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AIBU to feedback to school about teachers use of glottal stops

356 replies

TalomaPaith · 04/11/2025 21:31

Children at Dcs school are split into different groups for phonics.

Parents are sometimes invited to watch lessons. I observed a lesson by a teacher using glottal stops I.e Let'er instead of letter.

Would IBU to mention this?

OP posts:
TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 21:53

@Baanaanaas do you not understand that people use language in a different way to you?

OP posts:
GarlicBreadStan · 05/11/2025 21:48

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 21:46

@GarlicBreadStan and pp and you seem so lovely. Degrading an internet strangers grammar on a forum. You seem so well rounded and secure

I'm not degrading your grammar. I've never mentioned your grammar. I said that I hope you're no longer a teacher because you seem like an insecure, nasty piece of work who is extremely classist and who seems to look down your nose at anyone who is "below" you

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 21:47

MrsArcher23 · 05/11/2025 21:46

What is the end game here OP? Do you hope the teacher will lose her job because she speaks with a glottal stop and do you hope she moves away and teaches elsewhere? (Make sure someone proof reads your email BTW. I observed you don’t know the difference between effect and affect, among other issues)

I do know the difference. Stop bullying strangers on the internet.

OP posts:
MrsArcher23 · 05/11/2025 21:46

What is the end game here OP? Do you hope the teacher will lose her job because she speaks with a glottal stop and do you hope she moves away and teaches elsewhere? (Make sure someone proof reads your email BTW. I observed you don’t know the difference between effect and affect, among other issues)

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 21:46

@GarlicBreadStan and pp and you seem so lovely. Degrading an internet strangers grammar on a forum. You seem so well rounded and secure

OP posts:
TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 21:44

@queenmeadhbh don't you think it makes a difference given the context of teaching children phonics? Many of those children also have English as a second language. When you are explicitly aware of phonemes and your role in teaching them but you choose not to use them it's lazy! If she was in the pub I wouldn't care

OP posts:
GarlicBreadStan · 05/11/2025 21:42

This reply has been deleted

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TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 21:40

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Baanaanaas · 05/11/2025 20:56

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 19:42

I asked whether she was on benefits after her vile comments about me and the lack of understanding about using different grammar on Mumsnet on the phone compared to working teaching children phonics.

And what purpose do you think you're serving by 'using different grammar' or 'code switching' (or whatever other inaccurate description based on your own misconceptions you'd like to use)?

All of the errors you continue to make cause it to be more difficult to be understood or communicate effectively. None of them are natural changes in a less formal context when you already know how to use the standard version. Most point to lack of understanding and an inflated sense of your own awareness.

Nothing you've said about teachers, schools, the line management structure, or the training and qualification process indicates you have any specific knowledge of the education system. And nothing you've tried to explain away suggests secure understanding of language, linguistics, or indeed phonics.

Your OP was ridiculously prejudiced and every further comment you've made has been hypocritical and ignorant.

Hernameisdeborah · 05/11/2025 20:49

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 19:50

Not if I do it by email copying in the trust

Yes! Do it! 😈🍿

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 20:44

queenmeadhbh · 05/11/2025 20:10

I once heard a headmaster SPLIT AN INFINITIVE

The only possible remedy is a sternly-worded letter to Ofsted, and you might as well copy in the education secretary too.

Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 20:38

queenmeadhbh · 05/11/2025 20:10

I once heard a headmaster SPLIT AN INFINITIVE

The horror! The horror!

Dasherthereindeer · 05/11/2025 20:36

Actually I thought of a better example - in the sentence ´that’s better’ more people are going to put a glottal stop in ´that’ than in ´better’.

Dasherthereindeer · 05/11/2025 20:20

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 13:30

@queenmeadhbh glottal stop is complete omission of a sound, an elongated vowel is a change in length or sound

In some languages, a glottal stop is a distinct phoneme. Saying it’s the omission of a sound isn’t really correct. It’s a substitution.
Also there are far more glottal stops used word finally or just before a final stop consonant in English spoken in the south east of England than word medially but no one ever seems to complain about that. I wouldn’t really say a [t] at the end of the ´that’ in the sentence ´that’s it’. I’d say either [ðæʔsɪʔ] or [ðæʔtsɪʔt].

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 20:10

queenmeadhbh · 05/11/2025 20:02

You put it much more generously than I do 😉

my view is that words like “lazy” have no place when describing language. Shortening or elision etc for convenience or for social signalling or for whatever reason is to my mind morally neutral, and any claim that it is “badly spoken” “lazy” or “uneducated” is just the power structures at play.

(I don’t get the impression you think the opposite btw! Just that I don’t think there ever could be evidence that eg glottal stop is lazy speech because I don’t think the sin of sloth is ever relevant to linguistics!)

Yes!

queenmeadhbh · 05/11/2025 20:10

Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 20:04

Exactly. What ever next? Use of the passive voice? Failure to use an adverbial opener?

Talk about Govian (he of the coked up Parliamentary appearances) grammar.

Edited

I once heard a headmaster SPLIT AN INFINITIVE

ASenseOfPerspective · 05/11/2025 20:06

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 19:53

Wow. Just when I thought I’d seen it all on this forum. Imagine reporting a teacher to a trust for using a glottal stop.

This thread has made me want to speak now using a glottal stop. The snobbery and lack of perspective are crazy. Esp when the thread has been started by a teacher with questionable literacy herself. Doesn’t she have better things to do than nitpick at another teacher? Can she not model the language she wants at home? She needs to get a grip.

Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 20:06

I don’t think the sin of sloth is ever relevant to linguistics!

English teachers pet! (I love it.)

Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 20:04

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 19:53

Wow. Just when I thought I’d seen it all on this forum. Imagine reporting a teacher to a trust for using a glottal stop.

Exactly. What ever next? Use of the passive voice? Failure to use an adverbial opener?

Talk about Govian (he of the coked up Parliamentary appearances) grammar.

queenmeadhbh · 05/11/2025 20:02

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 19:33

I think @queenmeadhbh is right, though I would put it slightly differently

The argument is whether a glottal stop is a feature of accent and dialect, or not. You’ve said that you think it isn’t @YYYDlilah. That’s absolutely your call, but it is unsupported by significant evidence, not just in what I’ve shared above but a tonne of other peer-reviewed evidence.

Of course, evidence is also up for debate and so there may be some evidence which says that it is lazy, but I’m yet to find it.

My view is that the glottal stop is still stigmatised, and the impact of the stigma is significant, unfair and long-lasting

You put it much more generously than I do 😉

my view is that words like “lazy” have no place when describing language. Shortening or elision etc for convenience or for social signalling or for whatever reason is to my mind morally neutral, and any claim that it is “badly spoken” “lazy” or “uneducated” is just the power structures at play.

(I don’t get the impression you think the opposite btw! Just that I don’t think there ever could be evidence that eg glottal stop is lazy speech because I don’t think the sin of sloth is ever relevant to linguistics!)

Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 20:01

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 19:50

Not if I do it by email copying in the trust

That'd be the email to end all emails wouldn't it? 'I don't approve of the accent of the teacher taking Y1 phonics. Her use of the glottal stop is actively inhibiting my child's learning.'

When your child ends up with a stream of supply teachers I hope you'll feel it was worth it. You're aware we're in the middle of a teacher retention crisis?

Honestly, I don't know why you don't just go private since you feel you can dictate who teaches your child.

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 19:53

Wow. Just when I thought I’d seen it all on this forum. Imagine reporting a teacher to a trust for using a glottal stop.

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 19:50

Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 19:48

I think you should report the teacher @TalomaPaith. I would pay good money to see you get your arse handed to you on a plate by the head teacher.

Not if I do it by email copying in the trust

OP posts:
Slightyamusedandsilly · 05/11/2025 19:48

I think you should report the teacher @TalomaPaith. I would pay good money to see you get your arse handed to you on a plate by the head teacher.

MayWelland · 05/11/2025 19:47

TalomaPaith · 05/11/2025 19:42

I asked whether she was on benefits after her vile comments about me and the lack of understanding about using different grammar on Mumsnet on the phone compared to working teaching children phonics.

That doesn’t make it right

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