Arizona to ban teachers with heavy foreign accents.

CNN TV has just reported Arizona will ban teachers with what they describe as "heavy" foreign accents. The reason, was for young student's whose first language was not english, it's more difficult to learn from someone with a heavy non-American accent.

reply to post by arbiture


Good, it will make math easier to learn. Really, in sixth grade I had a terrible time learning to simplify fractions because the teacher had a thick accent. It is distracting and there is enough of that in the classroom as it is.

reply to post by arbiture


Link Please.

Also, are you sure it isn't English teachers they are banning? If that is the case then I support it. Would you want someone who is bad at math teaching algebra?

-E-

reply to post by arbiture


Back in my college days I took a physics class where the prof was a man from India with an accent so thick I only caught one in three words...

I would end up dropping that class and never did take another like that, Real shame as I was truly interested in the subject...

might not be such a bad idea

Oh wow, I have to mark Arizona off my list of places I can teach at.

My thick country Kentucky drawl would surely qualify as foreign to these jerks.

More racism coming right up! Next in Arizona.

reply to post by MysterE


I will like a link also, as the story sounds kind of a littler bit "over inflated".

Now as for the OP, I am spanish American citizen that happens to been born in the Island territory of PR, regardless, I am an American citizen with spanish as my first language, I worked as a spanish teacher for my county in GA and never got any trouble for my "heavy accent", if this would happen here when I was a teacher and get fired I would sue for discrimination, after all I am a 100% American citizen by birth.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
More racism coming right up! Next in Arizona.

More race card being played to dilute arguments.


It's not racism when it's based on accents. Xenophobic would be the closest thing, but you should really learn to use the terms properly.

I don't think the OP had a link to begin with as it sounds like it was heard on TV.

I can find nothing on CNN's site about this.

I think this is a good thing if the teacher has a heavy accent.

Back when I was in college I took an economics class and my prof was an Indian woman.

Her accent was so thick that I had more trouble understanding what she was saying than I would have had learning the material. Needless to say I dropped the class and had to take it the next semester but the university refused to refund the cost of the class.

If you pay money to attend a college then the people teaching classes need to have a strong grasp of the English language and that includes proper pronunciation.

reply to post by arbiture
As part of the MSM, CNN doesn't have to provide anything to back up what they say, they can spew whatever they like.

Edit to add:

Okay, they have a basis for the story. And it is about English teachers.



[edit on 3-5-2010 by butcherguy]

Originally posted by webpirate

I don't think the OP had a link to begin with as it sounds like it was heard on TV.

I can find nothing on CNN's site about this.

This is a legit story, here is a source for the OP.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Similar Story?

lol, see above..

www.news-gate.info... s-banned-in-arizona-schools/

[edit on 3-5-2010 by broahes]

Scratch my last post. I just found it on CNN's site with a link to the article I am linking.

Meanwhile, in a move that was more covert until the Wall Street Journal uncovered it, the Arizona Department of Education has told schools that teachers with "heavy" or "ungrammatical" accents are no longer allowed to teach English classes.

As outlined by the Journal, Arizona's recent pattern of discriminatory education policies is ironic -- and is likely a function of No Child Left Behind funding requirements -- given that the state spent a decade recruiting teachers for whom English was a second language.

In the 1990s, Arizona hired hundreds of teachers whose first language was Spanish as part of a broad bilingual-education program. Many were recruited from Latin America.

Then in 2000, voters passed a ballot measure stipulating that instruction be offered only in English. Bilingual teachers who had been instructing in Spanish switched to English.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Found a link to an old April 30th story
Arizona Grades Teachers on Fluency

The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.

Really? Arizona brought / bought all these foreign accents in THEMSELVES, now, they want to dump them like a disobediant puppy to the pound.

This state gets better and better each time I read about it.

reply to post by MysterE


Sorry I can't provide a link, but I verified it on Google/CNN, and plugging in a few search words applicable to the subject. And no, it did not specify only English teachers but all of them.

Is Arizona racist or something? If you don't speak English get out seems to be the motto here.

[edit on 3-5-2010 by conspiracydude]

Well to tell the truth, with the state of language in this nation when it comes to English, I rather have a fluent English speaking teacher teaching the language the same way that I would expect a Spanish speaking teacher to teach Spanish

That is the reason I was a Spanish teacher, because I spoke Spanish.

So I don't see any discrimination in teaching the English language by somebody that is fluent in the language that is teaching.

Another piece mentioning Arizona's state Department of Education intentions:

voices.washingtonpost.com

School districts in Arizona are under orders from the state's Department of Education to remove from classrooms teachers who speak English with a very heavy accent or whose speech is ungrammatical.

Officials say they want students who don’t know much English to have teachers who can best model how to speak the language, but, according to The Wall Street Journal, some principals and administrators are concerned that the standards for removal are arbitrary.

The recent move by the department comes during the political firestorm over a new law in Arizona which requires police to question anyone who appears to be in the country illegally. It is the most restrictive immigration law in the country.

I can't see this one being carried out, has the NEA chimed in on this new plan from Arizona?

I have to say DaddyBare must have had the same teacher I had.

I had an instructor that had such a slow southern drawl that I did not catch much of what he was trying to articulate.

He did make up for it by using a projector in much of his oratories though.

If the instructor can make up for it in a way such as that, I would not see a problem.

Oh well, sounds like histrionics to me.