Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in

English Forums

Use our English forums to learn English. The message boards are great for English questions and English answers. The more you contribute, the more all members can practice English!

:  

Teacher Talk

Do you think it's important to help students with their accent?

Brookebjerke

Brazil

What do you think? I know it is somewhat controversial among teachers. My thoughts on it are in this article.


http://voices.yahoo.com/learning-language-necessity-getting-good-11288324.html?cat=4


I’d love to hear your opinions on the matter.

05:43 PM May 02 2012 |

The iTEP® test

  • Schedule an iTEP® test and take the official English Practice Test.

    Take Now >

Shiry

Shiry

Saudi Arabia

Yeah , it’s so important .


Cause we all want to talk like native speaker , it’s one of our goal , and we have to achieve it =) And I think the teachers should be a native speaker it’s better .


Thaanks for the title =)


Cool

05:54 PM May 03 2012 |

Brookebjerke

Brazil

I definitely agree. Some teachers only teach vocabulary and grammar, but I always try to work on accent with my students. Of course, not all students care that much about it, but I do think it’s so important.

12:27 PM May 06 2012 |

Juliya_@))-----))-----

Azerbaijan

Hi, Miss Brookebjerke!


08:15 AM May 08 2012 |

Juliya_@))-----))-----

Azerbaijan

I think this is the one problem while you speak english, accent is disturbing soo better to talk without accent!

08:19 AM May 08 2012 |

sami.ch

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

its very important. in my country teachers’s accent is not same native english speaker and because of it now i have problem with my accent.unfortunately there are a few people that can speak english natively and i look for somebody to talk with me.anyway thanks 4 ur subject.

06:27 PM May 08 2012 |

mitnal

mitnal

Mexico

Hi Miss Brookebjerke I think is very important develop the corret accent when somebody is learning english, do you know if exist any rule or books that can help us to learn the correct pronunciation.

10:48 PM May 08 2012 |

Fernando1247

Venezuela

Hey, teacher, greetings from Venezuela. First of all, I’d say thanks for opening this forum here. Let me start telling you all how this aspect was taken into consideration. When I was at the university, most of my teachers didn’t worry about that field, until I had this one in a subject called ’’Oral Expression’’. She holds a PhD in Education (I think so, I don’t remember at the moment) from the Ohio University. She has written several articles about accent, non-native speakers, and so on. In one of her articles, she explains that there is a belief of a Standard English (SE), the one we all have to follow… She says that it has been questioned ’’due to the fact that [...] accent is marked by characteristics of pronunciation related to the speaker’s region and social identity.” To summarize her thoughts, she thinks we cannot or we do not have to adopt the British or “American” accent or the search for a standard accent. I think she is right in some way. The main purpose is to be able to communicate our ideas, written or spoken. However we have to try to teach our students to pronounce as better as possible, and not to force them to adopt an accent, which is different from teaching pronunciation. The debate is open. If you want to check Carmen Chacón’s bio and more visit her site: http://servidor-opsu.tach.ula.ve/profeso/chacon_c/BookChapters.html.

04:20 AM May 09 2012 |

sanaa2000

sanaa2000

Egypt

Ofcoure its important to help our studet specialy in my case,i teach alittle kids in our small village.We not care of the right accent or the good pronounciation,but i do my best.Im looking forward to being agood teacher,and im needing ahelp either.Anyone can help?

12:44 PM May 09 2012 |

Brookebjerke

Brazil

Great opinions! Fernando1247,  those are some very great ideas, thanks for sharing! I never even thought about it that way before. I have been seeing that a lot of people believe it is very important, and there are others who think it is far from important. Unlike vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, native accent is not something that everyone agrees upon. 


I personally teach accent and think it is important, but I don’t force students to work on it. It is sort of just a reccomendation. One of the biggest things that made me a believer in attaining a good accent was the time I met the International coordinator at a university here in Brazil. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was American. In fact, he said that he went to the USA and people were suprised when they found out he was Brazilian. He truly showed a mastery of the English language, accent and all. Although it’s not essential, I think it is a worthy and attainable goal.



03:59 PM May 10 2012 |

Gary Skyner

Poland

I agree with Fernando: don’t teach accent, but correct pronunciation.


I have been teaching English for over 10 years and I don’t teach accent. English is a tool for communication, for expressing ourselves. Forcing a Korean or an Italian to change their accent is wrong. Accent is closely connected to culture and as an English teacher I am here to teach English not force English culture upon my students. For the same reason I don’t fill my lessons full of London buses and Sherlock Holmes.


In case anyone should wonder – I am English.

09:35 AM May 16 2012 |