Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello

Some teachers here have a kind of concensus that you must choose one pattern of accent to teach beginners, so if one chooses General American model, this teacher should carry on with "American" based textbooks and tapes and the same goes for "British" ( I know that this is too much of simplification dividing English into "American" and "British", but I'm only doing this for that's not my point here.)

My question is, I know that few are the foreigners who have never been abroad (like me!) who are capable of reaching native speaker accent, so is that so terrible for students listen to their teachers with one standard (I have choosen Southern English as a model.) and the material they have with a different standard (American for instance)?

Thanks

José

I try to vary the accents my students hear. By the way I talk...the materials I use...guests to the classroom...media tools...etc.

How do we know what are students will do with what we teach them...or where they will go...and who they will meet.

Imagine yourself in your students shoes. Your teacher only teaches one way of speaking...American accent for example. After you "learn" English...you go to England to visit a friend. You are going to have to do some work to learn some new stuff.

I do what I can to teach them various forms and accents as I go.

IMHO...and two cents worth...

Your Friend In Brazil,

David A. Bailey, Jr

Hey all!

Please see the essays I have written on pronunciation in this thread.

peace,
revel.