I hear you, I see you, I know who you are

Abstract

The present study investigated the attitudes of long-time residents of Quebec City towards French Lx economic immigrants settling into their community. We evaluated the speech of four linguistic groups (English, Spanish, Mandarin and Farsi) using the verbal-guise methodology. Listeners were presented with 10 audio-only stimuli (1 male and 1 female speakers from each group and 2 distractors) and 10 combined audio-visual stimuli (1 male and 1 female Quebec French speakers associated with photographs from our target language groups). After hearing each excerpt, listeners rated the speakers on their perceived characteristics. Results showed that the combined stimuli were evaluated more favorably than the audio-only stimuli. We also found that female voices were significantly better evaluated than those of men. Last, listeners showed preferences towards Spanish and Farsi groups over English and Mandarin, and specifically towards female voices. The evaluations thus seem to reflect past and present stereotypes circulating in the community.