Job Discussion Forums

[leeroy]

"Marie" (let's call her...), has a truly scary command of English. She's Belgian, and is fluent in French, Spanish, Dutch and (evidently) English. Thus, I was perplexed as to what I could teach her (and severall others of equal linguistic competence) in a Friday "vocabulary and grammar" class.

One subject did come up though...

"Leeroy" they asked me, somewhat irritated by the bizarre and mostly useless 'alliterative expressions' lesson we'd just finished (How many times have you used the word "pitter-patter" in your life?), "What language do black people in London speak?"

It was a bit of a silly question (after all black people, much like white, yellow and blue people speak a variety of languages, in London, and everywhere else) - but I think I understood what they meant.

Especially in South London, there are creole dialects of English (and, some might argue, different languages altogether) in use; although they are in varying states of assimilation into British dialects. Where I live there is a great deal of Patois, or "Jamaican English". On a good day I can pick up the gist of a Patois conversation. While I (like most others) am daunted by Glasweigan Scottish accents sometimes, I'm not generally phased by Scottish accents too much. Similarly I have rarely had trouble understanding Irish accents, or Indian ones (when speaking English, at least!).

But my students? However great their Standard English is, their knowledge and awareness of other, "non-standard" accents and dialects is appalling. This isn't their fault - the majority of English Language Teaching materials are focused on Standard Englishes, as is the majority of English-langauge media.

"Cool!" I thought, "We can go over non-standard accents and dialects of English". Is this the next step for ultra-advanced students, after the familiar ladder of "standard pronunciation, lexis and grammar" has been climbed?

I've never thought about the explicit presentation of phonological variances in English (apart from the UK-US thing), and am having a hard time finding it on the internet. As an example, though...

(Looking from a "Standard Southern British English" viewpoint...)

The /au/ phoneme in Northern Irish is converted to more of an /ai/ - "Now" in NI roughly rhymes with "Why" in SSBE.

The voiced fricative "th" in Jamaican English often changes to a plosive "d", while the unvoiced changing to a "t" - thus "them things" becomes "dem tings". I've heard this with Irish sometimes as well...

With Australian accents, /ei/ seems also to push towards an /ai/ - though not the whole way. "Day" in Sydney sounds a little like "Die" in London.

Canadians seem (comically to us, anyway) to abandon the /au/ diphthong for more of an /u:/ - "Out and about" sounds like "oot and aboot".

South Africans seem to move toward an /I/ in their /ae/ short vowel, we all remember the Lethal Weapon II quote... "But.... you're blick!"

Indians roll their "r"s, Kiwis say "six" to rhyme with "sucks".

C.ockney and Estaury English speakers sometimes change /au/ for more of an /aa/ - "My house" becomes "my aas" - alarmingly close the American "My ass".

People from Newcastle (N. England) will say "fookin' 'ell" when they are surprised.

All of the above isn't anything that I've studied per se (and, indeed, many might disagree with my observations) - it's just off the top of my head. So, questions...

Do you think there is value in looking at non-standard dialects (and, specifically, their phonological features)?

Are there any internet (read: free) resources which provide much more comprehensive lists of phonological aspects of various English accents?

If not, any good books about the subject?

In terms of class structure and activities, how might you present such things?

[Gordon]

If you have advanced enough students (it sounds like you do) and they are interested, I say teach it. Sounds like it could be fun. The best way, I think would be to present these accents from authentic speakers, please not your rendition (we don't say oot and aboot) from an audiotape or videotape (ideal). The students can try to decipher what was said and then discuss some of the phonlogical differences in the accents.
Sorry I don't know where you could get it, I'm sure it would be out there somewhere.

[Celeste]

There is a book that I used to use called Discussions A to Z advanced that had listening sections with a variety of English speakers both native and non- native. I think another good way to introduce your students to different accents is to use "real" materials such as documentary films. In Canada, I liked using THe Nature of Things because they often went all over the world and we could hear a wide variety of accents (not to mention high level vocabulary!). You might also try looking for acting/ dialect coaching materials from a drama school or university drama department. They often do dialect coaching for actors, and you might be able to pick up some pointers.

(By the way, we in Canada merely emphasize the second half of the dipthong in the word out so that the first part is quick and less stressed. OOT indeed! )

[dyak]

[Roger]

I don't think a teacher's role is to present each and every variety of speech, lexis, dialect or pronunciation; he ought to guide his students, no more and no less than that. To tell students "these are the known varieties" presupposes the teacher KNOWS all existing ones. Are we supposed to be encylcopedias?

I guess your students could benefit a lot from direct exposure to those non-standard varieties. WHy not listen to a VCD or a tape that has dialogues in Jamaican English? Orread a great novel by an author that uses ethnically-coloured English?
The students will enjoy that a lot better, and they will turn to you for help in interpreting problematic expressions.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[Chris_Crossley]

[Buraimi]

If you've "done it all" in terms of lexis and grammar (I've never found myself in that enviable position), I might start working on discourse analysis. I guess where to go next would be determined by what your students need. If you don't already know, I would find out what they hope to do with the language and go from there.

If your students actually want and need to understand all of the accents they hear in a city like London, by all means work on that. Could be a bit tricky to get your hands on such a myriad of *authentic* samples, though. Personally, I wouldn't try to reproduce them myself. I might also try to avoid passing judgement on the way other people speak. (BTW, I don't hear the "oot/aboot" thing, either, but maybe that's part of it. The Canadian raising in "ice" and "eyes" is a different story.)