I also agree with Andres that enunciation is critical. We can't hope to have everyone speaking with one single accent. Consider how many accents there are in England alone. I am a Canadian in Tennesse and have had many 'what??' moments with my partner due to our different vowel sounds. I believe that lencouraging students to allow for the reality of the possibility of miscommunication and empowering them to ask for clarification are important ways to support not only their leanring but also their effectivess in and out of the classroom. This involves not only communicating with North Americans but also any other cultural group they may face with education, social or work lives. 

This brings me to a related idea I'd like to have as a discussion. My question is what are people doing to encourage discussion and learning about the students' cultures through the use of English? I have found that using a topic they know lots about- themselves, and one that benefits everyone in the class and out, has resulted in much more risk taking and negotiated meaning which I believe are two important states/skills for students to become autonomous learners. Recently I changed my approach to curriculum in that I use the topic of culture as a theme and teach students effective questioning for North American interactions/communication (not all cultures view questioning as appropriate). The results have been quite rewarding. I would like to know what others are doing in this regard- ideas, questions, successes and concerns. I am interested in doing research around this and would love to start a discussion. 
emma 


Emma Bourassa
CESL Coordinator
ESL Department
Thompson Rivers University
900 McGill Road. P.O. Box 3010
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5N3
(250) 371-5895
fax 371-5514
ebourassa at tru.ca

>>> "Cross, Patricia J." <pjcross at okcps.org> 08/20/07 2:18 PM >>>

Exactly.  This program doesn't completely eliminate accents; those are a charming part of the English student's culture.  However, we have some students who are beginners in English and this helps them to be understood by people in the workplace; it reduces their frustrations at not being understood in the grocery store, the doctor's office, and other places they do business in this country.  

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Kropp, Norm V.
Sent: Mon 8/20/2007 12:35 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1683] Re: Accent Reduction - IdeasforSpecialTopics Discussions



I have taught advanced ESL for 7 years and I encourage my students to speak to be understood not to eliminate their accents.  

 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Muro, Andres
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 1:01 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1681] Re: Accent Reduction - Ideas forSpecialTopics Discussions

 

Why would you want to reduce accent? Accent is good. It reflects differences in culture, background etc. Why would anyone want all English speakers to sound like people of Mexican ancestry?  I understand that pretty soon, the majority of Americans will be of Hispanic origin. However, we should still preserve the Midwest accent, the New York/New Jersey accent, the Bostonian accent, the Southern accent and all other accents. As long as people can understand each other, it is good. If some cannot understand accents beyond a very restricted region, we should work on training them to understand a multitude of accents as well as other languages. 

 

Andres

 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Cross, Patricia J.
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 9:24 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: RE: [EnglishLanguage 1664] Re: Accent Reduction - Ideas for SpecialTopics Discussions

 

At Even Start, we use a DVD named "Breaking the Accent Barrier"  by Dr. David Alan Stern.  It is very good when trying to adopt intonation and rhythm patterns of American speech.

 

Pat Cross

Oklahoma City Even Start

 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of JBaker3439 at aol.com
Sent: Mon 8/13/2007 10:25 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1664] Re: Accent Reduction - Ideas for SpecialTopics Discussions

 

I'm doing work in a large hospital where there are employees who speak English, but are very hard to understand, due to their heavy accents. 

 

I have decided to work with one employee who interacts with visitors and patients entering the hospital. He's a very bright man from Argentina who would like to move up the career ladder, but feels that this thick accent is holding him back. It is very difficult to understand him, even though he understands English perfectly.  

 

I told this employee that I wouldn't want him to fully lose his accent, but am willing to help him with certain sounds that will help him be more clearly understood.

 

During my years in adult and workplace education, I have helped many with accent reduction on an informal basis.  However, I've never had any formal training in accent reduction and would appreciate hearing what others have done in terms of working with students and training trainers.

 

Julie

  

Julie N. Baker
Workforce Skills Development
13805 Shaker Blvd., Suite #4A
Cleveland, Ohio 44120
216-561-1629
jbaker3439 at aol.com

 

________________________________

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