the experience of discrimination, but the expectation of discrimination that can hold individuals back.[8]

Some even said they were reluctant to contribute during lectures or workshops, which could reinforce their fear of public speaking and ultimately prevent them from fully developing this important life skill.

In a piece for Counsel magazine[9], Irish barrister Allan Briddock recalls attending group elocution lessons as a student in 1999. Whilst he was not told to speak in RP, ‘it was certainly implied that it would be for the best’. Twenty-five years on it might seem incredible, ridiculous even, to expect an Irishman to talk like an Englishman to ensure a successful legal career, but when reflecting on his performance in court, he sometimes has an ‘uneasy feeling’ that his accent has a part to play in any negative outcomes.

When considering the experiences of international students who speak English as an additional language, it is important to recognise that the existing research on accents is heavily focused on domestic students. University life is a microcosm of wider society and it could be your first opportunity to interact with people from many different countries and cultures. This creates a richer learning environment but international students may feel obliged to soften their accents, using techniques such as code-switching, which can be very tiring.[10] They may even feel the need to pay for elocution lessons to improve the Englishness of their accent, even though it is almost impossible for cognitive reasons to speak a foreign language with ‘native-like pronunciation’.[11]

Given the global currency of speaking English, fewer domestic students are choosing to study languages at degree level, with one group of researchers suggesting it could reduce the empathy we feel towards non-native speakers.[12] The English language is full of weird and wonderful quirks that many of us struggle with, and I am full of admiration for anyone who can master it. If you get to study with international students, please see this as a positive and be patient as their cognitive load is likely to be far greater.

Accent Modification

All English speakers modify their speech to some extent depending on the situation. I might over-pronounce my words in lectures, for example, to try and communicate better. This is taken much further in a process called accommodation, when someone deliberately modifies their natural accent in an effort to create a more professional persona. This approach is recommended by Hashi Mohamed, barrister and author of People Like Us: What it Takes to Make it in Modern Britain.[13] Mr Mohamed is a former refugee and describes himself as an accent pragmatist when having to deal with the world ‘as it is, rather than it should be’. The argument goes that if students don’t adapt, they risk ‘disproportionately falling at the first hurdle’.

Author and broadcaster Katie B. Edwards takes a very different view, describing accentism as a ‘social justice issue that’s been long overlooked’ and she is firmly against the idea that people should feel in any way obliged to ‘attempt to ape and perform the attributes’ of those with wealth and status.[14]

The Sutton Trust report’s researchers[15] also advocate against accent modification, on the basis it only serves to maintain the link between standard English speakers and positions of authority and influence. Such de-linking was of course necessary to reduce gender inequality in the legal profession.

It is reassuring to note that younger research participants are much less likely to have negative perceptions of ‘heavy’ or ‘broad’ accents found in places like Birmingham and Liverpool. They also feel less of an obligation to modify their own accents to try and fit in.[16] When not accent training actors for auditions and new roles, elocution coaches insist that their main aim is to help their clients speak clearly. This can be achieved by applying the five Ps of effective public speaking: projection, pronunciation, pace, pitch and the effective use of pauses.

Access to Practice

The role of employability support is crucial when it comes to helping so-called non-traditional students better appreciate potential barriers. When considering why a group of black students were unsuccessful in securing placements, lecturer Iwi Uguiagbe-Green found:

‘…they did not understand the importance of attending networking and promotional events and building network capital during their first year of study – until it was too late. We need an evidence-based, dialogue-based approach to educating students very early on about the importance of such activities.’[17]

Law students should have access to career mentoring, creating opportunities they might not otherwise have to build key connections and start those conversations about their aspirations. ULaw’s legal mentoring scheme is the biggest in the country and we recently matched 400 students with mentors from practice, many of whom are also alumni.

I hope you found this article a useful overview of what is still a controversial issue. You may wish to speak to your own lecturers about any concerns arising from it, but my top tip is to take the initiative and fully benefit from your campus programme of employability and widening participation events. You should also consider any external sources of support. For aspiring solicitors, the Law Society offers a Social Mobility Ambassadors Scheme, details of which can be found on their website.

As a lecturer, I want to help students avoid negative self-regulation of their aspirations. If those inner voices of doubt are threatening to drown out your ambitions, try to avoid comparing yourself to your fellow students and focus on your own development goals. Whilst there is still much work to be done, accentism is clearly on the decline. Make a concerted effort to build your own legal support network and in doing so, you are likely to find a sense of belonging in an increasingly diverse profession.

Clare Wood is a lecturer at The University of Law’s Manchester campus and can be contacted by email at clare.wood@law.ac.uk or connect with her on LinkedIn.

[1] Suzanne Romaine, Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (OUP, 2000)

[2] Pierre Orelus, ‘Other People’s English Accents Matter: Challenging Standard English Accent Hegemony’ The Excellence in Education Journal, volume 9, issue 1 (Winter 2020)

[3] Erez Levon, Deyvani Sharma, Dominic Watt, Amanda Cardoso and Yang Ye, ‘Accent Bias and Perceptions of Professional Competence in the UK’ (IcLaVE10 paper, 26 June 2019)

[4] Article 225-1 of the Penal Code and Article 1132-1 of the Labour Code

[5] Equality Act 2010

[6] Bar Council, ‘Bar Council announces new contextual recruitment tool to boost social mobility at the Bar’, 14 September 2023

[7] Erez Levon, Deyvani Sharma and Christian Ilbury, ‘Speaking Up: Accents and Social Mobility’ (November 2022)

[8] ibid

[9] Allan Briddock, ‘Accent Bias’ Counsel, 23 September 2019

[10] Megan Birney, Anna Rabinovich, Thomas Morton, Hannah Heath and Sam Ashcroft, ‘When Speaking English is Not Enough: The Consequences of Language-Based Stigma for Non-Native Speakers’ Journal of Language and Social Psychology, volume 39 issue 1 (January 2020)

[11] ibid

[12] ibid

[13] Profile Books, 2020

[14] Katie B. Edwards, ‘Putting the Accent on Prejudice’ Medium, 2 August 2021

[15] n 7

[16] Alexander Baratta, ‘Keeping it Real or Selling Out: The Effects of Accent Modification on Personal Identity’ Manchester Institute of Education, volume 7 issue 2 (2016)

[17] Iwi Uguiagbe-Green, ‘We’re failing black students if we don’t talk about recruitment bias’ WonkHE, 30 August 2019