FTCE Guidance and Counseling PK-12 Practice Test

The central idea is bias based on how someone speaks. Linguicism is discrimination grounded in language, dialect, or accent—treating a person unfairly because of the way they use language. A policy that penalties employees for speaking with an accent targets that linguistic characteristic and assigns negative consequences based on it, which is a clear example of linguistic discrimination.

This is different from ageism (bias based on age) and beautyism (bias based on appearance). It’s also not racism, which centers on race or ethnicity. While language can relate to ethnicity, the action described focuses on language itself, making linguicism the best fit.