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?

Not the same at all but it’s reminded me of the time when I was on teaching practice (I won’t mention the school but it’s a selective girls’ school in the Kingston area that crops up on the education pages a lot!).
I was asked by the head of department if I could ‘change my accent’ so the girls could understand me ie, could I please ‘talk a bit less Valleys’...! I actually think he just though I sounded a bit common (I’m not even that Welshy...or common!!). It still makes me laugh.

Ps I should add to my earlier comment that I speak extremely clearly anyway-I’ve done lots of public speaking and have a very clear speaking voice. I just didn’t speak the same way he did...

I'm on the fence here.

On one hand I've met countless students who think that commenting on accent when it's different but understandable is a convenient way to wind staff up.

I always think of the difference between hearing Vs listening. If I'm in my hospital (like I was this week) then even if I'm not trying to listening, I find myself picking up on pieces of conversation from people with a similar accent to me because it stands out and my ear is tuned to it, but sometimes I've gone to training courses and initially struggled with some accents because I hadn't actually given my full attention. I was hearing them talk, but I wasn't actively listening to what they were saying because I was probably thinking about the coffee break or lunch.

For some students they do need to realise that if people have different accents then they have to actively listen Vs half listen for the jist of things and fill in the gaps themselves (which we all do, it's not a criticism).

If a member of staff has had years of students doing the "but we don't understand! It's your accent" thing then I have some sympathy for the teacher being short because it's old news to them.

However, if the teacher really does speak in a way that creates a communication barrier then it's affecting pupil progress and their ability to learn. That does mean a discussion needs to be had with the school, probably in a sensitive way with the Head of Year of Head of Subject (maybe being asked to consider a class move up/down as required with the request for some study work at home to assist your child prepare if the move is upwards). Done politely it shouldn't rub anyone up the wrong way because staff will also have first hand experience of the member of staff in question.

My gut instinct would be to have a chat with DC on what the issue is (without getting into teacher personality as in my experience it doesn't keep the main thing the main thing and opens a can of worms for reporting teachers you don't like), suck it up with actually listening properly for a week or so and then speak to the Head of Year or Head of Department.

As a Scot, I find people in the South East of England quite hard to understand, but I do my best. They add sounds that aren't in the words....drawring when they mean drawing, for example. Far too many of them insist that their way is the only correct way, and they don't have an accent, but everyone north and west of them has, and is unintelligible.

Lind57 didn’t you grow up with English accents all over the TV? I used to find it funny that Blue Peter presenters talked about “draw-ring” but I always understood them!

I watched Magpie instead Aardvark. They had better accents.

"A person from London could easily have difficulty understanding a thick Yorkshire or Somerset accent"

And let's not forget that the other way round is also possible. Personally I find SE English accents the hardest to understand because of the lack of r sounds, plus all the vowels seem to be reduced to very similar sounds.

It's not just regional accents that are hard.

I have auditory processing issues and despite being able to speak several languages, I struggle to understand many people in my native tongue, never mind others.

If the teacher has been tasked with the top set then the school must have great faith in their ability to teach the high achievers...so most pupils must be able to understand them (even if it takes a after a while!!)

** even if it takes a while!!

So has the op said what the accent is?

For what it's worth, not all Northern Irish accents are created equal😉
When I was doing my teacher training in Belfast, I taught in a boys secondary school where the boys would regularly take the mick out of my accent (I was from another town with a very distinctive accent).
It did teach me that I had to tone is down slightly and pronounce my words more clearly.

Then I had the mick taken out of me at home when I accidentally lapsed into my "teaching voice"

cushioncovers
No, but I agree with other posters that it's best she doesn't and the principle can be debated.

Otherwise you'll get these sort of responses:
On regional accents from anywhere that's considered poor/working class / scruffy by MN standards: of course they should be spoken to, they're teachers so should learn to speak properly. What are they doing teaching top set if they speak like that?

Foreign accent:

1. You're just being racist. How many languages do you speak? No wonder the teacher was angry, they're probably fed up with students and parents giving them grief and exaggerating the language issues because they want to be taught by someone white and middle class

Or

1. If people want to come to this country and work then they need to speak proper English. If he can't speak proper English then he needs to go away and learn and not come back to the classroom until he can speak properly.

