Job Discussion Forums

[Wonderful Yunqi!!]

Which style of English should we be facilitating? UK, US, AU, CN, NZ, SA or India style?

I'm not too sure about how to work the poll feature; feel free to help me if you do or at least share your thoughts.

I few years ago I read somewhere that the largest percentage of English speakers hail from India. I'm not quite sure if they would be labeled native-speakers, but, if you have an AOL problem or visit Hong Kong, Indians will abound.

As for pronunciation, the people from Holland speak better/clearer than me.

I'm putting my long-term money on India. Money talks and bullshit walks, sweetheart.

Arise and shine Zhongguo, your time has come. I'm curious about will happen and hope to see India rule the world.

Antagonist or thought provoker?

Yunqi

[Zero]

Indians are not native English speakers. The most educated may seem that way sometimes because they have near-native grammar and vocabulary, but the level drops of quickly among more average citizens. And highly-educated Indians are a very, very tiny minority of the country's population.

[kungfucowboy83]

one way of looking at it is the largest population of native english speakers is the USA. And the biggest consumer of chinese goods is the USA so learning to understand american accented english is the best choice.

the above is what lots of schools think. IMO they should have a good enough grasp of english that that they can understand many different accents as english is offten used as an international language by two non native speakers. so if you an only understand 1 accent then you are not nearly as useful to a company as someone who can understand english spoken by people from many different places.

and to be fair a think southern us accent can be as hard to understand as a thick indian accent.

[bearcanada]

This is a good thread topic.

To my best knowledge, Western Canadians are the only native English speakers in the world who have no accent. Their speech is neutral.

Americans living in the US Northwest and along the West Coast tend to have minor accents. The US Midwest has a nasal twang that can be so unbearable that hunting licenses should be issued. The North American East Coast (US and Canada) have what we call a New York accent, one which varies along the coast from tolerable to gawdawful. The US South is in a class by itself.

There are parts of the US where I have difficulty understanding what I'm being told. The same goes for parts of Australia, which can range from ok to incomprehensible.

The UK has a wide range of accents. Those from places like Cambridge or Oxford tend to be minor and quite pleasant. Others are not. London is not always pleasant or easily understood.

North of London, I sometimes cannot understand a single damned word. The same is true in parts of Scotland. Ireland has a lovely lilt to the language; I wouldn't want my students to copy it, but I find it lovely to listen to.

Indian English is mostly laughable. Some is downright abominable. Many English sounds are too difficult for Indians to reproduce unless they learned the language at an early age. South Africa has its own accent which is always recognisable but not horrid.

It is of course correct to say that students must learn to understand many of the regional speech variants in order to have real fluency in English. On the other hand, teaching them to speak with a (US or other) regional accent is hardly sensible.

The best speech pattern for students is one with a neutral accent. That way, at least everyone will understand you - which is one half of a conversation.

I have had Chinese students from mid-north-east China with their regional accents and pronunciation difficulties, go to Australia to study. I'm guessing when they combine their existing speech difficulties with an Aussie accent, only the sheep will be able to understand them.

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[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[arioch36]

Bear

[bearcanada]

arioch, that was a wonderful post. Thanks for taking the time......


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[Lorean]

It doesn't matter.

You should teach whichever dialect is native to you.

[samhouston]

[Kram]

If the ESL/EFL world were a democracy, would we all have to speak like GWBush? Would Irvine Welsh�s Trainspotting have the same impact in RP English? Should Schindler's list never have been published or made into a film because it was written by an Australian? What about dumbing down Louis de Berni�res� work because of �prolixity�? What drugs were Chaucer on? Why can�t he write in �normal� English, dude? If he did, it�d be cool with all that redemption and stuff. It's like just too hard to read!

I have a weakness for the Irish accent, authors and women and think it would be a tragedy for all English language teachers to have the same pronunciation, but I also think that regional accents should be toned down and softened �a tad�. Presumably, it depends on the goal of the course. Should Ebonics, as an extreme example, be taught to students preparing for study in Manchester or Melbourne? I'm not a big fan of teaching the meanings of words such as 'badonkadonk', although 'Modern English', in China, may disagree.

I rarely have trouble understanding �different� English accents and in a perfect world I�d hope students and teachers of the English language would have an ability to appreciate various nuances of English. I�ve also found an ability to understand varying accents is common amongst/among other �natives� (with the exception of the occasional �American English� speaker � I stress �occasional� and this has been admitted by posters on this forum).

My solution is simple. I suggest the universal adoption of the US �Southern belle� sound and propose that all English language students are taught to speak like Scarlett O�Hara from Gone with the Wind.

[Lorean]

[VelaenOscuridad]

[Henry_Cowell]

[jwbhomer]

I maintain there IS no "neutral" accent. Western Canadians have a slightly more midwest American accent than those of us from Ontario. Example: the "pro" in "progress" and "project". I wonder if Bear says "pro" or "praw".

[samhouston]