An employer must show a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for denying an employment opportunity because of an individual's accent or manner of speaking. Whether the denial is illegal will depend on the qualifications of the person, the nature of the position, and whether the employee's accent or manner of speaking harmed, or would harm, job performance. Requiring employees or applicants to be fluent in English may violate Title VII if the rule is adopted to exclude individuals of a particular national origin and is not related to job performance. For more information about language discrimination, please see our language discrimination page.