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?

If you do, I would pay good money to hear the talk in the staff rooms afterwards.

@YYYDlilah I lived in Surrey and the majority of people I came across had what I'd call a posh accent .

Obviously not everyone in SE England does.

Clearly - because you're the person discriminating against them and seeking to affect their career. (It's affect, by the way. Did your accent prevent you from using the correct word?)

By the way, with the cloves/clothes distinction, I lipread following hearing loss. The differential between the two visually is tiny and aurally, practically nothing. It's also generally perfectly clear that you aren't adding socks to a Christmas cake mix or adorning oneself with a string of dried flower buds instead of a t shirt in order to leave the house. In the case of the child being used to make a point, it's as likely that a hearing check (or a reminder to pay attention instead of thinking about random cooking ingredients in primary school) would be a more appropriate response than criticising the staff member.

@Slightyamusedandsilly , I don't hear the 'extra letter (r)'. Some people say bath with the long way, some don't. If I hear the r then it is incorrect.

Drawer said as draw - incorrect.
Drawer said as draw-uh/draw-uhr - both correct
Drawing said as draw-ing - correct
Drawing said as draw-ring - incorrect

@RaraRachael , I think your definition of 'a posh accent' might be a generic Surrey accent and not a well-spoken version of English.

@NeverDropYourMooncup , In the case of the child being used to make a point, it's as likely that a hearing check (or a reminder to pay attention instead of thinking about random cooking ingredients in primary school) would be a more appropriate response than criticising the staff member.
The child was asked to spell cloves and spelt it correctly.

The smartest giant in town by any chance?!
Gets me everytime 😂

It's the teacher's accent, surely? And what's wrong with that? I'm sure some of the students have a regional accent too? I have a fairly strong Lancashire accent - because that's where I'm from and have always lived - and would honestly be pretty pissed off if one of my students' parents said they had a problem with how I pronounce some words. I can't help it and don't want to change how I speak to be honest.

Having a regional accent doesn't mean your language use is incorrect.

@alpacamonstera , your accent isn't an issue. If you were teaching phonics to a class of young children it might be.

So all teachers should speak Received Pronunciation if they’re teaching phonics?

Love this. The OP is basically saying ‘my child will be discriminated by narrow-minded people like me’

The Sutton Trust report above is fascinating and I really do hope that, as a teacher, you read it (maybe as part of your CPD).

Best of luck, OP, let us know what the school says

@alpacamonstera , they should enunciate clearly. The accent isn't the problem, it's the lack of clarity.

MN seems to think that anyone pressing for clear enunciation is insisting that only RP is correct.
That is categorically not what I am saying.

I'd not be happy if my child came home from school saying 'boh'w' for bottle but I couldn't give a monkeys if they came home saying pɑːθ or paθ.

I’m Irish so have a rhotic accent where all the r’s are pronounced. Words like farmer sound quite different when said in rhotic versus non-rhotic accents. Most English people’s accents are non-rhotic.

The children here are taught to say ar, er etc using the local accent where the r is pronounced. Many of the recordings used in phonics classes are from the UK and feature speakers with an English accent. The sound clips and songs for er and ar are simply skipped and the teacher gives the sound instead. It’s probably the same in places like Scotland I’d say.

Regional accents can have clarity, they’re just diverse.You might not be asking for RP explicitly, but you are saying there’s a default accent and it’s an ‘acceptable’ south east England accent. A lot of the country would beg to differ.

I’m in Scotland - east coast and I always pronounce my words properly. I don’t really have a ‘local’ accent though, more of a local x autistic which makes me use the letters as they should be.

I would raise it with school if a teacher was not modelling the correct use of language

Glottal stops set my misophonia off really badly. However, that is my problem. No way would I complain about it.

@Somethingontheroof it's the same in Scotland.
I used to teach P2 and we always missed out the bit with the long and short oo sound because it isn't a thing for us - the oo sound in moon is the same as in look etc. Same with homonyms - "Circle the words that sound the same - poor pour paw pore" etc. Nope they all sound completely different.

My accent is NE Scottish and I'm not aware of it really until I'm with OH'Ss family who are "posh Glasgow" and then I'm aware I sound different.

People using 'effect' instead of 'affect' when the latter is correct might also affect career prospects....

Many teachers have poor speech and grammar. Even the OP is making several mistakes in each post, and saying it does not matter as it is an online forum. Why an online forum means that she can’t end her sentences in full stops and punctuate correctly (using apostrophes) is beyond me.

Anyway, the best teacher my son ever had was in year five. Her spelling and grammar were atrocious. But she believed in him and encouraged him and was inspirational. Of course I didn’t mention it to the teacher.

Ever since that time, there have been many teachers who did not know how to spell correctly. It is symptomatic of their education growing up, and the country’s literacy as a whole. Beggars can’t be choosers in this education crisis, so we have to accept the teachers we have. And many of course are highly literate.

All you can do is model good literacy at home, if you are fortunate to have both the education, intelligence and lack of any specific issues such as dyslexia etc. It is pointless complaining I feel.

@CreativeGreen absolutely. Hence why I would ensure my spelling grammar and pronunciation is correct at work, unlike the teacher

Interesting. Moon and look have different vowel sounds for me. Pour sounds the same as pore where I am (south of Ireland), but paw and poor are different.
Rhyming books like Julia Donaldson’s always only partially work!

I hope we’ve answered @TheAutumnalCrow’s question anyway. Teachers often skip, or adjust, the sounds that don’t make any sense in the local accent. Not because they have poor speech and grammar, but because accents differ. I also think people forget that there is more than one form of standard English!

@alpacamonstera Fellow Lancastrian here. You've made me fondly recall my reception teacher who pronounced book, cook and look with an elongated oo rather than an u. Wasn't how my parents pronounced it and I just accepted that people pronounce things differently. Shame the OP doesn't think her child is capable of distinguishing between accents.

You can't see the difference between the language used in the work and the language used at home whilst writing on a forum? How long have you been unemployed for?

Yes! And like every region, there’s so much variation in Lancashire too. You can hear a difference between two neighbouring towns. I think it makes language so much more interesting.

Thanks @Somethingontheroof
Pour and pore are the same to me
Paw and poor completely different

I hated having to read Julia Donaldson books to my classes. I ended up putting on a faux English accent to make the rhymes work