For all those people who say that children get used to accents, I could never understand my maternal grandfather's thick Dudley accent, but never had a problem with my grandmother's milder one. I was frightened of my grandfather because I quite literally could not understand a word. It was complete gibberish to me yet I didn't have a problem with the rest of my Black Country family, nor my paternal family, who have a Scots accent that very many Scots find difficult (Aberdeen). Ironically, both my grandparents were teachers, my grandfather a maths teacher at the then selective grammar. He wasn't a nice man, bullying his sons and his wife's nephews; he got his own strong accent by mimicking the boys with strong accents in his classes and then it stuck, according to my mother. I can't imagine him making allowances for pupils when he wouldn't even do so for his grandchildren.

So, what happens if children fail to understand this teacher in time? When do you start getting concerned about the education they're missing out on? Because they may NEVER understand this teacher.

The issue isn't the teacher's nationality or race. It's that she's exploding when asked to repeat herself. Assuming the requests are polite and genuine, she should not have an issue. Even otherwise there are better ways to deal with it. Anger and exploding are not ways to discipline and manage a classroom.
OP's DS is not the only child who has difficulty understanding her, and is scared to dare ask her for clarification.
The teacher needs to speak more slowly and clearly, not a huge ask - it's just becoming more conscious of it, at most perhaps a few lessons from an EFL teacher, some audiobooks and YouTube would do it. It is the teacher's responsibility to communicate clearly. My accent is as standard mc SE as you can get and I had to learn to project, speak more slowly and clearly when I started to train others at work. Similarly I have struggled to understand people of the same background who mumble. Accent isn't the same as clarity of speech.
I know some people are idiots who don't bother to try to listen to those with 'furrin' accents, and it must get frustrating, but it's not fair to assume anyone who doesn't understand is doing that - mostly they genuinely don't.
The teacher being angry and making students too scared to ask her to repeat herself is the problem - that's unacceptable.
OP, tactfully raise it with the school.

So has the op said what the accent is?

No, and it's probably just as well ...

What does "banana" sound like in a non-northern-Irish accent then? I'd have thought words like "eight" or "film" or "shower" or "car" were much more pass-remarkable than banana!

Is it a Glasgow accent?

People tend to 'get' accents if they listen to understand, as opposed to having a rigid mindset that won't try because 'I can't understand'.

Rubbish. Some people just speak really badly and when you add in a strong localised accent they can become impenetrable.

Like @Lind57, I struggle with some SE England accents despite being bombarded with them on TV. Estuary English is the worst to me, and there is one particular comedian with this accent whom I have had to completely give up on, despite trying very hard to understand them. Cockney accents can be quite tough too - give me Scouse or Geordie any day!

It's just as bad when people write in accents - took me a long time to work out what a cheeky kah was. I suppose it depends on your audience, but if an accent makes you incomprehensible to enough people then your employer probably should be made aware and be given the chance to re-evaluate the benefits of employing you.

OF COURSE everyone who lives and works in the UK should be able to speak and write English to a very high standard! Jesus wept....

I wrote a really long reply but I cannot be arsed.

Know yourself out judging the poor woman based on second hand information.

And we wonder why there is a shortage of teachers in this country. No one is ever good enough!

Totally agree!

I agree that teachers are under-appreciated and I'm generally v. supportive of the teaching profession. But if pupils are genuinely having difficulty understanding a teacher, it can't be ignored.

The teacher is the adult so they need to slow down their speech if necessary.

I would complain to the school. He may adjust to her accent, however, the accent isn't really the issue. The yelling at students who don't understand her is. That is what I would focus on, in my complaint, and I would complain now, while the school year is early. You may want to put the school on notice that you'll expect him to be moved back if he can't adjust to her accent within a month.

@LissieJess "of course everyone in the UK should speak English to a high level".

Then how come when I was working in Spain, there were many English Primary teachers there who did not speak Spanish!

Why can English people go and live and work in Spain, yet not speak Spanish.

Yet, you say that everyone who comes to England must speak English??

@angell84 because those teachers are hired to speak on English so that the kids learn it. Whereas this is a high school maths teacher?