What does this research mean for the field?

Current communication assessments in health professions education often implicitly penalize linguistic diversity by conflating professionalism with dominant linguistic norms, necessitating a shift toward evaluating comprehensibility and cross-linguistic adaptability. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.SYNTHESIS. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.CHALLENGES_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To critically reappraise communication assessment across health professions education using a sociolinguistic lens and examine how linguistic norms bias evaluations of clinical competence.

September 8, 2026Teaching and Learning in Medicine

Whose Voice Sounds Professional? Accent, Fluency, and the Politics of Communication Assessment in Health Professions Education

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Authors

WJWaseem JerjesHammersmith Hospital

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Implication

Critical review reveals implicit linguistic bias in health professions assessments, highlighting the need to prioritize comprehensibility over accent conformity.

Key Points

To critically reappraise communication assessment across health professions education using a sociolinguistic lens and examine how linguistic norms bias evaluations of clinical competence.
Synthesized recent literature across medical education, sociolinguistics, and healthcare delivery regarding communication assessment tools, including bedside evaluations, OSCEs, and narrative reviews.
Analyzed the divergence between accent, comprehensibility, multilingual proficiency, and patient-centered communication outcomes.
Controlled experimental studies did not demonstrate uniform scoring penalties for isolated accents, though sociolinguistic evidence shows accent functions as a proxy for race in impressionistic and narrative evaluations.
Evidence from clinical encounters showed improved patient care relies on comprehensibility, verified multilingual skills, and effective interpreter collaboration rather than conformity to dominant linguistic norms.

Cite This Study

Waseem Jerjes (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9fd83b58e84d0ff5b47941 https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2026.2726321

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Implication

Critical review reveals implicit linguistic bias in health professions assessments, highlighting the need to prioritize comprehensibility over accent conformity.

Whose Voice Sounds Professional? Accent, Fluency, and the Politics of Communication Assessment in Health Professions Education

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Whose Voice Sounds Professional? Accent, Fluency, and the Politics of Communication Assessment in Health Professions Education

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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