The Answer Sheet: teachers and accents


Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 06/08/2010

Teachers council blasts Arizona policy on accents
By Valerie Strauss
The National Council of Teachers of English has finally issued a condemnation of a policy in Arizona in which teachers who speak English with a heavy accent or exhibit poor grammar are being removed from classes for students still learning English.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 06/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  arizona, arizona audits teachers with accents, arizona teachers, ell learners in arizona, english language learners in arizona, national council of teachers of english, teachers, teachers with accents

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 05/27/2010

How Arizona is checking teachers’ accents

By Valerie Strauss
More than 1,500 teachers in Arizona have already been evaluated to see if they can speak English fluently, and some have been found to have problems, a Department of Education official said.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 05/27/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning | Tags:  arizona and teachers, arizona and teachers with accents, arizona monitors teachers with accents, arizona schools, arizona teachers, teachers and accents, teachers and accents and arizona

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/25/2010

Concern over accented teachers not original to Arizona

By Valerie Strauss
The state of Arizona has gotten a lot of attention lately for its decision to remove teachers who speak with pronounced foreign accent and/or whose speech is ungrammatical from classrooms with students learning to speak English. But the idea wasn’t original to the Arizona Board of Education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning | Tags:  arizona and accents, arizona remove teachers with accents, foreign accents and teachers, research on teachers with accents, teachers with accents

Posted at 05:08 PM ET, 05/05/2010

Accented teachers may be better for English language learners: study
By Valerie Strauss
Arizona may be making a mistake by trying to remove heavily accented Hispanic teachers from classrooms filled with Hispanic English-language learners. A new study on how well students learn second languages from teachers with accents suggests that tudents can learn a second language better from a teacher who speaks in the same accent as the student.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:08 PM ET, 05/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning, Learning, Learning | Tags:  Arizona, Arizona and accented teachers, Arizona and teachers, Arizona orders teachers with accents out of class, Arizona schools, English language learners, accented teachers, how accents affect learning, language research, research, research on accents, research study on accents, teachers with accents, the answer sheet and arizona