For those of us who grew up in rural areas, attended local schools, and were taught by local teachers, we often never realised how creatively modified our pronunciation was—until we got to university. All along, committee was supposed to be pronounced as commit, or so I thought, until a few of my more “exposed” friends started correcting me. It has been one of the most excruciating journeys of personal growth.
I was fully grounded in my Kamba English—fluent and proud. Then life demanded I learn how to listen to, and speak with people from across the globe. Now, I’m appreciating the human capacity for learning, especially the speed at which we adapt—like learning how to produce words “from the nose.”
Somehow, we are wired to try and match how our counterparts speak. If you’re generally soft-spoken, people tend to mirror that. When conversing with someone with a different accent, we naturally start mimicking them—sometimes without even realising it.
This phenomenon is explained by the Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 1973). It describes our tendency to adjust our communication behaviour while interacting with others. The theory suggests we do this to manage social differences between us and the person we’re interacting with. We accommodate our speech patterns to seek approval, build rapport, and create a positive image (Giles, Coupland, & Coupland, 1991). Even the environment in which we interact can influence how we speak.
Accommodation occurs in three main ways:
- Convergence: Adjusting your communication style to match someone else’s—adopting a similar tone, accent, or pitch. Think of it as verbal empathy.
- Divergence: Intentionally maintaining or exaggerating your speech differences to assert your identity—like putting on your thickest village accent in a posh Nairobi meeting just to make a point.
- Maintenance: Holding firm to your original style of speech, regardless of how the other person talks. It’s a polite way of saying, “This is me. Deal with it.”
A few important notes from the theory:
- While communicating, there will always be similarities and differences in speech and behaviour.
- How a conversation is received depends on how each person perceives the other’s style.
- Language and behaviour often reveal one’s social status and group identity.
- Social norms influence how we accommodate, and these norms vary based on context.
Communication Accommodation Theory is one of those theories that can guide almost all human interactions. It’s usually courteous (and strategic) to attempt convergence. After all, why flex your newly acquired urban accent at a family gathering when you can connect more effectively with your mother tongue English instead?
Especially when communicating between cultures or linguistic groups, if your goal is understanding and connection, then convergence is a helpful approach—as far as it depends on you (Gasiorek & Giles, 2012).
References
Gasiorek, J., & Giles, H. (2012). Accommodation theory. In The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0012
Giles, H. (1973). Accent mobility: A model and some data. Anthropological Linguistics, 15(2), 87–105.
Giles, H., Coupland, N., & Coupland, J. (1991). Contexts of accommodation: Developments in applied sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.