to be shocked that my friend's nursery staff have been sent to elocution lessons?

[deaconblue]

She and other mothers have apparently complained that their children are not speaking "properly" and so the nursery have sent the nursery nurses to elocution lessons. Am amazed first of all that the parents have complained and secondly that the nursery hasn't just dismissed it as snobbishness.

junglist1, I'm with you on that as I come from the poor parts of London. The way I speak is part of my culture and I thought that was supposed to be important. I guess it's the wrong culture.

India has many dialects. If someone learned to speak one and on a visit told those speaking another that they were not speaking properly it would not be appreciated.

as morocco pointed out, regional dialects not only have different accents but also to some extent different grammar rules

iirc some of those differences actually conserve older forms of English- it's the speakers of standard English who are to sloppy to remember what the rules were

My DD1 came home from school the other day and said 'when we was doing our work....' When i corrected her and said that she should use were not was, She said 'but Miss x said it is was' I was mortified. I have nothing against regional accents, but i dislike it when individuals use incorrect grammar. I would welcome elocution lessons for my dd's teacher.

forehead, you didn't hear the teacher say it did you. Don't fall for the "teacher said...." thing

Even if the meaning of 'elocution' has changed to mean 'grammer', let's call it 'grammer lessons' to be clear what we mean. I have no problem with expecting a certain level of education from workers, but to most of us 'elocution lessons' means training the serfs to speak as though they were real people like us.

I have no problem with accents, and I am as to why an Essex or London accent is unacceptable, having one myself.

I am with Riven regarding slang and text speak - the fact there is no adaptability in some people's language, including swearing at inappropriate times, and a limited vocabulary (my particular bugbear is "Like" eg "And I was like, yeah " .... meaningless

And back to the OP, as a parent, I would rather the nursery staff had training in recognising and using non-verbal forms of communication, than having elocution lessons

Hi - I am very interested in this story, as there is an article in the national press today about shop staff being told not to say "Hiya" and See ya" and "Cheers".......could the lady from Lancashire please email me, so I can chat about her experience in the nursery, as I am interested to do a piece on the radio about it......

Is this a wind-up? Seriously? Maybe if fully qualified nursery workers were paid a teeny, tiny bit more than the minimum wage then the nursery could attract the 'right' sort of accents to look after the precious DCs. FFS! Snobtastic to the extreme.

And if my nursery was using my hard-earned fees to pay for staff training I would rather it was in something useful like child development.

This thread is two years old.

Just saying...

I dont see anything wrong with it even if it is a regional accent. The accent where i am is awful and makes people sound nearly illiterate from their grammer (and yes it is the accent). I manaed to loose it several years ago when i moved away and have never re aquired it.

oh.Bugger.

I think regional accents are an important part of our culture. Using English correctly is also important. If you were interviewing people for a job, you would take in to account the grammar, both spoken and written, and the spelling on their cv. If the OP is referring to grammatical correction then the nursery is just being pro-active for all concerned.
Recently overheard a family outside a pub, having a meal.
Mother: Do you want ketchup?
Child (5?): Uh?
Mother: It's not Uh, it's wha'. Speak proper, I've told you before'

This thread is 2 years old

@pixie.

I nearly posted too and then looked at the date.

I'd LOVE to have elocution lessons!

"The rrrain in Spain..."

:)

I thought it was absolutely hilarious when my English friend (I'm Irish) claimed she didn't have an accent. When I said, well, you have an English accent she looked confused. I said "If you went to Ireland people there would know you were from England," and she looked surprised. She honestly thought she had no accent whatsoever. I found that so odd and I'm laughed a lot. I would have felt guilty but for the fact that she said "I'm afraid you do have an accent Writer" in such a patronising way before her ignorance came to light. Eh yes I know. I have an Irish accent. Like everyone from Ireland

eh that should be I laughed a lot. Obviously.

Kathy My DS does the same. He is very well spoken, the pre-school he went to had teachers with a variety of accents, some local which can vary from 'posh' or RP to quite country-ified along with a teacher form Teeside and one from Luton. He picked up a bit of the different dialects depending on who he was talking to.

His Dad is also from the North East and I am from the Midlands but influenced by living in the south for a number of years. He will alter how he talks depending on who he is talking to, he knows the different pronunciations for different words and is quite amusing to listen to

When I did my training we were told to speak proper english (scottish accents) and not to correct the children's dialect. In the private nursery we had some broader (west coast accent, but spoke properly) staff whom one parent constantly ignored despite one of them being her child's keyworker. I exploded one day big style when heavily pregnant at the owner who soon took the parent to task.

Our local accent is to drop the "t" in the middle of words. My DS has a name with a "t" in the middle (let's say it's "Walter"). It's bad enough that half the children in school think his name is "Wor-er". I would be really fed up if the staff started doing it (there have been volunteer parents in school who've called him that).

very very old thread

And the person who resurrected it not only didn't notice the date, but didn't notice that media requests cost £30.

didn't notice the date sorry!

YABU. Some nursery staff might drop their Hs or similar. It's annoying when you're trying to instill good speech and they're spending time with teachers/staff who are lazy about it. No problem with regional acents ere either...we're all Northern soundng.

at "no problem with regional accents ere"