To expect dd's teacher to pronounce her 't's

[paolosgirl]

DD (8) has a newly qualified teacher this year (who looks about 12, LOL). She is in love with her, but came home shocked that Miss X says swee'har', le'er, bu'er etc (I'm forever telling DD and DS to say t when it's in a word)

Would it bug you too, or am I turning into my mother?

has she got a sort of lisp or what? is she foreign?

Totally agree Zippi.

No - she's Scottish!!!! No lisp either!!!

The only thing worse than a teacher with terrible diction is one with terrible spelling and punctuation.

We have a regular Irish supply teacher in my year 1 class. (Home Counties) Phonics is a scream and usually has to be abandoned if we are trying to learn double vowel sounds

UQD, there speaks a grammar school lad! I do agree, there is no excuse for bad spelling and punctuation from a teacher. It doesn't matter how someone speaks, written English matters greatly.

Lots of Geordies drop t in some words like butter but not everyone as there is massive variantion between broad geordie and soft geordie. Thought it was the same for scottish tbh.

do you think affectation or ignorance?

Plenty of examples of people in the media with lovely regional accents who speak clearly and correctly - Kirsty Young, Jarvis Cocker, Aled Jones, Annie Lennox... Accent's no excuse for sloppiness.

And Lauren Laverne, if you want a Geordie example.

Headin' off to bed - ni' ni' a'

yabu

My dcs are trilingual. They talk posh at home,Kentish at school and Yorkshire with the grandparents. They also know that they say toilet,tea and pardon at school and loo, supper and what at home. Don't stress it. Just carry on quietly pronouncing your "t's at home and your dcs will follow on.

i am a london speaker, but i do usually include consonants (unless speaking cockernee but that is another thread)

UQD, I am not saying that dropping t's is a part of all regional accents. It is a part for some accents, and the way Paolo's OP read is the classic way people write Estuary. As proffessorplum says, regional accents vary hugely - the closer you get to London the more pronounced Estuary becomes, for example. Most of my family have Easy End rather than Estuary accents and in the days when I used to watch East Enders I got so irritated at the number of characters speaking Estuary instead of East End.

East, obviously - written English matters but not typed

Well, I'm from the "Estuary" area (Medway) originally, and while I've travelled a bit and had the edges knocked off, I still have a recognisable (slight) accent. I'd dispute that the glottal stop and dropped consonants are a natural part of it.

I think it depends which part you come from. Where I grew up it was normal and I don't regard it as poor diction, although it's not the way I speak thanks to my mum! In the grand scheme of things it hardly matters.

Gosh, I must stop teaching right away then. Amazing that I tend to get some of the best results in the school regarding exams, and have significantly improved the uptake of my subjects. The kids enjoy being taught by me (we get them to appraise our teaching), I get good results, and make the kids enthusuastic about by subjects. But I can't spell (probably dyslexic/praxic) so I must go.

Jeez, you people ask for a lot for the money.....

This would bother me a lot. DS1 has a severe phonological disorder and we spend hours working with him on his speech. I expect the school to work with us on this. One of his specific targets at the moment is to achieve the 't' sound in the middle of the word but how could a teacher like this help him to achieve this if she is not pronouncing the word correctly herself. I wonder how speech therapists get round this one when their patient has a strong regional accent which drops letters?

well where I taught - it was their 'regional accent' glottal stop and all - there were 'homegrown' teachers who spoke like that - who am I to judge the way they speak - as there are 'posh' and okcer' aussie teachers where I also once taught - each speaking their way - does not detract from their knowledge or their ability to teach.

I suppose one thing you tend to get in fee paying schools is teachers who speak like you and it's one of the thing things I pay for (a minor thing but still worth paying for)

Well, I pay my kids teachers and they don't sound like me. I'm Welsh and live in England. they also have regional accents.

Cracking set of results this year tho, even if they don't conform to cut glarse (sic) accents.

I'd rather my kids have a regional accent and actually be able to say something interesting, than have a posh accent and talk a load of crap.