shouldn't an instructor speak english?

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: shouldn't an instructor speak english?

I definitely agree with you on that, but I think the point here is not that you should be a native English speaker to teach... just that your English should be good enough that more than 1 out of 10 people can understand you.

Absolutely, which is the way the current system sort of works. The problem is that different people have different definitions for "good enough". There are some accents I really have trouble with, others I pick up on fine.

"good enough" is too subjective. Maybe a more formal method perhaps using speach recognition software should be used? If the program cannot understand the teacher then X% of the students will not be able to?

[slow6]

Re: shouldn't an instructor speak english?

GREAT idea!!

[HokieBird]

Re: shouldn't an instructor speak english?

It is clearly better, but overhauling our current system with the metric system would be a daunting task. Thats like tyring to change our current vehicles right hand drive. All of the new cars coming out would be right hand drive, and all of the old cars would need to be converted. Doesn't make much sense to do.

That example doesn't really work. Changing only some cars to RHD is a safety issue because of visability. Changing only some things to metric is a learning issue. They were suppose to start teaching kids both systems so metric could be phased in a few generations later. The problem is no one else bothers to learn or use it so when the kids grow up they just forget it because it isn't used.

I don't think the whole speach recognition thing would work because professors aren't always there just to teach. They are there to research also and a university isn't going to get rid of a professor who is at the head of his/her industry because some students have a hard time understanding their thick accent.

[Fbody3400]

Re: shouldn't an instructor speak english?

That example doesn't really work. Changing only some cars to RHD is a safety issue because of visability. Changing only some things to metric is a learning issue. They were suppose to start teaching kids both systems so metric could be phased in a few generations later. The problem is no one else bothers to learn or use it so when the kids grow up they just forget it because it isn't used.

I don't think the whole speach recognition thing would work because professors aren't always there just to teach. They are there to research also and a university isn't going to get rid of a professor who is at the head of his/her industry because some students have a hard time understanding their thick accent.

Its not the best example, but it can be applied.

Besides, we already have a way to teach metrics

"Drugs, teaching American teenagers the metric system since the 1960s"

[Belle]

Re: shouldn't an instructor speak english?

Absolutely, which is the way the current system sort of works. The problem is that different people have different definitions for "good enough". There are some accents I really have trouble with, others I pick up on fine.

"good enough" is too subjective. Maybe a more formal method perhaps using speach recognition software should be used? If the program cannot understand the teacher then X% of the students will not be able to?

It's fairly easy to tell if the person is able to be understood in general though. This teacher I was talking about, I don't even think people with her accent would be able to understand her. She was an English teacher, who couldn't speak English! come on! lol But maybe some kind of software would be good. Test these people before you just let them loose on a bunch of unsuspecting students who are paying good money for these classes!

[josh98bird]

Re: shouldn't an instructor speak english?

We have the same problem at UK... a couple of the professors can't speak english at all... i mean the only things i get from them are no and yes. But there are enough classes that you can get a different teacher if you need. When i went to a smaller community college, there was one professor that couldn't speak very well and it was difficult because he was the only teacher for the class. I do think that students pay too much for college, books, and room/board... we also have to pay to go to school when they offer it. So your choice of teacher should be wider than it is. At the Community college i had to have a class transfer over... for it to transfer it had to be taught by a certain teacher, well full time teachers can take over part time and well the first day of class they switched and i couldn't get the teacher i needed to transfer. That really pissed me off.