Teacher dialect

[MaverickGooseGoose]

No doubt I'll make a mistake on this, Sod's Law and all that...

All the SLT and from what I've heard a lot of the teachers speak is sard east London dialect.

Free / three / roof / ruth / we was etc.

It's grating on me, if Roof was on the roof and needed free pounds to get off but her mum was coming to get her where was she going?

I understand dialect / colloquialisms but some of what they say/write doesn't make sense.

Anyone else as irritated as me? It's the same
on the radio now, the guy on capital is giving away free fousand pounds for free. Argh.

That isn’t anything to do with accent or dialect, it’s to do with standard v non-standard English.

I’m Mancunian, but I speak and write in grammatically correct English. All teachers and academic support staff should do the same and model the difference. The way you speak to friends and family is not the way you write or speak formally. To deny the difference is disingenuous and does children and young people no favours.

Oh bore off with your dialect bashing. Are you that twunt Lord Digby Jones?

I don’t think it’s at all ok for teachers to be saying “we was…” etc and definitely not writing it.

I do think accents - or “speech immaturities” as you like to term them - like free for three, roof for Ruth etc, are basically fine. The teacher should be clear and intelligible. But I can’t get worked up about accents like that. It’s also utterly ridiculous to make out like it’ll confuse kids with spellings - have you seen our language? There’s barely any link! Know and no, tough / cough / bough…

Still a snob... or a knob, take your pick 🙄

Snobbery!!??!?? people can't speak their own language intelligibly. We're not talking about accents, it's about clarity and making sense. It's so fundamental, basic, and tragic.

Contemporary RP, yes, in professional settings.

www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/received-pronunciation

I’m absolutely sickened and disgusted by some of the responses in this post.
The comments by some calling out accents/dialects as ‘lazy’, shows complete ignorance and intolerance.
I have a South London accent, having been born and raised in Bermondsey by cockney parents. I am extremely proud of my heritage and my accent.
The London accent has changed a lot now, influenced by different cultures and accents from around the world, so a new dialect seems to be forming.
I can and do change my way of speaking when I am with others who are not from the same background as me but that is only because I have learnt how judgemental people can be.
However, lots of my friends and family do not (and will not, I suspect) change their way of speaking to appease others.
Funnily enough, coming from a poor background and growing up on a council estate we were not offered elocution lessons
at the local youth club or school.
Some of us knew no other way of speaking or even that our way of speaking was so offensively wrong to others.
It is especially frustrating when those who judge us are the people who chose to move to our now gentrified hometowns because they seem such trendy places to live.
It makes my blood boil when privileged people think that anybody who doesn’t speak standard English is an ignorant moron who should know better.
I understand that you feel teachers should be setting an example to pupils, however, branding people ‘lazy’ and making nasty comments or acting like a crime has been committed just shows your own prejudice.
There are so many different ethnicities living in the poorer parts of London that were once occupied by cockneys. English (Standard English at that) is not always the first language (oddly enough, and shocking as it is) and so a new accent and dialect begins to form. Sorry that it’s not perfect English - how shocking us peasants can’t pronounce ‘three/free’ to your satisfaction.

Accents are one thing, but poor grammar is another. Teachers should not be guilty of poor grammar. If that’s ‘snobbish’ of me, so be it.

I agree with you. It is ridiculous. This is rarely about accent,it is laziness. I say this as someone who.has strong regional accent but speaks grammatically correctly. If I hear pupils speak incorrectly, I challenge them explaining what they might choose to say to friends and what is suitable in the class may be different. Not heard the teachers doing it though.

I’m with you OP. It’s not about accents (I have a very strong and distinctive accent that is ALWAYS commented on) but teachers not speaking grammatically correctly (“we was…”) or intelligibly (“free” for “three”) would set me on edge. I’ve only ever struck it with a TA but after a while the class teacher asked her to make an effort to speak properly! Why does it matter? Because I want my children to have the ability to speak clearly and intelligibly and it is made harder if their teachers don’t model that. And clear speech is essential in the workplace - or at least any workplace I’ve been in, and on any interview panel I’ve sat on. Anyone who said “we was” wouldn’t get past round one.

