Do you pepper your English with "innit?" but teach question tags?
Or say "I ain't" but not teach it?
Do you teach textbook Reported Speech but in fact use "then I go"___"" in Real Life.
Do you drop your H's outside the class but not in it?
Are you more rhotic in class than outside? Or less?
Do you pronounce "th" in class and "d" or "t" outside?
In other words, is the English that you teach "your English"? If not, why not?
Do as I say?
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
A few years back some advanced students asked me "Mr Lolwhites, we've noticed that you don't pronounce t and d at the end of a word. Is that correct English?" I said that I was speaking the dialect that they would hear outside if class (I was in the UK at the time) so they would need to understand it, though it would sound odd if they tried to imitate it.
Actually, I hadn't been aware that I was doing it
Actually, I hadn't been aware that I was doing it
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
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I am the same with the famous Canadian "eh?" The students notice it first and then I hear them saying it so in several places in the world you have pockets of "eh?" I wonder what a linguist in the future will have to say about that if it continues. I notice that when my foreign friends visit Canada, they pick it up very easily again.
I usually have the opposite problem in Canada though and people ask if I am from England. They never think that in England though. I think it was because I was born in Victoria, British Columbia which they say is a slice of ol' England.
I usually have the opposite problem in Canada though and people ask if I am from England. They never think that in England though. I think it was because I was born in Victoria, British Columbia which they say is a slice of ol' England.
I do my best to teach my students the English that I myself use. It's for this reason that I try to steer them away from textbook cliches like "I'm fine thank you, and you?" because I can't imagine myself ever saying it. I worry sometimes if I'm too prejudiced towards certain constructions and the like. For instance I teach my children 'must', but only as an aside, instead opting for words like 'should', 'have to', and 'need to'. I just don't hear 'must' very often. I think it just comes down to the fact that we don't have enough time to give them the information on every possible variant, so we have to do what we think is best for them. Seeing as we are all experts and authentic sources on our own variant, I think it's best to stick with that.
Re: Do as I say?
No.JuanTwoThree wrote: In other words, is the English that you teach "your English"?
Dunno.If not, why not?
Sometimes I teach/talk about the differences between what I would say (and I'm pretentious enough to call it what "my generation" would say, as if I speak for all the 25-30 somethings in Canada), what my Grandma would say (and I am quick to point out her preoccupation with her very proper, very dated 'Queen's English'), and what my mother would say (who is a native Australian with all the accompanying slang and intonation). Sometimes I talk about the differences between my 17 year-old brother's speech and my own, which is a similiar kind of comparison.
I have noticed a tendency in myself to try and "de-formalize" my (mostly university-aged Korean and Japanese) students by saying airily, "Oh we don't say that" or, "We don't use that word" or even, "It sounds funny to our ears". By "we" I can only mean the people in my immediate circle who have created the dialect that I speak, which is quite casual, slangy, and pop-culture-ish. I don't use "I", which makes me sound like an ass speaking for the royal "we", probably because "I" doesn't sound authoritative enough. Despicable, and I am trying to catch and stop myself.
I have noticed a tendency in myself to try and "de-formalize" my (mostly university-aged Korean and Japanese) students by saying airily, "Oh we don't say that" or, "We don't use that word" or even, "It sounds funny to our ears". By "we" I can only mean the people in my immediate circle who have created the dialect that I speak, which is quite casual, slangy, and pop-culture-ish. I don't use "I", which makes me sound like an ass speaking for the royal "we", probably because "I" doesn't sound authoritative enough. Despicable, and I am trying to catch and stop myself.
My English?
Hey all.
My students all share more or less the same difficulties in word usage, pronunciation and structural manipulation. They will always speak with a Spanish accent and most of them will only speak English with other non-natives who share more or less the same difficulties or others that will make them speak with an accent.
I do insist on rhythm, liaison and reduction during our endless structural exercises, but when they are improvising, I place more emphasis on communication than on any kind of English.
Soooo, I guess my answer is, no, I don't teach my English, nor Standard English, nor anything of the sort, but rather "spit it out, d@mn it! stop putting pauses between your words! relax! enjoy!"
peace,
revel.
My students all share more or less the same difficulties in word usage, pronunciation and structural manipulation. They will always speak with a Spanish accent and most of them will only speak English with other non-natives who share more or less the same difficulties or others that will make them speak with an accent.
I do insist on rhythm, liaison and reduction during our endless structural exercises, but when they are improvising, I place more emphasis on communication than on any kind of English.
Soooo, I guess my answer is, no, I don't teach my English, nor Standard English, nor anything of the sort, but rather "spit it out, d@mn it! stop putting pauses between your words! relax! enjoy!"
peace,
revel.