foreign instructors

[Aurolyn Luykx]

Hi Anthea,
the film "American Tongues" is an excellent
presentation both of different U.S. English accents
and of the prejudices surrounding them. If you don't
know it, check it out. I use it for undergraduate
teaching and it's a real eye-opener for students
unfamiliar with sociolinguistic issues.
Aurolyn


--- "Harold F. Schiffman"
<haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:

> Anthea and all:
>
> I just wanted to share a little experience I have
> had with this 'foreign'
> accent stuff.  I am American-born, "Caucasian", a
> native speaker of
> English, raised mostly in the east and midwest. I
> taught for 28 years in
> Seattle (on the west coast), and there I
> occasionally was asked (e.g. in
> linguistics courses or language-and-culture
> courses), by people from the
> west coast (some from rural areas, to be sure) if I
> was "from this
> country."  They meant from the US, not from
> Washington State. So the low
> tolerance for any difference, and the reports that
> students perceive a
> voice as "less comprehensible" if matched with an
> Asian face, resonate
> with me.  Many state universities have gone through
> this business about
> the lack of comprehensibility of "foreign" accents,
> and attempts to train
> TA's to "enunciate more clearly" or whatever have
> been mostly a waste of
> time, IMHO.
>
> I once participated (since I was chair of a dept. of
> Asian languages) in
> discussions in the UW graduate school about how to
> help these "foreign"
> students to be more comprehensible; my suggestions
> were ignored.  But note
> also the lack of training reported by some of these
> instructors--thrown
> into a classroom with no preparation.  Some might
> benefit from training in
> some kind of pedagogy (as we are forced to do in our
> language
> departments). Math and science courses are
> notoriously bad, from the
> pedagogical standpoint.  One math prof told me they
> don't care how bad
> Calculus is taught--the good ones will get it, and
> the rest will drop out.
>
> On the question about ordinary Americans talking
> about their accents--yes,
> stigmatized accents (New York, southern) are
> discussed, mocked, ridiculed.
> Others not so much...  But the idea that Brits are
> more tolerant is new to
> me--we get the impression that there's a lot more
> fussing out class
> accents--like the fact that Mrs. Thatcher was hated
> (?) for her "fake"
> Oxbridge accent, which she hadn't acquired
> rightfully.
>
> Hal Schiffman
>
>
>
> On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, Anthea Fraser Gupta wrote:
>
> > This seems a very fair and balanced article, that
> puts forward factors
> > concerning the speaker's skills, the hearer's
> skills, the cultural
> > setting, and prejudice.
> >  It strikes me that I have the impression that
> 'accented English' and
> > 'English with an accent' is more used in the US
> than the UK. People in
> > the UK talk about 'foreign accents' where foreign
> is shorthand for
> > 'assumed non-native', and make assumptions that if
> you are not from an
> > inner circle country you won't be a native speaker
> of English. There is
> > certainly this shared prejudicial system on both
> sides of the Atlantic.
> > But we also talk about British accents -- A LOT.
> Do ordinary American
> > talk about their own accents????
>
> >  This posting isn't very well thought through, but
> I do have the feeling
> > that there is something very different across the
> Atlantic in terms of
> > attitudes to accents. I notice on Ask-a-linguist
> that a lot of Americans
> > have a strong idea that there is a correct way of
> speaking, and that
> > there is a great deal of hostility to Southern
> accents. I just have a
> > vague feeling that there is a more normative
> attitude to accents in the
> > US than in the UK. In the UK people certainly have
> prejudices of a
> > rather complex sort, but diversity seems to be
> better accepted.
> >
> > Anyone got any thoughts??? Evidence???
> >
> > Anthea
> > School of English, University of Leeds
> >
> > 	-----Original Message-----
> > 	From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu on
> behalf of Harold F. Schiffman
> > 	Sent: Wed 06/04/2005 21:14
> > 	To: Language Policy-List
> > 	Cc:
> > 	Subject:
> >
> >
> >
> > 	>From the Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8,
> 2005
> >
> > 	http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i31/31a01001.htm
> >
> > 	Teach Impediment
> >
> > 	When the student can't understand the instructor,
> who is to blame?
> >
> > 	By JOHN GRAVOIS
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>



		
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