Personality Impressions Elicited by Accented English Speech

Abstract
Eighty students, 40 male and 40 female, listened to tapes of male and female speakers from Australia, Britain, France, Greece, Italy, and Vietnam reading a short English passage. The aim of the study was to determine the impressions of an Australian-born audience to accented English speech and its effect upon judgments of the speakers' personalities. Factor analysis of the personality ratings revealed evaluative and dynamism dimensions. Results indicated an interaction between sex and nationality of speaker on both dimensions. Discussion focused on the combined influence of nationality and sex of speaker in eliciting impressions based on accented voices.

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