Intelligibility as nativeness in migrant work and employment
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.18192/olbij.v15i1.7734Mots-clés :
anglais, intelligibilité, migrants, locuteur natif, communication professionnelleRésumé
Cet essai conceptuel explore la manière dont l'intelligibilité sert d'euphémisme pour désigner la nativité en anglais dans le contexte du travail et de l'emploi des migrants. Lorsque l'intelligibilité est considérée comme une caractéristique individuelle, une pratique ou une responsabilité des travailleurs migrants, on attend de ces travailleurs qu'ils imitent un type spécifique de locuteur, ce qui signifie souvent imiter un “locuteur natif anglais” du Nord global. Cette individualisation de l'intelligibilité est facilitée par plusieurs processus sur le lieu de travail, notamment la construction d'une voix professionnelle unique, l'acquisition de compétences en communication orale et la nécessité de répondre aux besoins linguistiques des clients. L'essai se termine par des réflexions sur la manière dont les notions d'intelligibilité doivent être désapprises et réapprises afin de créer une communication professionnelle éthique.
Références
Abodunrin, A., Chan, J., & Maitra, S. (2023). A decolonial perspective on adult immigrant English language training in the Global North. In M. Slowey, H. Hinzen, M. Omolewa, & M. Osborne (Eds.), Adult education and social justice: International perspectives (pp. 135–148). Firenze University Press. https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0253-4.16
Allan, K. (2013). Skilling the self: The communicability of immigrants as flexible labour. In A. Duchêne, M. Moyer, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work (pp. 56–78). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783091010-004
Allan, K., & McElhinny, B. (2017). Neoliberalism, language, and migration. In S. Canagarajah (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of migration and language (pp. 79–101). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315754512-5
Aneesh, A. (2006). Virtual migration: The programming of globalization. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822387534
Aneesh, A. (2015). Neutral accent: How language, labor, and life became global. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822375715
Blommaert, J. (2009). A market of accents. Language Policy, 8(3), 243–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9131-1
Bonfiglio, T. P. (2002). Race and the rise of Standard American. De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110851991
Bourdin, D., Sichtmann, C., & Davvetas, V. (2024). The influence of employee accent on customer participation in services. Journal of Service Research, 27(2), 194–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231171740
Boutet, J. (2012). Language workers: Emblematic figures of late capitalism. In A. Duchêne & M. Heller (Eds.), Language in late capitalism: Pride and profit (pp. 207–229). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203155868-10
Ciuk, S., Śliwa, M., & Harzing, A.-W. (2023). Implementing the equality, diversity, and inclusion agenda in multinational companies: A framework for the management of (linguistic) diversity. Human Resource Management Journal, 33(4), 868–888. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12487
Creese, G. (2010). Erasing English language competency: African migrants in Vancouver, Canada. Journal of International Migration and
Integration, 11(3), 295–313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-010-0139-3
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2015). Pronunciation fundamentals: Evidence-based perspectives for L2 teaching and research. John
Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.42
Doe, C., Douglas, S. R., & Cheng, L. (2025). The entry-level workplace for newcomers: An intercultural space of workplace community and
customer communication. TESL Canada Journal, 42(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v42i2/1429
Eidsheim, N. S. (2019). The race of sound: Listening, timbre, and vocality in African American music. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372646
Flege, J. E., Munro, M. J., & MacKay, I. R. A. (1995). Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(5), 3125–3134. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.413041
Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149
Garbes, L. (2024). Sonic double consciousness: Public radio voices of color. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 12, 677–697.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-024-00215-x
Garbes, L. (2025). Listeners like who? Exclusion and resistance in the public radio industry. Princeton University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691275093
Grover, V., Namasivayam, A., & Mahendra, N. (2022). A viewpoint on accent services: Framing and terminology matter. American Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology, 31(2), 639–648. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00376
Guo, S. (2015). The colour of skill: Contesting a racialised regime of skill from the experience of recent immigrants in Canada. Studies in Continuing Education, 37(3), 236–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037x.2015.1067766
Heller, M., & McElhinny, B. (2017). Language, capitalism, colonialism: Toward a critical history. University of Toronto Press.
Hideg, I., Shen, W., & Koval, C. Z. (2024). Hear, hear! A review of accent discrimination at work. Current Opinion in Psychology, 60,
Article 101906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2024.101906
Highet, K. (2023). “RIP English”: Race, class and ‘good English’ in India. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 33(2), 184–201.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12405
Inoue, M. (2018). Word for word: Verbatim as political technologies. Annual Review of Anthropology, 47, 217–232.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102116-041654
Jeong, H., & Lindemann, S. (2025). Beyond ideologies of nativeness in the intelligibility principle for L2 English pronunciation: A corpus-supported review. System, 129, Article 103599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2025.103599
Kerekes, J., & Sinclair, J. (2023). The role of soft skills in vocational ESL: Their potential to (dis)empower migrant employment seekers. In J. Angouri, J. Kerekes, & M. Suni (Eds.), Language, migration and in/exclusion in the workplace (pp. 122–148). Multilingual Matters.
