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posted by takyon on Saturday May 14 2016, @04:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the darn-tootin' dept.

Trainee teachers with northern accents are under pressure to speak 'the Queen's English' in the classroom, according to a study carried out at The University of Manchester.

Dr Alex Baratta, a lecturer in linguistics, found that accents most associated with the Home Counties were favoured by the teacher training profession.

Last year Dr Baratta found trainee teachers with northern accents felt they were 'selling out' because they felt they had to change their accents to be understood in the classroom, having been instructed to do so by their mentors.

His latest study explored teacher accent, identity and linguistic prejudice and centred on schools based in the south of England - the previous study involved northern schools.

The North shall rise again?


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  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday May 14 2016, @04:49AM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday May 14 2016, @04:49AM (#345969)

    It's easy to criticise, but how would you feel if you were about to have brain surgery and the doctor had something like a rural southern US accent? "Don't worry, y'all are in great hands, I tell you what." I'm betting it would make a lot of people very worried. It's hard to ignore cultural stereotypes sometimes.

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  • (Score: 2) by devlux on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:04AM

    by devlux (6151) on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:04AM (#345974)

    Umm your trailer court is showing. :D

  • (Score: 2) by darnkitten on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:07AM

    by darnkitten (1912) on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:07AM (#345976)

    You don't know beans from sic 'em!

    ...as one of my late volunteers here in rural Montana used to say.

    -

    I expect that rural and blue-collar industrial accents are discriminated against everywhere.

    Except sports. (and NASCAR).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:42AM (#345979)

      Hehe I for some reason love those american southern colloquialisms. I worked with a couple of dudes that would come up with a new different one every day. It would always stop me in my tracks and laugh as they would pick amazingly funny crude ones. I would then quiz them on what it meant or just laugh for a few mins. It was pretty amazing. Between the two of them they never repeated either over the 5 years I worked with them. They seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of them. I would also in a heartbeat give them a recommendation for another programming job.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2016, @06:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2016, @06:20AM (#345989)

      Accent, not so much.

      Grammar? Oh you better believe it.

      Being first generation to the US, my dad impressed upon me "command of the language will open doors you didn't even know existed". And he was right. Being able to speak well has smoothed over my lingering accent.

      This leads to a unique situation among blacks (yeah yeah yeah racism) of code switching where proper US grammar is known, but using it beyond certain contexts is seen as selling-out.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday May 14 2016, @11:57AM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday May 14 2016, @11:57AM (#346043) Journal

      what were they trying to say, sorghum? at most montanans from the really, really small isolated towns like choteau or jordan might have a slight western drawl (for those who don't know what that sounds like the character Walt from the show Longmire is close), but it's not hard to understand. people in the bigger towns like missoula or billings are indistinguishable from people in kansas in terms of accent.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by darnkitten on Tuesday May 17 2016, @06:02PM

        by darnkitten (1912) on Tuesday May 17 2016, @06:02PM (#347402)

        That puzzled me, too, at first, until it came up on the language program A Way With Words, where they said it is a fairly common ruralism. I've only heard it from older folks in town.

        From what I understand, it is a combination of two phrases, "he don't know beans" and "he don't know 'c'mere' from 'sic 'em'" (which originally referred to dogs). Because the meanings were similar, they eventually joined together, losing the originals.

        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 18 2016, @12:09AM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday May 18 2016, @12:09AM (#347564) Journal

          huh. that's a new one on me. i spent most of my time in the northwest bounded by missoula, helena, great falls, and eureka/libby, with frequent travel to butte and bozeman. more time as an adult around lewistown and billings. in highschool for debate we went all over the place. funny how you can think you know a place intimately and still it surprises you.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
          • (Score: 2) by darnkitten on Wednesday May 18 2016, @05:25PM

            by darnkitten (1912) on Wednesday May 18 2016, @05:25PM (#347907)

            I lived in Bozeman, but never heard the phrase until I moved to Sheridan (you've probably driven through it without stopping--it's on the road between Virginia City and either Dillon or Whitehall, depending on which route you travel).

            I've heard more colorful ruralisms here than in my entire life previous; though, considering that most of it was spent on or near major military bases, that's probably not surprising.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:59AM

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday May 14 2016, @05:59AM (#345984) Journal
    "It's easy to criticise, but how would you feel if you were about to have brain surgery and the doctor had something like a rural southern US accent?"

    I'd be happy to be in the hands of a civilized man instead of a damn yankee, actually.

    He might have the patience to complete a surgery without cutting a bunch of corners to get to the golf course sooner.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday May 14 2016, @10:01PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Saturday May 14 2016, @10:01PM (#346177)

      I'd be happy to be in the hands of a civilized man [rural southerner] instead of a damn yankee, actually. He might have the patience to complete a surgery without cutting a bunch of corners to get to the golf course sooner.

      But the southerner might be impatient to get back to shooting some tin cans off the wall.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2016, @09:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2016, @09:04AM (#346017)

    The only thing i care about is that i can actually understand what you are saying. I may not like certain accents and like some others, but that does not matter, only that it's clear what is said.

    A teacher needs to speak properly and lose the accent to make sure everyone understands what is said. If a kid does not even understand the spoken words of the teacher, how is the kid supposed to understand the subject at hand? Fucking selfish and ignorant to complain about "feeling selling out", it's selling out when the kids don't get proper education.

  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Saturday May 14 2016, @03:04PM

    by Hartree (195) on Saturday May 14 2016, @03:04PM (#346084)

    I work for a chemistry department at a major university in the Midwest. You mostly don't hear strong southern accents among the graduate students here. Is it that there aren't southerners? No. There are many of them. They've often worked to cover it up as they are taken less seriously. I know one notable exception, but he's so good at what he does, he can wear it as a nonconformist badge of pride.

    This seems very similar to the much criticized practice of lightening skin in many parts of the world. It's a matter of hiding what you are, because you will be judged on it regardless of how little it really has to do with your ability.

    • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday May 14 2016, @03:23PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday May 14 2016, @03:23PM (#346087)

      Nice that the one guy keeps it at least. Not to be misunderstood, I have no problem with accents from stereotypically 'hick' sort of areas, but I think many people do, intentional or not. Perhaps it's that I actually come from an area like that with an accent that's fun to poke fun at.