AIBU to feedback to school about teachers use of glottal stops

[TalomaPaith]

Children at Dcs school are split into different groups for phonics.

Parents are sometimes invited to watch lessons. I observed a lesson by a teacher using glottal stops I.e Let'er instead of letter.

Would IBU to mention this?

I've lived in Glasgow all my life and very rarely hear anyone say the T in letter. It depends on the area you're in

I really miss the laugh emoji at times like this.

It's an accent. Are you seriously going to complain to the school about someone's natural accent?

I don't think it is. It's a lack of enunciation

Is it an accent though? I'm not convinced... I don't put in glottal stops but some other people in my area do. But yes, I would expect standard modelling of language by teachers in a phonics class.

I was taught at university when I did phonetics that the only glottal stops in the English language were to be found in the Cockney accent. So where do your glottal stops come from then?

Probably West End "Glasgow Uni" accents are the only ones who say it with the T. Although I would expect teachers in all areas to be using it to be fair!

I'm a working class person born and raised in the west of Scotland and can confirm that dropping the t is entirely a part of our accent - it's not buTTer, it's bu'er, not kiTTen but ki'en.

Many accents have them. They’re also common in Estuary English, Geordie and Glaswegian.

OP if you complain they’re unlikely to take it seriously and I very much doubt the teacher is going to try to change their accent to please you.

Why would you do that?

I'm NE Scotland and we don't do this but I have a friend from north of Inverness who sort of does this. It's hard to explain

To be fair, it must be very confusing for the kids learning to decode.
I'd say you can just say it correctly at home.

A friend of mine is French and one of her daughter's subjects is French at school. Her daughter is fluent in French and is having huge problems trying to understand what the French teacher is trying to say. Her mother went to the school and was at a complete loss when she tried to speak to the teacher herself too. She said the teacher's French pronunciation is so poor that she is completely baffled how she ever qualified to teach it.
I have visions of that class going to France and trying to speak the language while the French shake their heads wondering what language they are speaking!

Ain't ya gorr nothin be'er ter compain abar?

I would complain.

South east Scotland?

I much prefer a British glottal stop to the American 'd' sound my children have picked up e.g. baʔery vs baddery for battery., waʔer vs wadder for water.

🤣🤣🤣

South East Scotland?

This is one of those things which is neither reasonable or unreasonable. Proper spelling and enunciation must be balanced with regional accents. Neither are wrong.

I'd let the teacher crack on and, if it bothers you, you can correct your child at home.

I'm with you, OP. I'm am ex teacher who did a PG dyslexia qualification (at my own expense as ds is dyslexic). In the SE many children can't distinguish between Phil and feel for eg. I loathe it. My tutor said it's due to accent. I disagree. Have had some ridiculous spellings of words children are sure they've heard correctly due to Estuary English feeow as feel because that's how they hear it for eg. We owe it to the children to give them the best chance to succeed.

Lots of people may disagree with me. I want my children to be taught properly. And yes, that includes knowing that "should of" is incorrect. How many times at moderation have I seen teachers have written it as feedback in children's books?

Not having a go here, just trying to understand the objective. What would you want to happen as a result of the complaint?

A glottal stop is a phonological feature of regional speech and as such I think it would be very unreasonable to criticise an individual on this basis. It actually takes more effort in the vocal cords to produce one than not therefore the idea it’s sloppy speech is quite illogical.
Aside from being a really unkind criticism to make on a teacher who is likely working hard to educate your child, it’s also very classist. You might want to look up the views of linguists David Crystal and Peter Trudgill on the topic or maybe consider taking A level English Language where you can learn more about accent prejudice and its origins.

Sheridan will cope just fine, don't worry.

It's not a 'lack of enunciation' at all, it's a form of normal articulation.

As a young student teacher in an observed lesson I was picked up on saying wa’er instead of waTer. I grew up with a very colloquial Ayrshire accent. My head teacher said “och most of the weans round here say jaicket and if that’s all they picked you up on you’re doing great!”

Years later my own DC were writing poetry in Scots dialect

That's got absolutely nothing to do with the glottal stop. As a teacher you'd think you might be past perpetuating lazy ideas about speech.

I can't bear an Essex accent. Everyone just sounds so thick.