The Accommodation theory is controversial because individuals tend, consciously or unconsciously, to seek identification with others through language.
In fact, even the most trivial aspects of speech and pronunciation can take on crucial importance, and listeners often detect slight differences and afford them social significance.
A person's speaking style might change due to any number of variables.
For example, when speaking to a nonnative speaker or a child, an individual might speak more slowly or use grammatically simple language.
Accommodation theory, also called accommodative process, attempts to account for the different ways in which speakers may manipulate language to maintain integrity, distance, or identity by unconsciously modifying their language choice, tone, or speech rate to converge or diverge with others' behavior.
Although accommodation theory is considered a sociolinguistic theory, it has been employed in various settings, including public speaking, songwriting, radio broadcasting, courtroom proceedings, and human-computer interaction.
The basic form of accommodation concerns communicators' efforts to make themselves more similar to the target in order to improve communication.
In addition, accommodation theory has to do with how individuals adjust their behaviors to one another, either to become more alike or to exaggerate their differences.
In an L2 (second language) learning environment, accommodation occurs in a wide variety of communication behaviors, including accent, rate, loudness, vocabulary, grammar, register, and so on.
English language learners (ELLs) may demonstrate accommodation to others but not be aware of their own behavior.
Individuals change their speech patterns in various interactions for the purpose of demonstrating that they approve of the other person in the interaction.
In L2 teaching based on accommodation theory, teachers of ELLs make whatever accommodations may be necessary.
This component is sometimes called culturally compatible instruction.