“I am a bad English teacher”

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Electric Earth
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Electric Earth »

What about it would freak them out? Just asking because I'm curious. When/where did you study?
Do you think the parents of baby boomers whined so much when the boomers started changing society? And yet the whiney ones like to call young people "snowflakes." Hmm...
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Kammekor
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Kammekor »

Electric Earth wrote: Do you pronounce every word and letter when you speak? Of course not. I bet you $1,000 you say the word "a" as "uh" or something that resembles "Doew wanna go da thuh movies?" not "Do you want to go to the movies?"
This part. About me, I learned English in highschool for 7 years, and after that became a highschool teacher myself (with English teachers among my colleagues). The school I have been teaching was an accredited bi-lingual school when I left (International Baccalaureate exams).
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Duncan
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Duncan »

Electric Earth wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:00 pm No. The US. Why do you ask?
You say US, but that's a big country. Even East Coast Americans cannot clearly understand Americans on the West coast or even from Texas. The same applies with Australians or people from different parts of England, ,, which is why I say speak slowly , at least until the person you are talking to ,, and that includes people in all walks of life, clicks on to the accent that you are using.
How many times have I heard someone here talking , then have asked, are you American, ? , only to be told , No I am Cambodian , but I had an American school teacher.
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Freightdog »

Not so much slowly, as careful enunciation.
An aspect of the kids learning at school that concerns me at present.
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Electric Earth »

Duncan wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:28 pm
Electric Earth wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:00 pm No. The US. Why do you ask?
You say US, but that's a big country. Even East Coast Americans cannot clearly understand Americans on the West coast or even from Texas. The same applies with Australians or people from different parts of England, ,, which is why I say speak slowly , at least until the person you are talking to ,, and that includes people in all walks of life, clicks on to the accent that you are using.
How many times have I heard someone here talking , then have asked, are you American, ? , only to be told , No I am Cambodian , but I had an American school teacher.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you're not from the US? I've never met anyone from the US who couldn't understand everyone else from the US. Sure, there are some different accents, but no where NEAR the craziness of the UK or Scotland... That's part of why, generally speaking, people tend to prefer English teachers from the US. It's a more neutral accent as long as you're not from the Deep south(which is still totally understandable, but not a great teaching accent) or some little pockets on the East coast near NY. But as I said, even those aren't nearly half of some parts of the UK where you can barely even tell the person is speaking English sometimes...
Do you think the parents of baby boomers whined so much when the boomers started changing society? And yet the whiney ones like to call young people "snowflakes." Hmm...
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Duncan »

Electric Earth wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 8:09 pm
Duncan wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:28 pm
Electric Earth wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:00 pm No. The US. Why do you ask?
You say US, but that's a big country. Even East Coast Americans cannot clearly understand Americans on the West coast or even from Texas. The same applies with Australians or people from different parts of England, ,, which is why I say speak slowly , at least until the person you are talking to ,, and that includes people in all walks of life, clicks on to the accent that you are using.
How many times have I heard someone here talking , then have asked, are you American, ? , only to be told , No I am Cambodian , but I had an American school teacher.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you're not from the US? I've never met anyone from the US who couldn't understand everyone else from the US. Sure, there are some different accents, but no where NEAR the craziness of the UK or Scotland... That's part of why, generally speaking, people tend to prefer English teachers from the US. It's a more neutral accent as long as you're not from the Deep south(which is still totally understandable, but not a great teaching accent) or some little pockets on the East coast near NY. But as I said, even those aren't nearly half of some parts of the UK where you can barely even tell the person is speaking English sometimes...

You are looking at the problem from where you sit,,, A Englishman would tell the same story as you have written , but from where he sits and speaks '' The Queens English ''
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by BklynBoy »

Electric Earth wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:51 pm
Duncan wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:50 pm English teachers speak too fast for their students to absorb the words. It's,,,,,, best,,,,,, to,,,,,,,,,, speak,,,,,, slowly,,,,,,,,


