Teacher
‘told to sound less northern’ after southern Ofsted inspection
A school in Berkshire have argued that accent should change when
there is interaction with students. I believe that, having read this article ,that
this should be the rule for teachers when in the class room. Standard English
must be spoken in classrooms.
Teachers are role models to students, the way they speak holds a
huge influence on their students, your children. It is an outrage to learn that
teacher’s regional colloquialisms and personal pronunciations are being passed
on to their younger students. As an adult role model their school teachers has
an extreme impact on the way each and every student speaks. From the age of 4 children are pushed into a
schooling environment where they will begin spending at least 5 hours of their
day with the same teacher. Allowing
teachers to pronounce words with a regional accent encourages the idea of
speaking words which are native to the area which only the older generation of
the region would understand. How would you feel if you knew that your 4 year
old child was being indoctrinated with words that you yourself weren’t familiar
with?
The way teachers pronounce their words has a larger impact than
most parents would initially think. Think about it, teachers educate your
children on how to spell, with a thick accent how can we expect our children to
grasp the correct spelling for wide vocabulary they’ll pick up off of their
older peers whilst being in the schooling environment. Let’s say were in the
Essex region, in a small country primary school , the teacher possess a thick
Essex accent and is simply discussing topics with the children , she mentions
the word ‘water’ in her distinctive regional accent , clearly missing out the
‘t’ and the ‘r’ , how do you think your child will spell this word? This is
just one example of the abundance of impacts a simple accent can have.
I completely understand that accent is a form of identity but the
idea of teaching is based on the ethos that each teacher is there to help and
guide the student and to educate them not only their subject but to develop
them as a person. What the children learn in school essentially sets them up
for their future, whether its learning how to spell accurately at the age of 5
or developing their speech skills at the age of 10, at each stage of their
academic life they learn another skill which will become beneficial to them in
the future, at each stage they should be provided with the best chance of
learning and I believe that this can only be done by the correct manner of
teaching.
However, if there is a small part of you that would wish for your
child to speak with an accent in order to fulfil your pride within your region
then they will still subconsciously obtain that, but it just will not be taught
within the classroom environment. As a child they will all have an abundance of
friends which they will surround themselves with 24/7, each one of those
children will obtain an accent they have developed within their family home,
local community or with their circle of friends. It is vital that within the classroom we’re
they grow and develop academically, that they are spoken to in Standard English
were all words are fully pronounced in order to allow a quality standard of
English to be spoken and spelt. It sets the same high standard of literacy for
students nationwide. The idea of diluting accents is only for the benefit of
your children and their learning.
