I wish the full article were freely available, but there are some studies such as this one that suggest that the situation is not quite so cut-and-dry: http://

I wish the full article were freely available, but there are some studies such as this one that suggest that the situation is not quite so cut-and-dry: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V7R-469PK1T-V&_user=10&_coverDate=12/31/1990&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1508492034&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=c9b52a5ab1fbcdb7a20a6c357cf59f34&searchtype=a http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi... The basic result is that the belief that foreigners are hard to understand leads students to perceive them as poor lecturers. For example, if you play the same recorded lecture to a group of students, their perception of how easy it was to understand is affected by whether you project an image of a Caucasian or Indian/Chinese 'lecturer' at the front of the room.