Dontspeakfastlikethis.
No. Obviously you need to use graded language and appropriate speed of speech for each class. And you'll never speak nearly full speed to lower level classes. But, speaking at turtle pace forever doesn't help in the long run. That's how you end up with students who just finished the upper-intermediate class, are great on paper with grammar, etc, but can't understand what your average westerner is saying. Slow speech also results in learners always speaking the way we write, which is actually a bad thing. Do you pronounce every word and letter when you speak? Of course not. I bet you $1,000 you say the word "a" as "uh" or something that resembles "Doew wanna go da thuh movies?" not "Do you want to go to the movies?" Speaking at a pace appropriate for the class and speeding that pace up slightly at times to challenge their ears is a good thing. Obviously you do that at the appropriate times and don't rush through directions on a worksheet or when learning meanings of vocabulary, etc, but when it's not as important, it's good to speak a little more quickly(normally) and let their brains develop.
When I was teaching English years ago, my supervisor asked me to slow down. I am from NYC and can get animated, speak fast etc. I understood why he was saying it so of course tried to slow down but funny enough, one of the students said I should just speak the way I speak. He wanted me to speak what is natural for me.
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Cinnamoncat »

I taught at ACE for many years (as did my ex). To teach English, you really do need to enunciate. The admins preferred hiring Australians, but other teachers in my day ('94 - 2001) included people from Scotland, Wales, the Deep South (although the gent's accent was pretty mild), New Zealand, Canada, India, S. Africa, Ireland, and the USA. The majority of my colleagues were excellent teachers, and were there to stay for a while. They prepared lessons, had handouts ready, knew which pages of their book they would have students read / review / use in class, and had an idea about what was going on the whiteboard ahead of time.

There was a handful of teachers who weren't up to snuff, though. These teachers are people with degrees and credentials that don't always pass muster -- similar to people who have posed as medical doctors in Cambodia.

Sometimes a hired teacher turned out to be decent until he began heavy involvement in the drinking scene and started showing up after a night at Martini's.

In this day and age, the cell phone video could be used to expose an inadequate teacher.

When I'm studying languages, I'm on youtube, online, and working with teachers one on one. Use everything! No one should be reliant on one source. Being married to a native speaker would be the best source of all, and NKOTB, you may want to review the uses of the tenses: present tense is for habits and expressing likes/dislikes, past tense for what happened even a minute ago, going to plus verb versus "will" for future plans, and the hardest tenses: present and past perfect tenses. There are three uses of present perfect!

Have your missus write me or whatever. I'm happy to give her ten minutes a week without a fee, and I don't offer that up very much.
"Love and Loss in Cambodia: a memoir" available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578537788
Electric Earth
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Electric Earth »

Duncan wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 8:52 pm You are looking at the problem from where you sit,,, A Englishman would tell the same story as you have written , but from where he sits and speaks '' The Queens English ''
Except that I'm not just looking at the problem from where I sit, and an Englishman will tell you the same thing I did. I've talked to some of them specifically on this topic(because they're also teachers). Again, there's a reason English teachers from the US are sought after in many parts of the world. Lots of Brits and Scots have to learn to tame their accents when they get into teaching. There's a reason that news broadcasters from the Midwest of the US in particular can get jobs doing news in most any English speaking country, which is not the case for lots of the UK. Someone from the UK will still tell you that they have lots of Very different accents in a very small country. It's one of the fun quirks of the country. Don't even get started on some of the smaller towns in Scotland... And just to clarify, this isn't in any way meant as me being negative toward UK accents. I like them. I particularly like some of them, and love Scottish accents. I think people from the US have a kinda boring sound in comparison. But, most everyone can understand us, so I guess that's a plus. Oh, and "the queen's English" is basically referring to RP. It's perfectly understandable and I'm sure someone who naturally speaks RP would tell you that those weirdos in the rest of the country speak with crazy accents.

Personally I think Australia, particularly the Sydney accent, is the way to go for English teachers because they have a nice middle-of-the-road accent. It's a nice blend of different things from different parts of the English speaking world.
Do you think the parents of baby boomers whined so much when the boomers started changing society? And yet the whiney ones like to call young people "snowflakes." Hmm...
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Re: “I am a bad English teacher”

Post by Khmu Nation »

Cinnamoncat wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 10:53 pm a native speaker would be the best source of all, and NKOTB
New Kids On The Block? I don't think Marky Mark is the paragon of spoken English.

I speak and teach RP as I went to the poshest school in the world. But I don't think it matters unless the teacher has a thick regional accent. The students all speak in a se Asian English accent and its very rare to have a student mimic my accent perfectly. If they have been learning English for a while and say words with a US accent I don't correct them.
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