Accent Discrimination and the Test of Spoken English: A Call for an Objective Assessment of the Comprehensibility of Nonnative Speakers

Abstract

Immigrants to the United States have been a source of national pride, but also the object of national prejudice. At times, employers have used claims of "unintelligible English" to deny jobs to accented, but otherwise qualified, applicants. However, these claims may be mere pretense to discrimination based on national origin, a violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In such cases, courts must make a judgment about an individual's comprehensibility, and thus, his or her qualifications. These determinations are subjective and highly vulnerable to the sways of prejudice. In this Comment, the author calls for the use of an objective test to determine the comprehensibility of an individual's speech. She offers the Test of Spoken English, a standardized test administered nationwide by the Educational Testing Service, as a tool available to both parties and the courts in accent discrimination litigation.