Speaking Ebonics in a Professional Context: The Role of Ethos/Source Credibility and Perceived Sociability of the Speaker

Within a theoretical context of speech accommodation theory, this study follows Lambert et al.‘s (1960) “matched-guise” technique. Seventy-two African-American students at a mid-south university listened to and evaluated a tape-recorded excerpt of a speech given by Jesse Jackson at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. The first version of the speech was translated into Ebonics. After students listened to the first four-minute speech in Ebonics, students then proceeded to answer a questionnaire concerning the ethos/source credibility and perceived sociability of the speaker. Next, students listened to the same audiotaped speech (given by the same speaker), except the text of the speech was translated (and subsequently delivered) in Standard English. The students then rated this second speaker on those same ethos/source credibility and sociability scales. The speaker who used Standard English was viewed as more credible (i.e., more competent and having a strong character) and sociable than the Ebonics speaker. Both of these scores were significant at the p .05 level. Future research replicating these results is urged across other African-American samples.

[1]  D. Hymes.  Models of the Interaction of Language and Social Setting , 1967 .

[2]  Smitherman Geneva,et al.  Black English and the education of black children and youth , 1982 .

[3]  K. Strongman,et al.  Stereotyped reactions to regional accents. , 1967, The British journal of social and clinical psychology.

[4]  H. Giles.  Communicative effectiveness as a function of accented speech , 1973 .

[5]  F. Heider.  The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[6]  Donald M. Taylor,et al.  Dimensions of welsh identity , 1977 .

[7]  W. Cheyne.  Stereotyped Reactions to Speakers with Scottish and English Regional Accents , 1970 .

[8]  B Arthur,et al.  Evaluation Reactions of College Students to Dialect Differences in the English of Mexican-Americans , 1974, Language and speech.

[9]  Donald M. Taylor,et al.  Dimensions of Ethnic Identity: An Example from Northern Maine , 1976 .

[10]  Ellen Bouchard Ryan,et al.  Evaluative reactions of adolescents toward speakers of standard English and Mexican American accented English. , 1975 .

[11]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  Ethos and credibility: The construct and its measurement after three decades , 1981 .

[12]  J. L. Dillard.  Black English; Its History and Usage In the United States , 1973 .

[13]  W. Doise,et al.  Evaluation of Accent Convergence and Divergence in Cooperative and Competitive Intergroup Situations , 1976 .

[14]  H. Giles.  Patterns of evaluation to R.P., South Welsh and Somerset accented speech. , 1971, The British journal of social and clinical psychology.

[15]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  One on one: The foundations of interpersonal communication , 1986 .

[16]  H. Triandis.  Cognitive Similarity and Communication in a Dyad , 1960 .

[17]  N. Segalowitz.  Communicative incompetence and the non-fluent bilingual. , 1976 .

[18]  D. Rutter,et al.  The role of visual communication in synchronising conversation , 1977 .

[19]  Wallace E. Lambert,et al.  White and Negro Listeners' Reactions to Various American-English Dialects , 1969 .

[20]  H. Clark,et al.  In cognitive development and the acquisition of language , 1973 .

[21]  D. Katz.  THE FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF ATTITUDES , 1960 .

[22]  E. E. Jones,et al.  From Acts To Dispositions The Attribution Process In Person Perception1 , 1965 .

[23]  W. Lambert,et al.  SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF ACCOMMODATING ONE’S STYLE OF SPEECH: A CROSS-NATIONAL INVESTIGATION , 1975 .

[24]  J. Baugh.  Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival , 1985 .

[25]  H. Giles,et al.  Speech style and social evaluation , 1975 .

[26]  S. Fillenbaum,et al.  Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. , 1960, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[27]  R. Fasold.  J. L. Dillard, Black English: its history and usage in the United States . New York: Random House, 1972. , 1975, Language in Society.

[28]  D. Byrne.  Attitudes and Attraction , 1969 .

[29]  Ellen Bouchard Ryan,et al.  EVALUATIVE REACTIONS OF BILINGUAL ANGLO AND MEXICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS TOWARD SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH AND SPANISH , 1975 .

[30]  L. D. Turner,et al.  Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect , 1950 .

[31]  Jean Berko Gleason,et al.  CODE SWITCHING IN CHILDREN'S LANGUAGE , 1973 .

[32]  Attribution Processes and Interpersonal Accommodation in a Bilingual Setting , 1976, Language and speech.

[33]  C. Berger,et al.  SOME EXPLORATIONS IN INITIAL INTERACTION AND BEYOND: TOWARD A DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION , 1975 .

[34]  G. Miller,et al.  Between people: A new analysis of interpersonal communication , 1975 .

[35]  Edward Finegan,et al.  Attitudes Toward English Usage: The History of a War of Words , 1980 .

[36]  Robert N. St. Clair,et al.  Language and social psychology , 1981 .

[37]  The development of attitudes toward dialect in Italian children , 1977 .

[38]  James C. McCroskey,et al.  An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication , 1971 .

[39]  H. Giles.  Evaluative Reactions to Accents. , 1970 .

[40]  J R Edwards,et al.  Students' Reactions to Irish Regional Accents , 1977, Language and speech.

[41]  S. McMahon,et al.  Some African-American perspectives on Black English vernacular , 1992, Language in Society.

[42]  H. Giles,et al.  SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF ACCOMMODATING ONE’S STYLE OF SPEECH: A CROSS-NATIONAL INVESTIGATION , 1975 .

[43]  H. Tajfel,et al.  Classification and quantitative judgement. , 1963, British journal of psychology.

[44]  G. C. Homans,et al.  Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. , 1975 .