Heavily accented teachers removed from Arizona classrooms

[grassfed]

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.

Arizona's education department has sent people into schools to audit teachers on comprehensible pronunciation, correct grammar and good writing. Teachers who fail may try to improve, but if they don’t, school districts can fire or reassign them.


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[tekisui]

1. Arizona has jumped the shark, clearly. Unbelievable.

[pinboy3niner]

2. +1

Kind of reveals pretty clearly that this is not just about illegal immigration.

[Jefferson23]

3. And that idiot Sarah Palin is an example of someone who is articulate when she opens her mouth?

Are they fucking kidding me, this is beyond disgusting.

[grilled onions]

4. How Picky Will They Get?

Will they ban any teacher with a southern accent? Boston? Northern? The French lilt of New Orleans? British? This ruling could go way beyond what they THINK is a bad influence on the way a teacher speaks!

[Ghost Dog]

5. But all Americans speak English with weird accents,

and write ungrammatically and with spelling mistakes.

Is Arizona really only going to employ native British teachers from now on?

[notadmblnd]

6. Could we give Arizona back to Mexico?

That might learn them something about playing nice with others?

[sandnsea]

7. Maybe George Bush could conduct workshops n/t

[Jefferson23]

8. LOL, good one. n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

9. Ethnic cleansing in Arizona continues...

Is the entire state infested with Illinois Nazis?

[newtothegame]

14. You are killing your argument by using "nazi" as a tool of political convenience.

If your goal ever was to be taken seriously, that is.

And it's depressing that our kids will have no idea the true horror of ethnic cleansings thanks to folks like you. Your impassioned ignorance speaks volume about the sad state of affairs in American today.

ed for sp

[Ozymanithrax]

23. Perhaps I should have put sarcasm or linked "Illinois Nazis" to the Blues Brothers...

video. The exact quote "I hate Illinois Nazis."

What we are seeing in Arizona is a mild form of ethnic clensing. Slobodon Milosovic would be proud of the Arizona GOP.

[damntexdem]

10. Mebbe Texas is fixin to ged rid of them thar teechers wif bad aksents, too.

OK, will Arizona get rid of all teachers who speak with southern accents?

[tavalon]

11. And the beat goes on......

They just don't know when to quit, do they?

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Were they concerned about these issues when Ellis Island was still open?

[newtothegame]

13. As a recent college graduate, I can testify to how difficult it is...

to learn anything when you cannot understand your professor. I can imagine it's even worse for these young kids who are trying to learn the proper use of the language in the first place.

[notadmblnd]

16. That's just an excuse for not paying attention.

[newtothegame]

17. wow. nt

[proteus_lives]

32. You've never had to take a math class from a Chinese T.A. who barely spoke English.

[dmallind]

18. Some people however simply listen harder and ask for clarification if need be.

The number of people in various parts of the US who comment on other "hard to understand" accents outside their own state or even county is staggering and embarassing, so I'm guessing most of the difficulty in understanding is parochialism.

[newtothegame]

19. My tuition was $30,000+ a year. That's a lot of money to be struggling to understand the words...

my professors were saying, let alone the meaning of those words.

[dmallind]

24. How many people passed the course? If more than a tiny farction where is the problem? NT

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. professors and teachers differ in this a lot. firstly, profs are not really paid/promoted to teach

they are paid/promoted on the quality of research and publications. which is why college student have a lot of profs they dont understand or more frequently profs who cant teach.

i point this out, as this is hardly the problem anyone in high school has ever had. they just are being xenophobic with the law.

[BrightKnight]

28. Xenophobic schools will not prepare students to compete in a global economy. - n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

36. true that

[Jefferson23]

31. And the reason for this was because the professor had an accent?

How many professors did you have difficulty understanding?

[DBoon]

15. so will AZ teachers have to pass the redneck literacy test?

M.R. Ducks
M. R. Not
O. S. A. R.
C. M. Wangs
L. I. B.
M. R. Ducks

[PSzymeczek]

29. Here's one my dad told me when I was little:

Seevilly, dair dago. Tousinbuses inarow. Nojo, demstrux, summit
cowsin summit dux.

[PSzymeczek]

30. There's also the story of

Ladle Rat Rotten Hut
http://www.justanyone.com/allanguish.html#_Toc505953306

[grasswire]

33. oh god I had forgotten all about that

I wonder if Walt Kelly was inspired by Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

[BrightKnight]

20. Globalization and the international language of business

Most of the people I deal with every day are off shore. English is the international language of business. If I could not deal with heavy accents and grammar issues I would not be able to do my job. Globalization isn't going away. I thought even some repugs were smart enough to get that.

[Karenina]

22. HALLO!

:hi:

[dmallind]

25. Yep. I'm an English immigrant working for an Indian alongside a couple other expat directors.

In my smallish department I have one Indian one Singaporean and one Polish immigrant. This is in a <$100M division in upstate NY. The whole corporation - which at under $2B is hardly massive while not being trivial, includes Mexican, Chinese, Danish, English, Austrian, New Zealand, Australian, Hong Kong, Dutch, Brazilian, Scottish, Welsh,Turkish and Hungarian facilities, the staff of which spend quite a bit of time talking to each other. The company like many tends to buy up smaller companies world-wide so most of this is by acquisition although a small amount of offshoring and consolidation is a partial cause.

I used to work for a major Fortune 10 company which as you could imagine made this place look like a lemonade stand in Dubuque as far as global reach is concerned.

If you can't handle accents, dialects, and non-standard English then stick to running a small hardware store in Vermont because the greater business world will not be kind to you in anything but the most basic and entry level roles.

If people feel like complaining about accents then start thinking how the rest of teh people feel in all those locations where they have to speak in your language. Which is harder?

[Stuart G]

26. Very very sad...nt

[Blue_Tires]

27. they may as well fire half the professors on college campuses...

[patrick t. cakes]

34. how is this gaged?

is there an accent meter: like a breathalyser?

sad

[marmar]

35. Arizona, where the Third Reich is reborn.

nt