Asian American identity question

[Cynthia Dunn]

This may not be exactly what Christina is looking for, but there is a study
by Rubin 1992 ("Nonlanguage factors affecting undergraduates' judgments of
nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants."  Research in Higher
Education 33: 511-31).  Undergrads were played a tape recorded lecture and
shown a picture of either a White woman or an Asian woman.  Some percentage
of those who saw the Asian picture reported that the speaker had a foreign
accent-- there was no such perception among students who heard the same tape
with the White picture.  The really scary thing is that not only did
students who saw the picture of the Asian perceive the speaker as having an
accent-- but they also did worse on a comprehension test of the lecture
material.  Perceived foreigness of the instructor made them learn less
effectively.


Cyndi Dunn
Department of Soc-Anth-Crim
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls IA 50614-0513
Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu