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Original poster

Teacher not speaking/understanding English well

27 replies

TigersAndToucs · 07/09/2022 00:02

DS has just started Year 9. He has a maths teacher who is new to the school.
He had his first lesson with her today. Afterwards he and the rest of the class were concerned that although the teacher seems to be fairly fluent in English, she speaks with an accent that is very hard to understand. And more importantly, she did not seem to understand some simple words that the students used.

For context, this is an inner city London comp with a very mixed demographic. Many of the children have English as a second language or have parents for whom English is a second language. So its a not a cohort who aren't used to different accents.

The most worrying example: she was doing a maths problem on the board where the answer was 1/2. She asked what the answer was and most of the class called out "a half". They repeated this a few times. The teacher then asked, "what's a half?"

Obviously not knowing the English for basic maths terms is an impediment. But she could have been particularly anxious today and got easily confused. DH and I have told DS to give it at least a week, and to make surreptitious notes of any other examples where there's a language problem between the teacher and the class. If this issue continues, DH and I will then speak to the school's SLT.

Any other advice of how to proceed?

OP posts:
Original poster
TigersAndToucs · 07/09/2022 01:20

Thanks @EnidSpyton that's very helpful and good context. What a shame about the teaching shortage.

You're right that a good maths teacher with imperfect English may be better than a bad maths teacher who's a native English speaker. It was only one lesson but from what I understood from DS, the communication barrier made it hard to tell how good she was.

DS was very understanding and reluctant to tell me why he was sighing when mentioning his maths teacher. He put it very diplomatically and said she seemed nice, although stricter than other teachers. So he is definitely empathetic and tolerant.

Patience however... that's where we may have a problem. DS has ADHD. He will understand that it may take some time but if in the meantime he has problems following what the teacher says or communicating with her, he is likely to zone out. This is worrying for me, and probably DS, as he had big problems with concentration in some subjects in Year 7 and 8, and his focus is very much dependent on teaching style.

He was top of the class and was considered to be put up a year in maths in Year 7, and loved his maths teacher. But he didn't gel with the teaching style of his maths teacher in Year 8 and wasn't paying attention and was fooling around, and his progress in end of term results for terms 1 and 2 was way lower than he should have got. His teacher called us in, we came up with a plan collaboratively and we had stern words with DS and his behaviour and focus improved so much in the last term. DS was very focused on doing well in the end of term exams.

They have put them in sets for the first time now they're in Year 9 and DS is in set 1 for maths, which he is very thrilled about. We're proud of him and his new serious attitude towards school. But as much as he tries to focus, I know that not understanding what the teacher is saying clearly will be hard on him. Likewise if she doesn't understand him. His brain works very fast, and having to stop to repeat himself or explain may throw him.

I'm going to have a meeting with the SENCO in a week or two so if continues to be an issue I may flag it gently as something to be aware of in terms of DS's focus. I do agree with you that the teacher's fluency is likely to quickly improve and that it might not be a problem by half term, I just hope that DS can stay engaged until then.

Sorry for long reply!

OP posts:
EnidSpyton · 07/09/2022 00:47

I don’t think there’s much you can do about this to be honest. I speak as a secondary school teacher myself.

The staffing situation in many schools is dire. There is a huge shortage of teachers, particularly in subjects like maths and science. I’m sure the Head/SLT is fully aware that the teacher in question is a second language speaker whose accent/vocabulary may be an issue. However the fact that they employed them anyway strongly suggests they had no other choice. I’ve heard on the teacher grapevine that some schools had literally no applicants for September vacancies in a lot of subjects this year.

You can help the situation by encouraging your son to be patient, tolerant and not indulge in unkind gossip about the teacher with their classmates. If the teacher is new to the school, they may also be new to the country, or may be living with family who only speak their native tongue, so even if they have been here a while, a summer of speaking little English will have made them temporarily rusty. Either way their English should come on quickly in an immersion environment and by half term I should think any major communication difficulties will be resolved. I speak as someone who has taught in a bilingual international environment for many years. Teachers who start the term rusty in one language very quickly pick it up.

This is not me saying that it’s acceptable, by the way, that children should be taught by someone who doesn’t have an adequate grasp of the language in which they’re supposed to be teaching. It’s not. But this will increasingly become the norm, I fear, as teaching becomes an ever more unappealing prospect for UK graduates.

Anyway, language aside, if the teacher seems to know what they’re doing on the maths front, then I would hold fire on the complaints for now. Give them time to improve their language skills. If by half term things haven’t improved and you’re concerned about your son’s progress then by all means see the Head. But do be aware that having a teacher whose English is rusty but whose maths is strong may be better than a native English speaker teaching maths poorly.