They don't do Scottish accents
British Council English Teacher Conference
Bilbao, 24 September, 2016
When you are learning a new language, the last thing you want to have to deal with
are different accents. Or is it? Accent variation is the reality of living languages, and
this is especially true of today's globalized English. So how can we deal with accents
in the ELT classroom? Or should we just stick to RP?
1. Attitudes to accents
a) On a scale from 1 (Totally agree) to 5 (Totally disagree), how do you feel about
each of the following statements:
Statement
1. We should all learn to speak English with the same accent.
2. The best accent for students to imitate is an RP (BBC) English
accent.
3. If a volcanologist can’t pronounce a word like ‘volcano’
correctly, it is unlikely that his/her research results will be
very reliable.
4. A bad accent is like wearing shabby clothes to a job interview
– it gives the wrong first impression.
5. It’s easier to understand native speakers than non-native
speakers of English.
2. Accommodating accents
E the Queen Elizabeth second
A hm?
E sorry + I mistook + Queen Elizabeth the second
A hmhm
H it’s the second
E is the largest passenger in the
H in the?
E in the world
A yeah in the
H in the?
J in the boat?
E in the world
H in the bar?
E world
J in the w-o-r-l-d (stretching the vowel)
E in the world yes
H oh w-o-r-l-d
(laughter)
(Lynch 1996: 114)
Mark
They don't do Scottish accents
British Council English Teacher Conference
Bilbao, 24 September, 2016
3. Exploring accents
•
The Speech Accent Archive.
http://accent.gmu.edu
•
International Dialects of English Archive.
http://www.dialectsarchive.com
•
English Language Listening Library Online.
www.elllo.org
•
ELF Pronunciation
https://elfpron.wordpress.com
References / further reading
Cauldwell, R. 2013. Phonology for Listening. Teaching the Stream of Speech.
Birmingham: Speech in Action.
Derwing, T. M., and Munro, M. J. 2011. Intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accent:
their relevance to pronunciation teaching. Speak Out! 45: 4–8.
Derwing, T. M., Rossiter, M. J., & Munro, M. J. 2002. Teaching native speakers to
listen to foreign accented speech. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development,
23/4: 245–259.
Field, J. 2003. The fuzzy notion of ‘intelligibility': a headache for pronunciation teachers
and oral testers. IATEFL Special Interest Groups Newsletter in Memory of Gill Porter
Ladousse, 34–38.
Hancock, M. 2012. At the Talk face 8, Speak Out! 47: 30-31.
Hannam, S. 2006. 'Pronunciation teaching today: listening without prejudice'. TESOLSPAIN Newsletter. Volume 29, Spring 2006: 3–6.
Lippi-Green, R. 1997. English with an accent. Language, ideology and discrimination in
the United States. London and New York: Routledge.
Lynch, T. 1996. Communication in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Patsko, L and K. Simpson. 2015. ELF Pronunciation. Available online at:
https://elfpron.wordpress.com
Scales, J., A. Wennerstrom, D. Richard and S. Hui Wu. 2006. Language learners’
perceptions of accent. TESOL Quarterly 40/4: 715–738.
Spyra-Kozłowska, J. 2015. Pronunciation In EFL Instruction. A Research-based
Approach. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Walker, R. 2010. Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.