Disproving Stereotypes: A Daily Examination of Nonnative Speakers’ Stereotype Threat Experience

Abstract

An estimated 67.3 million people are nonnative English speakers in the US. Research has shown that nonnative English speakers are often perceived to be less competent in communication, less intelligent, and less reliable in English-speaking environments, regardless of their actual capability. Given that English is a common tool for business communication, nonnative English speaker identity is particularly salient in the workplace. As a result, nonnative English speakers have been shown to be less likely to be hired or promoted to managerial positions and more likely to fail to receive funding for their business due to the stigma. Notably, even without actual discrimination, they tend to be afraid of stigmatization and unfair judgements based on their nonnative English speaker identity. Using a theoretical lens of stereotype threat, this paper examined how nonnative English speakers experience the stigma at work and how it affects their daily life. To this end, an experience sampling study of 86 full-time working nonnative English speakers in the US across 10 consecutive workdays was conducted. The results suggest that nonnative English speakers’ daily experience of stereotype threat likely reduces their well-being, but not job performance. The findings help a better understanding of how stereotype threat plays a role in the workplace. Keywords: Nonnative speaker stigma, stereotype threat; resource depletion, experience sampling methods