Speaking Out About How We Speak

35% of university students feel self-conscious about their accent. 33% of university students are worried their accent could affect their ability to succeed in the future. A whopping 56% of university students from the north of England have had their accent mocked in a social setting.^[1]Erez Levon, Devyani Sharma and Christian Ilbury (2022) ‘Speaking up: Accents and social mobility’, Sutton Trust. This fundamentally class-based discrimination cannot continue. On the evening of 23^rd November 2023, a group of students from the 93% Club Edinburgh and Tackling Elitism and academics from the Universities of Edinburgh and Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University spoke out, at the event ‘Speaking Out: Tackling Accent Bias at an Elite University’. We were in a large lecture hall, and it was full. Energy was high, and the bumper stickers scattered on the tables emblazoned with the slogan ‘I ❤️ My Accent’ immediately set us up for an empowering evening. 

Professor Julia Snell of the University of Leeds (hailing from Middlesbrough) took us right back to primary school. It is there, she argues, that the tools for university study are developed. We can trace a direct line from pupil participation in classroom discussion before the age of 11, to students engaging in university seminars or setting out their ideas in an analytical and evaluative way. The problem, she notes, is that not all school settings are equal in terms of dialogic exchange in class. In her fieldwork she has seen a shared belief in schools that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds need a ‘stricter’ style of teaching (‘no excuses’ and ‘grit’ approaches), with more behaviour management and controlling of speech. Fewer dialogic opportunities are given to pupils in lower SES schools, leading to lower attainment and, ultimately, lack of preparation for university study. The class inequalities are embedded very early in education. 

Dr Ian Cushing from MMU told us about spoken language and social injustice. He showed us that deficit perceptions of language (the individual is doing something wrong that needs to be changed) are baked into teaching policy. The Department of Education 2013 Teachers’ Standards include upholding ‘the correct use of standard English’, and through Ofsted requirements teachers are positioned as language police. These deficit models put the onus on the individual, and they are essentially models of assimilation. They expect the tweaking of one characteristic to counteract structural injustices. Cushing, on the other hand, urges us to dismantle the structure. As he put it, ‘our focus should not be on what marginalised speakers do, but on what powerful listeners do’. It’s not on us – it’s on them. 

But for me, the best bit of the event was hearing from the students. Grace Mai Clark, President of the 93% Club Edinburgh, spoke passionately and convincingly (not that I needed convincing!). Sophia Blum from the 93% Club and Claire Allison from Tackling Elitism also shared their experiences in the panel discussion. They are making demands, and making waves. Their ‘State School Proud’ campaign is running for the second year, and they are using the momentum to introduce mandatory training for academic staff that specifically deals with classism and accent discrimination. Class, accent and language may not be protected characteristics according to the Equality Act 2010, but these groups are making strides towards protecting them. 

In January this year, our Class in Classics survey closed with 1206 responses. We are now producing a report that sets out the demographics in our discipline, and gathers the experiences of respondents. The data we gathered clearly shows that we have a leaky pipeline, with numbers of working-class classicists dwindling as we go up the academic ladder – and that class background significantly compounds other axes of inequality (in particular disability but also gender and race), making it paramount that we include class in any intersectional EDI agenda. Participants shared their experiences of class-based discrimination, of classist slurs, of exclusionary practices, of demands to ‘catch up’ and ‘fit in’ (the deficit or assimilation model Ian Cushing talked about). A theme that came up again and again was accent. 

“It feels isolating when all your lecturers are Oxbridge educated with RP accent and practically all your fellow students went to either grammar or independent schools where they received a Classics education prior to coming to university”

“The experience of (and fallout from) giving talks, papers, and lectures in a regional accent is worth commenting on. Students have approached me to ask where I’m from, what school I went to (in critical tones). At conferences I have been approached by academics expressing surprise that my research should be presented in such an accent. The experience has been so persistent and pernicious that I have toned down my accent considerably – this has an impact both on my own identity, and on what is perceived as acceptable in the workplace. We need to push back on this – it has a huge effect on working-class academics.”

“My department does not suffer from a profusion of extremely posh academics, however, its members are uniformly solidly middle class. No one from a British background has a regional accent (for example), and all move through the world with the ease and comfort of class.”

“In recruitment processes: people being treated differently because of their accents.”

“I was told it was acceptable and correct for parents to query my accent since I was teaching a language.” 

“When I took my students from Liverpool to an Oxbridge talk one of the professors failed to understand my student’s question (their accent was not very strong) and then said ‘we would like some more of you people to apply’. To this day I’m not sure if they meant because she was northern, poor or female.” 

The north-south divide is particularly evident in Classics because of the regional concentration of Classics teaching in schools. Participants noted that this divide is intensifying as ‘Classics poverty’ in the north increases.^[2]Steven Hunt and Arlene Holmes-Henderson (2021) ‘A level Classics poverty. Classical subjects in schools in England: access, attainment and progression’, CUCD Bulletin 50. This has led to an image of the ‘true’ classicist: who is (upper) middle-class southern English, and sounds like it. Regional accents are therefore criticised or mocked, and those who do not conform to the model are made to feel like imposters. Those with regional accents feel compelled to tone their accents down, or they are pushed out altogether. Especially worrying is that the idea of ‘fit’ has been used in job appointment procedures, with search committees dismissing candidates who do not adhere to what they see as the image of a proper classicist. If you don’t have the right accent, you don’t get the job. 

What can we do about all this? Embracing diversity in the student body and workplace must include class diversity. This includes welcoming regional accents (and, as demographics change, hopefully hearing more of them). The Sutton Trust gives us some concrete recommendations: 

• Action to tackle accent bias should be seen as an important diversity issue in the workplace. Efforts to tackle accent bias should be part of a wider strategy within organisations to improve socio-economic diversity of the workforce, and instances of accent discrimination should be taken seriously by employers. 
• Recruiters should undergo training to help to reduce any accent biases. Luckily for Edinburgh, the 93% Club are on this!
• Employers should aim to have a range of accents within their organisation, and not require or encourage their employees to adopt Received Pronunciation. Permitting a greater diversity of accent types in schools, universities, and professions will eventually break the association of particular, middle-class voices with professional authority. 
• There should be no implicit expectation within the workplace that professionalism is signalled by sounding like a person from a certain region, socio-economic background, or who has had a public school education. 
• Action to tackle accent biases and prejudice should take into account work-associated social settings. Accent-related commentary and mockery are highest in social settings, and this can compromise a person’s sense of belonging in a given professional or educational community.
• Remember that managing accent differences and accent bias is not solely the responsibility of the speaker. ‘Allies’ should point out accent bias within the workplace wherever they see it. 

It hasn’t been easy to ❤️ your own accent at university, and particularly in Classics. Hearing so many different accents in one lecture hall that evening: it was a first. It was refreshing. And I’d like to think, if we continue speaking out, it’s the future.