How can people become teachers of ANY subject, when they can’t even speak English correctly?
It seems quite incredible that young people are qualifying as teachers, yet they are incapable of putting words together to make a coherent sentence. When I was at school, all teachers had to be able to speak correctly, because that’s what they were.. teachers and role models for students.
If teacher can’t be bothered to use the language correctly, why should their pupils bother either?
‘Am I bovvered? Do I look bovvered’? (Why do ‘Answers’ make two letter v’s look like a ‘w’?) Congratulations on your near-perfect typing of your question and lack of an indefinte article or plural, as the case befits, and a problem with suspension marks. Look out for my errors!
As a teacher of English for over 30 years, I tried to teach pupils, not only about ‘received’ English but also about ‘appropriate’ English for a given situation. Therefore, slang, swearing, idiom and ‘variable grammar’ are part of this. The differences between colloquial English and written English, for various purposes, can provide very funny and instructive lessons.
I was also keen that pupils should learn the ‘rules’, so that they could judge when it was acceptable to ‘break’ the rules’. I wasn’t ‘trendy’ but I tried to look at every aspect of our langauge, as far as possible. I see no problem between being ‘correct’ and in exploring other areas of communication. I tried West Indian ‘Patois’ lessons as well as Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, War Poets, Dickens, Brontes and so on. I remember a field trip we had to Howarth – ‘Bronte country’ – when we went to The Parsonage and to ‘Top Withins’ – a real place – and the Sixth Formers and I had great fun in reciting passages from ‘Wuthering Heights’ in different ‘styles’. We made Heathcliff sound like a West Indian, then a Welshman, then a Geordie, then an American … and so on. We rolled about – but the students never forgot the ‘true’ text ever after! Branwell Bronte couldn’t even speak English after a few days at the pub and being on drugs!
Don’t despair about ‘young people qualifying as teachers’. It was always the case that I had to correct colleagues’ work and to tell them where to stick their apostrophes! Other colleagues often had to correct my attempts at science or maths or home economics – when I tried, in a substitution lesson, to teach girls how to make cheese straws! Go on, you can make the joke yourself … !
Yoiu are right about teachers. They should try, in their body of kowledge, to know what is right. The role model is to show both correctness and appropriateness according to the situation. It is quite correct for a ‘Liverpudlian’ to say, "Come ‘ed, soft lad." Would it be appropriate to say this to Prince Charles? Well …
You say that when you were at school, all teachers had to be coherent in written and spoken English. Perhaps you never met some of the teachers whom I knew, both at comprehensive schools and in an interesting ‘spell’ at Eaton College.
Fight the good fight. I support you – but be just a little flexible.
By the way, I am one of those ‘sad people’ who has to correct punctuation errors on restaurant menus! Can’t speak proper, though. It’s me upbringin’.
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where is your facts that they can’t
when you say young people they must train for 4 years to become a teacher so if they have done the same training as a older student then why not
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On one level, I agree you. However, I think we have to make a distinction between those who cannot use their native language properly, and those for whom English is not a native language. The latter have to be fluent, but we can allow for some errors made by them, particularly in written English.
The former have no business becoming teachers.
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grape pie
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‘Am I bovvered? Do I look bovvered’? (Why do ‘Answers’ make two letter v’s look like a ‘w’?) Congratulations on your near-perfect typing of your question and lack of an indefinte article or plural, as the case befits, and a problem with suspension marks. Look out for my errors!
As a teacher of English for over 30 years, I tried to teach pupils, not only about ‘received’ English but also about ‘appropriate’ English for a given situation. Therefore, slang, swearing, idiom and ‘variable grammar’ are part of this. The differences between colloquial English and written English, for various purposes, can provide very funny and instructive lessons.
I was also keen that pupils should learn the ‘rules’, so that they could judge when it was acceptable to ‘break’ the rules’. I wasn’t ‘trendy’ but I tried to look at every aspect of our langauge, as far as possible. I see no problem between being ‘correct’ and in exploring other areas of communication. I tried West Indian ‘Patois’ lessons as well as Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, War Poets, Dickens, Brontes and so on. I remember a field trip we had to Howarth – ‘Bronte country’ – when we went to The Parsonage and to ‘Top Withins’ – a real place – and the Sixth Formers and I had great fun in reciting passages from ‘Wuthering Heights’ in different ‘styles’. We made Heathcliff sound like a West Indian, then a Welshman, then a Geordie, then an American … and so on. We rolled about – but the students never forgot the ‘true’ text ever after! Branwell Bronte couldn’t even speak English after a few days at the pub and being on drugs!
Don’t despair about ‘young people qualifying as teachers’. It was always the case that I had to correct colleagues’ work and to tell them where to stick their apostrophes! Other colleagues often had to correct my attempts at science or maths or home economics – when I tried, in a substitution lesson, to teach girls how to make cheese straws! Go on, you can make the joke yourself … !
Yoiu are right about teachers. They should try, in their body of kowledge, to know what is right. The role model is to show both correctness and appropriateness according to the situation. It is quite correct for a ‘Liverpudlian’ to say, "Come ‘ed, soft lad." Would it be appropriate to say this to Prince Charles? Well …
You say that when you were at school, all teachers had to be coherent in written and spoken English. Perhaps you never met some of the teachers whom I knew, both at comprehensive schools and in an interesting ‘spell’ at Eaton College.
Fight the good fight. I support you – but be just a little flexible.
By the way, I am one of those ‘sad people’ who has to correct punctuation errors on restaurant menus! Can’t speak proper, though. It’s me upbringin’.
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