Teacher with heavy accent

[heavyaccent]

NC as controversial.........

DS has been moved up to top set maths for year 8 which is great. He claims to not be learning anything however, as he's having difficulty understanding the teacher because of her thick accent. She also apparently speaks quite quickly. When other students have asked her to repeat something she has exploded at them for not listening. He says she's very strict and not an approachable character.

I'm not sure how to advise he deals with this- he thinks asking her to speak slower or repeat details will get him in trouble. So do we just accept that he will sit there for the whole of year 8 not learning anything? He is now dreading this class every day. It was his favourite subject previously.

My only related experience is when learning to drive with the AA. I was allocated a Nigerian instructor. Very nice friendly man made me feel at ease but honestly I just nodded along with everything he said as I could barely understand a word. After 3 lessons like this I decided to switch instructor- I felt bad but I just wasn't learning anything and I couldn't afford to waste money on lessons.

So what is my AIBU- I'm not really sure. I would rather he drop back to set 2 and really understand the teacher and continue to learn. Is this a bit 'racist' of me though?

eEveryone assumes the teacher is a different race

I don’t think this is the case

I think he will get used to the accent most people will tune into different accents in time. But I would worry about her not explaining properly, and getting angry if students ask her to repeat something.

That happened to my son last year. The class was honors math. 15 students and a teacher with a heavy Jamaican accent. Several patents questioned the headmaster and the response was "his credentials are excellent and he has teaching experience" (in Jamaica!) I hired a private tutor to help my son get through the year but his grade still dropped. The following year the excellent teacher was gone and honors math no longer existed because all 15 students scored too low to qualify,

These situations can be extremely frustrating.

I remember I had a lecturer at university and despite me being a complete swot I struggled to follow his tutorials as I genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. When we asked him to clarify he repeated what he had said but we generally were confused. It took us weeks to understand his pronunciation of certain technical words (we figured it out between us).

He was a lovely man but there were numerous complaints put in about him and he ultimately ended up getting fired as students in his classes were performing poorly compared to their results in other modules.

Most students who complain about their teacher’s accent are either trying to avoid work/ looking for excuses or are racist.
Obviously I have no idea if that’s the case here but I’ve seen it many times.

Everyone assumes the teacher is a different race

Actually, no - "everybody" doesn't. But experience on the site teaches that things change pretty rapidly if race is brought into things, which is why I suggested OP might want to consider whether or not to say, just in case

This sounds terrible! Not only that the teacher has an accent so impenetrable that her pupils struggle to understand her but more particularly that she gets really angry when they ask her to repeat the info! That’s the bit that is the clincher - you really should approach the HOY about this. I know its lovely that he has been put into the top set but I think he’d really be much better off being at the top of the set below with a teacher he can understand.

It is not unreasonable or racist to expect someone who lives in the UK and is a teacher to be able to communicate clearly and effectively in English.

Raise your concerns politely with the school, your child won't be the only one struggling.

You need to go to the head of the Maths department, if your DS is struggling then other kids will be too.

@clarinstunic

Why are people saying don’t mention the accent directly? In case it could be seen as racist?

Because some people try and call 'racist' at the first available opportunity.

It's pathetic, and childish. When someone rushes in to say 'that's racist!' I just ignore them, as that is what they deserve.

He’ll get used to it. I’ve been working in higher education for a very long time and the first time I dealt with international students I couldn’t understand anything. Now I can understand pretty much anyone from anywhere.

I though you were going to complain about strong regional accents. Dc1 had a teacher in y2 with a very very strong Lancashire accent (we’re in the north west but in an area where we definitely sound northern but not very strong). The dc were asked to spell the word “look”. Entire class wrote Luke. Another week saw a where/were spelling conundrum. I think one parent did complain. The rest of us thought it was actually rather amusing. The dc managed to leave primary school able to spell both of those words.

