Is it acceptable for a Year 10 English teacher to say this?

@Coincidentally speak for yourself - they might find it cringey when you do it 😂

Different parts of Britain have different ways of speaking.

It's not correct but cant get worked up about it

Not acceptable for any year group, no.

Given the recruitment crisis it’s unsurprising, so brace yourself for more of the same.

And people wonder why teachers are leaving the profession every term! Be grateful your child knows the difference for formal English.

As always in these threads, I see that it's the people who think they are well-educated because they know what's 'correct' who are inadvertently revealing themselves to be extremely ignorant about linguistics.

If they teach English, they are presumably fully aware that there are different modes of English for different settings and that grammar shifts in different dialects. There's a difference between the language people use in casual speech, and the language people use in an essay. Understanding those differences and being able to switch modes is an important element of language development.

So yes, it's perfectly 'acceptable' to say 'Where was you up to?' in a casual conversation with a pupil during a lesson.

I have a degree in English and my living is mostly writing and editing. I've also got a strong accent and there are various dialect elements to my casual speech. I would say something like 'He weren't too happy about it' in a relaxed team meeting with my colleagues. If I was having a more formal conversation with people I didn't know as well, or writing an email, I'd say 'He wasn't very happy about it'.

I started a thread a few years ago and got blasted. DTs head used to say 'we was going', 'what was you doing'. Hate it.

It's not a regional variant here, and he is from here, it's lazy and incorrect.

I think this is the only option here

It’s a regional variant. You might want to google the difference between ’langue’ and ‘parole’.

No!! Cringey! Yes know your audience but being down with the kids is patronising and they find it cringey.
I am a teacher -not English- and I don’t use the excuse of ‘menopausal brain fog’ to be unprofessional-which this is.

100% this. I never made a fuss of speaking "properly" in the classroom. One of the things you teach in English is audience and purpose. If you've got a class of 14 year olds in front of you, you adapt to your audience. You're going to get more out of them if you speak in a familiar way. I'm a firm believer that children learn better when they're comfortable and rapport is one of the best tools in a teacher's armoury - if this means slang and the occasional "innit" then so be it.

I'd wince a bit if I saw it in writing, but wouldn't think anything of it in everyday speech. I'm also an English teacher and am pretty sure I don't speak with perfect grammar all the time.

Were you in the Y10 class or was it reported back to you by your DC as truly shocking. If the latter, you’ve definitely got a future Mumsnetter in the making!

I wouldn't give it a second thought!

Definitely hand write a three page letter about this and everything else you don't like & send it in with your kid.
These are great for a laugh in the staffroom.

Loads of people use was wrongly, its some weird Yorkshire badge of honour 😀
I'd expect an English teacher to speak standard English, if they don't know the grammar/parts of speech how can they teach it?

I think the combination of teacher bashing and grammar pedantry might make this the most MN thread ever.

Great post @OfTheNight.

But are they a good English teacher otherwise? Do they engage with the kids? I can’t really be bothered to pick out everyone’s mistakes as I don’t care enough.

However if there was a bigger story that this English teacher wasn’t very good, teaching them wrong context for their exams that’s a different story

Cue the 'you can mangle language to incomprehensibility because it's evolving, innit' coach party
Then will come the 'it's a local dialect' party.
Closely followed by the 'so what if they are an English teacher, as long as they are understood" coach party

I think its awful.

😂

I’m northern. I went to private school and a prestigious university. I have a first class degree and an MA in English.

When I worked in mainstream education, I often used my ‘home’ accent. It’s the same accent as the young people I was working with. In this local dialect, was is almost always used instead of were.

I used it so that I would be more relatable, and also to show my learners that their accent and dialect is valid. We regularly discussed the difference between formal and informal language. The rules of subject-verb agreement weren’t disregarded.

At my school lots of my teachers and professors had diverse dialects and accents. I had an amazing History professor who was Scottish and a languages teacher from Argentina. It didn’t mean I didn’t learn the rules of my own language.

I find reading has far more impact on my learners’ writing than what they hear anyway.

Where's the trigger warning for this thread?!
NO-ONE advised to go to school and nuclear yet? To have the teacher's job?! I'd be FUMMING!!

I remember years ago looking round a school when choosing one for Dd and in the English dept a teacher came and excitedly showed us some work on the wall as a good example of students’ work. The first sentence had a “could of” in it. 🙈

It’s not proper english so it’s not great. But people are human.
Another teacher bashing thread though, is it any wonder theres a staff retention crisis in schools? The daily threads on this forum slating teachers is shocking.