*🎓 *We are happy to announce the next webinar in the CIRCE online
seminar series organized by the CIRCE <https://www.circe-project.eu/>
project in collaboration with DFCLAM University of Siena
<https://www.dfclam.unisi.it/en>, H2IOSC <https://www.h2iosc.cnr.it/>
project and CNR-ILC <https://www.ilc.cnr.it/en/>.
*Dr. Giuliana Regnoli*
/University of Salerno, Italy & University of Regensburg, Germany/
*/Unveiling linguistic bias: Approaches to accent perception and
discrimination/*
đź“… *May 26, 2025*
🕓 *4:40 PM – 5:30 PM (CEST)*
*Venue*: Online
*Attendees*: Secondary school teachers, researchers, language instructors
*Summary: *Accent discrimination remains one of the most pervasive forms
of linguistic bias, influencing social perceptions, identity
construction, and attitudes towards language variation. This talk
examines how accents shape linguistic hierarchies and social
interactions, drawing on three research projects that employ distinct
methodologies. First, we will explore how folk linguistic methods, such
as map-drawing tasks, reveal nuanced spatial dimensions of language
attitudes, challenging homogenising conceptualisations of World
Englishes. This will be illustrated through a study on how a
first-generation Indian diasporic community in Germany perceives and
evaluates accent variation in Indian English. We will then turn to
traditional language attitude research methods, focusing on
questionnaire data to investigate overt stigmatisations and highlighting
the importance of scale validation in direct attitude measurement. This
discussion will be grounded in a pilot study on Italian university
students’ direct attitudes towards English in Italy and their
perceptions of Italian English. Finally, we will examine language
attitudes in primary education in Cameroon, emphasising the importance
of understanding children’s language perceptions within broader
ideological frameworks. This analysis draws on data from parental and
children’s questionnaires, as well as semi-structured interviews with
children. By shedding light on early linguistic gatekeeping and its role
in decolonising language education, this study also explores when and
how these beliefs become embedded in society. Taken together, these
projects demonstrate how different methodological approaches can be
employed to investigate attitudes towards accents and linguistic
variation, ultimately providing insights into how we can better
understand and tackle accent discrimination.
*Bio*: Dr. Giuliana Regnoli is assistant professor of English
linguistics at the University of Salerno and a postdoctoral research
fellow at the University of Regensburg. Her research interests include
variationist sociolinguistics, sociophonetics, language attitudes,
perceptual dialectology, and World Englishes. She is currently working
on children's English in Cameroon and Italian university students'
attitudes toward English(es) world-wide.
Upcoming webinars:
- Clara Molina (Monday, June 30, 2025)
- Sender Dovchin (Monday, July 7, 2025)
- Christian Ilbury (Monday, September 22, 2025)
The seminar is free of charge, but participants must register. To access
this and next events, you should create an account on theH2IOSC Training
Environment
<https://h2iosc-training-platform.ilc4clarin.ilc.cnr.it/registration>.
Once logged in with your credentials, choose the course “Language and
Accent Discrimination - Online Seminar Series” and activate it with the
code PbK837GtE. Make sure to have the Teams platform installed.
The registrations of the previous CIRCE Seminars are also available on
the H2IOSC Training Environment. For any inquiry, write to
[email protected].
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