Non Received Pronunciation British English courseware

[BobK]

Not sure who you're asking, but if me - I'm freelance. Some schools supply materials, some don't, and more often than not I don't teach in a school at all.

b

 

[Lusophile]

This might be a stupid question, but don't your school pay for course materials?

I'm categorised as self-employed - although at the moment I'm working exclusively for a small language school. I have been given some course materials for classes which I took over from another teacher. Since then I've been given another class with a pre-intermediate mature couple and I'm starting another one with an individual adult beginner. I have course materials that I could use for the mature couple, but they have not been provided with them. I don't have any course materials appropiate for the beginner.

I was speaking to an experienced language teacher last night and she's not a fan either of the course materails I have been given - Upstream from Express Publishing. She also found the accents on the course a bit extreme. I've actually nothing whatsoever against a posh English accent. I think the accent on this course especially from the main woman on it are possibly taking RP to extreme hence my dislike of these CDs.

I mean for example if any of you saw on BBC4 the historian Professor David Reynolds presenting the program World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel about Stalin and Russian Resistance to the Nazis in 1941 - BBC - BBC Four Programmes - World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel he had quite a posh accent but he was so easy to listen to and made posh sound cool .

So... even if I were provided with all the course materials I'm not a fan of the stuff the school uses. Still it's obviously better than nothing I guess it's up to me to try to make the best use of them, i.e. if I get them.

I'm actually using lessons printed off from www.onestopenglish.com which I subscribed to for many of my classes. However doing it that way I feel like I'm just doing lesson by lesson rather than a proper structured course.

 

[5jj]

I've actually nothing whatsoever against a posh English accent.

Lusophile, I do wish you would stop referrring to the accent used naturally by tens of thousands of people from many walks of life as 'posh'.

 

[BobK]

Lusophile, I do wish you would stop referrring to the accent used naturally by tens of thousands of people from many walks of life as 'posh'.

:-( It's a trend. Just because I don't drop my aitches I was known at one college as 'that teacher with the posh accent' (among other less polite expressions). ;-)

b

 

[Lusophile]

Lusophile, I do wish you would stop referrring to the accent used naturally by tens of thousands of people from many walks of life as 'posh'.

ok no problem if it's giving offence. What do you suggest to replace the term with so as not to give offence cultured or refined perhaps. Or is there a better term you might suggest?

btw I quite like some [STRIKE]posh[/STRIKE] cultured accents. As I said the professor guy on BBC4 had a cultured accent and he sounded cool (in my opinion).