Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello people

I am new here, I am Brazilian and a EFL teacher. As far as pronunciation is concerned, I always try to force my self to reach at least an almost native-speaker pronunciation, for Brazilian Portuguese has fewer vowels sounds than English some words like least and list can bear the same pronunciation (for we do not distinguish from i: to I).

I'd like to know from native and non-native teachers of English to what extend the learning acquisition of English is compromised by some foreign accents (Lots of non-native teachers have never been abroad in an English-speaking country) and even the ones who have, there can still be some interference of their mother tongue(s), what do you think? Please reply.

Metamorfose

Metamorfose wrote:I'd like to know ... to what extent the learning acquisition of English is compromised by foreign accents ...

This is an interesting question. I think it's perfectly reasonable for NN (non native) teachers to teach their local people with a NN accent. Obviously, a NN teacher is unlikely to have a perfect native accent, but it's true that there are lots of native accents and very few native teachers have the 'standard' accent. There are dozons of different accents in the UK.

In my opinion, both NN and native teachers should use recordings of diverse accents so that the learners can learn to understand the different accents. One episode of "Friends" used a Swedish English accent and later a Scottish English accent of part of the humor. To get the joke to have to be able to hear the difference.

Whether students should be able to produce a standard native accent is another question. I'd tend vote for "no".

Iain