https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800416956-008
Kim, J. S. (2020). The diversity discourse and language ideologies around international teaching assistants. Critical Discourse Studies, 17(4),
412–428. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2019.1661860
Krysa, I. M., Mills, A., & Barragan, S. (2017). Canadian immigrant guidelines on how to become productive members of society: A postcolonial analysis. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 36(6), 482–500. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2017-0002
Kubota, R., & Lin, A. (2006). Race and TESOL: Introduction to concepts and theories. TESOL Quarterly, 40(3), 471–493.
https://doi.org/10.2307/40264540
Kunz, S. (2020). Expatriate, migrant? The social life of migration categories and the polyvalent mobility of race. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(11), 2145–2162. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1584525
Leidner, R. (1993). Fast food, fast talk: Service work and the routinization of everyday life. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520914643
Levis, J. (2020). Revisiting the intelligibility and nativeness principles. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 6(3), 310–328.
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.20050.lev
Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203348802
Looney, S. D. (2022). Ideology, policy, and potentials for dialogue. The Modern Language Journal, 106(2), 494–498.
https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12789
Macnamara, J. (2018). Toward a theory and practice of organizational listening. International Journal of Listening, 32(1), 1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2017.1375076
Martin, S., & Darnley, O. (2024). The working voice: Vocal health and effective communication. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003361114
Mirchandani, K. (2012). Phone clones: Authenticity work in the transnational service economy. Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9780801450648.001.0001
Motha, S. (2014). Race, empire, and English language teaching: Creating responsible and ethical anti-racist practice. Teachers College Press. https://doi.org/10.65528/9780807772713
Nagai, J., & Everhart, E. K. (2022). Oral proficiency tests, interpretive labor, and the neoliberal university. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 32(3), 543–560. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12374
Neil, E., Worrall, L., Day, A., & Hickson, L. (2003). Voice and speech characteristics and vocal hygiene in novice and professional broadcast
journalists. Advances in Speech Language Pathology, 5(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14417040510001669001
Oram, D. (2021). Decentering listening: Toward an anti-discriminatory approach to accent and dialect training for the actor. Voice and Speech Review, 15(1), 6–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268263.2020.1842455
Padios, J. M. (2018). A nation on the line: Call centers as postcolonial predicaments in the Philippines. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822371984
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press.
Powers, E. (2024a). Performing the news: Identity, authority, and the myth of neutrality. Rutgers University Press. https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978836709
Powers, E. (2024b). “Standard” appearance and “accentless” speech: How performance neutrality limits diversity in broadcast news. Electronic News, 18(4), 196–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/19312431241262697
Rajagopalan, K. (2010). The soft ideological underbelly of the notion of intelligibility in discussions about ‘World Englishes’. Applied Linguistics, 31(3), 465–470. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amq014
Ramjattan, V. A. (2022). Accenting racism in labour migration. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 42, 87–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190521000143
Ramjattan, V. A. (2023). Accent reduction as raciolinguistic pedagogy. In P. Rangan, A. Saxena, R. T. Srinivasan, & P. Sundar (Eds.), Thinking
with an accent (pp. 37–53). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520389748-007
Ramjattan, V. A. (2024). Accent modification and workplace accentism: The institutionalization of linguistic profiling and its career implications. Career Development International, 29(3), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-05-2023-0146
Ramjattan, V. A. (2025). Workable accents: How international teaching assistants vocally fashion and contest academic labor. Bloomsbury
Academic.
Ramjattan, V. A. (2026). Intelligibility and white aurality. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2026.2696085
Rao Hill, S., & Tombs, A. (2011). The effect of accent of service employee on customer service evaluation. Managing Service Quality: An
International Journal, 21(6), 649–666. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521111185637
Schudson, M. (2001). The objectivity norm in American journalism. Journalism, 2(2), 149–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/146488490100200201
Sicola, L. (2014). Pronunciation, perception, and power: Helping non-native English speakers find their voice in the workplace. Voice and Speech Review, 8(2), 207–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268263.2014.906960
Strelluf, C. (2015). “The obligation of newspeople is not only to give the news accurately; it is also to say it correctly”: Production and perception of broadcaster speech. Sociolinguistic Studies, 9(4), 467–491. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v9i4.27039
Urciuoli, B. (2008). Skills and selves in the new workplace. American Ethnologist, 35(2), 211–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00031.x
Téléchargements
Publié-e
Numéro
Rubrique
Licence
© Vijay Ramjattan 2026

Cette œuvre est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Les auteurs qui publient avec Les Cahiers de l'ILOB acceptent les termes suivants:
- Les auteurs conservent le droit d'auteur et accordent à la revue le droit de première publication, l'ouvrage étant alors disponible simultanément, sous la licence Licence d’attribution Creative Commons permettant à d'autres de partager l'ouvrage tout en en reconnaissant la paternité et la publication initiale dans cette revue.
- Les auteurs peuvent conclure des ententes contractuelles additionnelles et séparées pour la diffusion non exclusive de la version imprimée de l'ouvrage par la revue (par ex., le dépôt institutionnel ou la publication dans un livre), accompagné d'une mention reconnaissant sa publication initiale dans cette revue.
- Les auteurs ne soumettront pas simultanément le même travail pour publication à plus d’une revue spécialisée à la fois.