In class, we discussed (for some time) about different accents and how they impacted the way students learned in educational settings.
If accents somehow hamper the way students learn, what about dialects? If someone from Tennessee is teaching a biology course and calls a "dragonfly" a "mosquito hawk" would that debilitate your ability to learn? What if you're taking a culinary course and the chef calls it a "hogie" and not a "submarine" or a "wedge"?
I think it's ridiculous that people discriminate others based on accent and dialect. Personally, I've been around a variety of accents (as well as different dialects - Southern, WNY, Long Island speak, Brooklyn, etc) and they help me understand people. Having a variety of ethnic interactions while you are growing up helps you as an individual experience different societies. You must be thinking, what is I'm rambling on about, but the English language, perhaps is the most fluid language in the world. This fluidity allows dialects influence the standard English language.
Someone shouldn't be made fun of because they pronounce words differently. Teachers should definitely not be demoted or fired because of their accents or heavy dialect. That's discrimination. To attempt to reason that students cannot learn because of their accent is just pure ignorance. I think that if one was introduced to accents at an early age, and not at the college level, you would be able to understand them.
- Michael Koh
Excellent and impassioned observations. It's interesting that it is the instructor who is expected to change as opposed to making the case that it is the students who need to familiarize themselves with accented English. Also, it seems as though schools need to provide more support in assisting teachers who may not be native speakers as opposed to discriminating against them.
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