Accents and Regionalities in the classroom

[LarryLatham]

Thanks, Joanne!
Quite interesting.

Larry Latham

[dduck]

However, I think Larry's comment about listening with care is connected to what I was trying to say. I still feel some native speakers, of various nationalities, are guilty of not trying to understand, especially when they have rigid ideas about how English should sound. Instead, they place all the responsibility of being understood on the speaker.

This is another spin on the prescriptive versus descriptive argument that often raised on the topic of grammar. I'm a paid up member of the descriptive club! I teach students English so that they're able to deal with the language that everyday living throws at them. I certainly don't advocate ONE accent, ONE grammar, ONE lanugage. I am one of those screaming liberals who insist on diversity, and freedom of expression. For me, it's part of being Scottish

Iain

[marukosu]

I think pronunciation and accent should be NEUTRAL, and not be tinged by any regionalism or national characteristics.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, who knows? ), there's no "neutral," since there's no particular place where English 'began.'

It might be possible to agree on a standard English, but let's hope that linguistics studies have progressed far enough now that we wouldn't give such an arbitrary accent undue legitimacy. And anyway, even where such standards to a great extent already exist, such as, for instance, American "TV English", they haven't had any effect whatsoever on the local populations. Texans still speak like Texans and Bostonians, Bostonians, despite the fact that they are all listening to a 'standard' English for too many hours a day.

P.S.: As for the Canadian "eh," I must say that mine has morphed quite nicely into a Japanese "ne"...

[Sunpower]

Dialects are not good or bad, nice or nasty, right or wrong - they are just different from one another, and it is the mark of a civilised society that it tolerates different dialects just as it tolerates different races, religions and sexes

P. Trudgill

Yeah, I know what you mean about some of the Japanese being very fussy.

I've seen many students specifically request a British instructor because they preferred to be taught by an instructor with a British accent.

However, often these same students couldn't tell the difference between and Australian, Canadian or American accent.

Here in Taiwan the "North American" accent is advertised as a requirement for most teaching gigs.

I'm from Western Canada and have been told on the phone that as long as I'm not Black, the school would be interested in me.

[Lorikeet]

Yeah, I know what you mean about some of the Japanese being very fussy.
<snip>
I'm from Western Canada and have been told on the phone that as long as I'm not Black, the school would be interested in me.

Sigh. The world has a long way to go.

[sita]

as long as I'm not Black, the school would be interested in me....

Wow that is terribly discriminating...

I once had to teach at a company because they refused to be taught by an Indian - He was far more experienced in technical English than I was( or ever will be!)
Till then I thought AC/DC was a rock group or bisexual....

Anyway he had very dark skin and THE FIRM did not want that -
so I taught 15 engineers and felt really rotten...
I had to learn a lot about cables and voltage and all stuff that did not interest me at all and prepare the lessons for ages....

BUT I was white and had long fair hair and blue eyes and was Welsh
and did not have the foggiest notion of technical English...
the fact that the colleague had written 2 books about electronic stuff did not impress anyone.

Siân

[Norm Ryder]

Hi, folks
Just back from a couple of weeks down at the coast; so maybe this is too late. But like Joann, I want to ask Roger how he would define a neutral accent.
I've related somewhere else how some years ago certain Kiwis were making a strong marketing push to teach ESL in southern China, on the grounds that their accent was closer to British English than the Oz variety, and would therefore be more useful for people seeking work with British firms - or more likely with firms in Hong Kong and Singapore. I guess that managers of schools for adults might sometimes be considering the speakers with whom their students were more likely to be eventually operating.
Here in Oz our experience is like that of our Scottish and Canadian friends. We're exposed to various accents from both our television and our migrant population. I remember an Italian friend telling me that for his first twelve months in Australia the only English speaker he could understand easily was a Scot. Something to do with rolling his "r''s
Cheers.
Norm

[Norm Ryder]

Sorry, Joanne
I've misspelled your name. I meant to check before going to air, but got too garrulous and lost it!
Apologies.
Norm.