I think nobody was moaning about teacher's not having a "posh accent", but rather having a thick accent.
I think it's important for teachers to be able to speak clearly and be easily understood by their pupils, ie, if I'm sending my children to a french school (which I plan to) and teachers have strong Quebec accent or Criolle, it would be really difficult for my children to understand or even worse, they could end up speaking broken french. I think it is also important for the teacher to be able to make gramatically correct sentences. If I am paying for a french school, then I think a standard french (not a posh parisian accent!) its a minimum requirement. Same applies for an english school...
I really don't know how bad a thick afrikan accent could be, but if a english native parent is complaining about it, then it must be really really bad!
I just want to make a point that teachers being able to speak clearly the language that they are teaching is important, even if it sounds irish or american or even scotish, that's not important, as long as it is easily understood.
Alexa, I don't get your point. There are hundred of thousand of households in UK where english is not spoken at all, however their children speak native english, which they learnt at school. Is that a bad thing?. There is a chinese shop next to my home in Spain, the owners don't speak a word of spanish, but their children do speak just like any other spanish child, they learnt it at school. In fact, there are so many english and german speaking families in Spain who don't speak the languages but their children do because they were enroled in spanish schools. How do you think the new generation of turkish in Germany learnt german if not in school? Why do you think is bad for a child to learn an enterely new language at school?
I'm only asking because we speak only english and spanish at home and will rely on schooling (and the grand parents visits!) alone for french.
I think nobody was moaning about teacher's not having a "posh accent", but rather having a thick accent.
I think it's important for teachers to be able to speak clearly and be easily understood by their pupils, ie, if I'm sending my children to a french school (which I plan to) and teachers have strong Quebec accent or Criolle, it would be really difficult for my children to understand or even worse, they could end up speaking broken french. I think it is also important for the teacher to be able to make gramatically correct sentences. If I am paying for a french school, then I think a standard french (not a posh parisian accent!) its a minimum requirement. Same applies for an english school...
I really don't know how bad a thick afrikan accent could be, but if a english native parent is complaining about it, then it must be really really bad!
I just want to make a point that teachers being able to speak clearly the language that they are teaching is important, even if it sounds irish or american or even scotish, that's not important, as long as it is easily understood.
Alexa, I don't get your point. There are hundred of thousand of households in UK where english is not spoken at all, however their children speak native english, which they learnt at school. Is that a bad thing?. There is a chinese shop next to my home in Spain, the owners don't speak a word of spanish, but their children do speak just like any other spanish child, they learnt it at school. In fact, there are so many english and german speaking families in Spain who don't speak the languages but their children do because they were enroled in spanish schools. How do you think the new generation of turkish in Germany learnt german if not in school? Why do you think is bad for a child to learn an enterely new language at school?
I'm only asking because we speak only english and spanish at home and will rely on schooling (and the grand parents visits!) alone for french.