There’s some unpleasant snobbery on here and it makes the posters look ignorant, not intelligent. The more you understand about language, the more you understand that pronouncing ‘three’ as ‘free’ is not bad English. Accent Snobbery

I know what RP is. And so does David Crystal. (my link)
I doubt you speak it.

I love accents.

Can even get on board with roof and free.

But we was sounds thick and teachers should know better

I pronounce three as free unless I think very carefully about what I am saying I am from a North London working class background. Went to a decent university (where my accent was mocked) and left with a first back when it was not as common. Better degree than the mocking middle class twats which is who I am getting flashbacks to on this thread.

I’m sure your child will manage, since you will be setting them a good example at home. I wouldn’t get yourself so invested in it - my children had teachers with lots of different accents. I never went into the school whining that their Nigerian teacher pronounced some words differently and I wanted my kids to be able to speak ‘correct English’ because I know that when it comes to accents there is no ‘correct English.’

My kids have all managed to retain their own accent, none were ever confused by Nigerian pronunciation. Didn’t seem to stop them understanding a word the teacher said to them either.

Does make me wonder though - does that mean only those who speak a certain way can be teachers? So nobody with non-English accents, nobody with a regional accent, nobody with a speech impediment? That seems like you’d be introducing your kids to a very small world really.

I've interviewed so many school leavers over the years and the sudden use of "fanks/fankyou" is bizarre.
They can say th but they say f instead. I know because I ask them. Not acceptable in the role I recruit for.
Fanks but no fanks.

Are you speaking to me? A knob for having a strong, regional accent and a regional language -and dialect of that language - I'm proud of and speak every day, but also see the need for teaching and learning Standard English in our multi- cultural society? Right then...

What ARE you talking about? Have you RTFT? No-one is saying this, no-one. As a born and bred Glaswegian with a very strong accent, I can and do teach Standard English alongside speaking and teaching in my own language (Scots).

Eyeroll85 you're getting your knickers in a twist about working class language and culture being erased. Noone is saying this is what should hapoen: they're saying that educators need to educate about dialect AND Standard English.

The Scots have been shat upon from the high heavens for centuries, especially working class Scots (my family history is Irish and when my grandfather arrived he faced huge prejudice from the Scots as well, Jesus) yet we retain our distinct culture and language whilst recognising we also need to know Standard English too. It's not black and white

I’m talking about op’s oh so earnest proclamation that it isn’t class at all, just that she is worried her children won’t pick up correct English. So in that case surely she couldn’t have a non English speaker or someone with a speech impediment because her kids might not be able to understand them either.

Having a teacher who says "we was", "fink" and "free" isn't the reason children speak that way. It doesn't mean they aren't taught "correct" English in school. There are other, much more influential...influences for why this develops. Their family, community and peer group will be the main reasons.

Is the use of Standard English in classrooms still part of the Teachers' Standards? Being able to understand different accents/dialects is a useful skill for children to learn. As is code switching, so knowing when it's ok to use 'we was' (with your family/friends if that's your dialect - and yes this is a dialect form) and when it's more appropriate to use 'we were' (in a formal situation or among people who speak a different dialect). The main issue with teachers using 'we was' in speech is that they would then have to train the children out of using it when writing as it would always be incorrect in this form.

YANBU. Accent, fine, but mispronunciation and incorrect spelling as a result from a teacher is not ok.

Some Irish people may say Root though I've yet to hear that, anyone I know pronounce it Ruth.

When I lived in London I had tree (three) knocked out of me and have been saying three every since.

You're now back-tracking. OP didn't mean this, and you know it. I don't care who teaches my child or which accent they have (right now a strong N Irish one) as long as they can teach him to speak and write in Standard English. It's not about class, it's about standardisation so everyone in this mixed, diverse, vibrant country can all communicate.

Teachers need to be able to speak Standard English. If you can't, use your skills elsewhere.. I don't understanding quantum physics so I'm not a physicist; I can't cut hair, so I'm not a hairdresser; I'm a vegetarian, so i couldn't be a beef farmer.