Does your dc get taught at school by someone they don’t understand?

[Greymacaw]

Reading the Times today and an article came up about the U.K. poaching teachers from other countries.

Many of the comments include parents saying their dc are taught by teachers with such a thick accent the dc aren’t learning. This happened to me in a recent masters I did.
could not for the life of me understand the teacher but as an adult I was able to push for more information where I needed it and work around the situation.

Was frustrating but I can’t imagine how hard it would be if I was struggling to under for my GCSEs or a levels. Do people hiring not take these things into account?!

I have worked with teachers with all kinds of accents, both regional British ones and because they come from countries other than UK. One school I worked in had lots of Jamaican teachers who were utterly brilliant, loved by the kids. It could take a while to tune in to the accent, but after a week or so of lessons it was fine I think! And there is a real benefit to that kind of cultural diversity, in terms of the education of the child as a whole.

I had a chemistry teacher with a strong Scottish accent at school. I used this as an excuse to my mom when I did badly in tests. In honesty I just didn't revise or listen in class half the time - I could understand the woman quite easily if I tried. I didn't try!

In y9, my dd was taught maths by a Chinese woman who did not really speak English. I am talking skipping words when reading instructions etc. she was hard to understand honestly and insisted on using outdated methods. Dd could have easily had her for GCSE and she would have been failing quite honestly had she had her

Only heavy forrin accents though. Heavy British accents are fine.

We had a professor from Malaysia, who was a wonderful woman, really passionate and enthusiastic, but we struggled immensely to understand her through her accent.
In the end she had her lectures available in print so we could follow along

Not a personal issue yet but my youngest is dyslexic and would really struggle with an accent.

I see what you are implying, but actually my DD has difficulty with strong British accents too.
She also tends to watch TV with subtitles as it helps her processing.

No, it’s never happened to my children. They soon tune into accents.

The only parents I’ve known complain, and my friend who is a deputy head says the same, are those that have also been/seemed racist. Not saying that is the case here of course.

My dc had one subject teacher with a strong accent in the first year at secondary and they all struggled to start with, but they all got used to it very quickly.

You're not saying it, but you're implying it.

I had a university lecturer who couldn't be understood by anyone in the class. I assume her subject knowledge was good, but honestly couldn't tell you either way. Thankfully, I was an adult so could cover the syllabus in other ways.

Children in a similar situation are in a very difficult situation. Say anything about it and they're deemed racist (if only by implication), don't say anything and they fail the subject.

And quite a few people here have mentioned heavy British accents being an issue too. These are often easier to tune in to but it can't be denied that some people have accents that are stronger than others and trying to do so makes you look silly.

I’ve said my experience, which is true, not silly. Take it how you like though, I don’t mind. 😊

睾丸

Gāowán

I'm retraining at university. I already have a degree and postgraduate. I cannot understand one of the lecturers we have had this year, yet to mention it makes me a bigot. Looking around the lecture theatre 95% of the students are obviously disengaged. I don't know what the answer is.

No, my children seem to be able to understand accents no matter how strong.

I’ve has people pretend to not understand my accent though, it’s always the same sort of people. 🙄

@TrumpetOfTheMatriarchy sometimes I wonder if people are more worried about coming across as racist than dc getting the education they need and deserve. I’m not white. I have family from another country and this country and was born and raised here. I speak 3 languages two of which more than likely with an accent.

I think people aren’t understanding that it’s not ‘any’ accent that would be a problem, it’s having a heavy accent where you really struggle to understand the person, where they come from is irrelevant, you can come from anywhere and not be understood. I’m sure having a heavy accent is not even a problem in some workplaces either, I’m talking about teaching specifically.

I don’t think dc can get by when they really need their teacher to teach or explain something. That’s time lost/wasted for everyone surely. With awful consequences too.

Where does it end though? Teacher too quietly spoken, teacher not engaging enough, class too noisey, disruptive pupil in class, school uncomfortably warm/cold. There are many reasons a child might not have the perfect learning experience i dont think a strong accent is the biggest issue and it is too subjective to adjust exam results for.

What can be done?

Well you either make up the gap, by personally helping your child with any missed knowledge, or pay for a tutor to do it for you.

And at the end of the day we need to accept that overcoming relatively small difficulties, is part of life.
My children have all had plenty of disadvantages along the way, from ill health to crap or simply non existent subject teachers for long periods of time. It's unfortunate, and yes I too think "if only..." but I also realise that it is what it is.

I concur. Several posters are being snidey and implying racism if you cannot understand an accent. I have eastern European ancestry. I welcome diversity in the workplace. But if you cannot understand a lecture there is a failing somewhere.

Tuition fees for my undergrad course are £9,000 a year. For that I would hope all lectures are comprehensible.and don't get me started on the poor spelling and grammar in course materials.

But that's it though, it doesn't end. Children have to deal with teacher accents on top of these issues to.

Without an objective view of the standard of the teacher’s grammar and clarity of delivery, it’s impossible to know if the issue is accent, sub-standard knowledge of English, or bad delivery style (eg too fast). A strong accent alone should not mean that someone is impossible to understand. If someone does not know English well enough to teach, that is a legitimate complaint. If someone speaks too fast to be understood they should be asked to slow down

@ChristianHornersGlisteningFinger My dc has this with one of their lecturers at University this year.
I suggested watching the recording back later with the automatically generated subtitles on.
They have already tried this, and he subtitles can't understand what the lecturer is saying - what they write is a nonsense.
Is that objective enough for you ?

Of course you are right @Greymacaw . It is appalling that our children have people who should be educating our dc, where the dc can't understand what they are saying. I think anyone who is arguing that is somewhat naïve because they haven't come across it themselves. It's not about a nice lilt or a different way of annunciating vowels, you are talking about people genuinely not being understood.
As @noblegiraffe rightly points out, it is down to the fact that so few qualified teachers in the country actually are prepared to still be teaching in the UK anymore due to the appalling terms and conditions. Bringing in people who might have some of the skills needed to deliver a lesson is resorted to as a better option than having no teacher in front of the class. This goes from Early Years Practitioners in (o - 5) Nurseries through to Universities.

The problem is teachers are paid badly and English teachers don't want the jobs anymore

My Dnephew left his Uni engineering course due to a maths tutor that he could not understand. He spiralled downwards as he lost his way. It’s not just schools.

@NewName24 auto-generated subtitles rarely make sense, same with zoom transcripts. I have often seen them make a mess of audio from people with very clear spoken English.

A strong accent alone is absolutely enough to make them incomprehensible, especially when teaching highly technical material. If the situation were reversed and I wanted to lecture abroad, I would assume being able to speak clearly enough, without a heavy British accent, that I was understood would be a simple prerequisite.