Using Speech Analysis to Unmask Perceptual Bias: Dialect, Difference, and Tolerance

Abstract

Students in pre-professional training in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) demonstrate a novice ability to identify their own perceptual biases towards linguistic differences among individuals with English dialects that differ from their own. This paper describes the application of speech analysis software (e.g., Praat) to increase students' ability to discriminate and identify distinct dialectal differences between two dialects of English: Southern-American accented English and Irish-accented English. Students utilized both auditory-perceptual as well as acoustic data to reveal their own perceptual biases. They contextualized their findings by identifying potential cultural influences that were predictive of the accent differences. Students reported that this experience increased their awareness of cultural and linguistic differences and served as a precursor to their development of clinical expertise in determining dialectal difference versus disorder in individuals with potential communication disorders.