How Do Three Immigrant Women From Former Yugoslavia Perceive the Role of Accent in Intelligibility and Comprehensibility in the Canadian Workplace?

Recent trends in language instruction have begun to shift away from achieving a native-like accent and towards a focus on intelligibly and comprehensibility. However, a subset of learners continues to feel discriminated against due to their perceived foreign accents. This may be a result of a listener bias towards familiar accents. Learners may feel the pressure to adhere to a native-like linguistic fluency that is nearly impossible for some to achieve. The following ethnographic feminist study examines the impact of perceived foreign accent on the professional career of adult immigrant women in a Canadian context. The study is ethnographic in that it centres around three adult immigrant women and their challenges in acquiring English as an additional language in Canada. It is feminist to the extent that it gives a voice to the women being studied, as well as taking a qualitative approach to exploring their stories. Interviews are used to create a narrative of the experiences that the participants have undergone since their arrival to Canada. The study addresses the question, how do three immigrant women from former Yugoslavia perceive the role of accent in intelligibility and comprehensibility in the Canadian workplace?