Hmm this happened at my DCs' school. I met the teacher myself and found them easy enough to understand. I felt it was more a case of the kids not liking the teacher and using the accent as an excuse, than not actually understanding them. I would be suspicious that this is the case here - I would imagine it would be hard to get through your PGCE with assessed teaching practice if students couldn't understand you.

No I don’t think everyone is assuming, some may well be though.

But it doesn’t matter whether it’s Wirral (I can’t understand a word), Welsh, French or Japanese, if the teacher can’t be understood, they can’t be understood.

We don’t know this teacher’s accent is impenetrable. Just that op’s ds says he can’t understand it.
We also don’t know whether the teachers first language isn’t English as some people seem to be assuming.

Well he must have been able to communicate clearly and effectively enough to get through an interview? It’s not like a school is going to hire someone they don’t understand whilst interviewing are they?

Give it a few weeks, you do get used to an accent quite quickly if you spend time listening to what they’re saying and how they say it.

This is very tricky. I’m thinking of the variety of accents at my school-very Scottish, very Irish, very Spanish and wondering if the students find those teachers difficult to understand. I do think the lad will get used to the accent I used to teach a student with cerebral palsy and her speech was extremely poor, but eventually, it all clicked and I understood her perfectly, but it worried me how I was meant to cope at first, it seemed impossible.

I doubt that the set one and two work is massively different, so if you do decided to ask them to move him bac, OP, it shouldn’t be detrimental to his progress. How do the other kids in his class cope? Do they understand? Is it a question of just getting used to it/tuning in?

Is the teacher scouse? 😁

On a serious note. It takes few weeks to get used to someone's accent and that doesn't apply just to foreign accent. But even with my strong accent, I think teachers should work on theirs so kids can understand them or at the very least speak slower and repeat when asked. It's hard to change accent completely, not everyone can actually do it.

Really it's up to the teacher to work on toning down their accent if it's difficult to understand. My dps dad has a thick, Scouse accent. I struggle to understand him when he gets going but he tones it down depending on who he's with.

If he's with his friends I haven't got a snowballs chance in hell, they sound like a tree of warbling parrots to me.

Back when I used to teach, a school I worked at did not employ an amazing teacher because they were foreign and spoke with an accent and the school was afraid (racist) kids would pick up on her, so gave the lady some excuse or another. I also speak with an accent, albeint not a very strong one, being born abroad, and although I speak clearly, every year I got a kid who could not be bothered, or used my accent as an excuse not to do work, or thought it would be hilarious of he mocked something I may have mispronounced on occasions.
The teacher in your son's school went through the recruitment process, was interviewed, and was clearly understood easily enough by the interview panel, so maybe your son just needs to make a bit of effort. Or you could pay the Queen to teach your child using a perfect British accent.

It is not unreasonable or racist to expect someone who lives in the UK and is a teacher to be able to communicate clearly and effectively in English.

Which accent of English though? Scots? Welsh? Yorkshire? Scouse? Geordie? Or do you mean that all English people should speak RP?
I’d suggest that tuning in to various accents is a useful life skill should you expect ever live outside the the southeast of England and that ‘English’ is not an accent.

They could provide extra notes until they have learned to speak more clearly?

But nothing will be done until someone tells somebody at school!

As a head of department i experienced this worth a colleague. Absolutely either approach the member of staff or the head of maths.

Veterinari

Oh come on, it’s not an everyday occurrence that people can’t be understood. The accent (whatever it is, who gives a damn) must be bad.

I’ve just sat through an interview with a social worker with a thick accent, who spoke very quickly. After the third time of asking her to repeat the same thing, I gave up and pretended I understood.

If the person in question doesn’t understand that their accent may be difficult to follow, then there’s not much the listener can do.

I’d ask for a meeting with his HOY and explain respectfully how difficult it is.

@HopeIsNotAStrategy

It is not unreasonable or racist to expect someone who lives in the UK and is a teacher to be able to communicate clearly and effectively in English.

Completely agree.

@Veterinari

That poster clearly means the English LANGUAGE not the accent!