Who speaks “broken English”? US undergraduates’ perceptions of non-native English

This study attempts to discover how native US English speakers construct social categories for people outside the US. A close look at one group's belief system provides insights that can be used in addressing linguistic discrimination, with information on how varieties and features of varieties are perceived. Here 79 US undergraduates labeled maps with descriptions of English spoken by international students, and 208 rated the English of students from 58 countries. Familiarity and socio-political relationships with countries of origin appeared to play a role in responses. Evaluation was often central to description, with a category of stigmatized, often “broken”, English used for all non-native speakers except perhaps (Western) Europeans. Salient subgroups were: negatively evaluated “Chinese” English, somewhat negatively evaluated “Mexican” English, and “harsh” and “guttural” Russian English. Respondents had competing frameworks for classifying Indian and German English. A model of these overlapping categories and implications for addressing linguistic prejudice are suggested.