Ferhenrique
Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2016
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Portuguese
- Home Country
- Brazil
- Current Location
- Brazil
Good morning/afternoon/evening to you all! Thanks for having me here.
I'd like to propose a discussion on the English accents (from native English speakers) and how we as ESL teachers/speakers deal with them.
As ESL teachers/speakers, do you feel that, aside from your natural accent (the one that comes from your native language), people find it natural to at least "try" to sound as standart American as possible, and as a consequence they think it's "weird" when ESL speakers, because of whatever reasons may be, use another native-english accent such as the British or the Australian?
I'm asking this because as an ESL teacher/speaker I have noticed that, at least here in Brazil, standart American is considered the "right" way to pronounce the words and when we see native-Portuguese speakers trying to sound differently from that, we tend to believe that this is necessarily unnatural, forced, even an attempt to sound "fancier" compared to the other ESL speakers. This kind of "prejudice" is actually unconscious, I feel it and I've talked about it to some of my advanced English students, who feel the same way.
Could this be a consequence of the american culture widespread - specially in the American continent? After all, as ESL speakers we would theorically be free to use whatever accent we want to and not be judged by it, but that's what seems to happen very often...
Could this also be related to the way that the Americans themselves think about the way the British speak? (I've seen Americans refer to it as "classy" or "noble").
Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.
I'd like to propose a discussion on the English accents (from native English speakers) and how we as ESL teachers/speakers deal with them.
As ESL teachers/speakers, do you feel that, aside from your natural accent (the one that comes from your native language), people find it natural to at least "try" to sound as standart American as possible, and as a consequence they think it's "weird" when ESL speakers, because of whatever reasons may be, use another native-english accent such as the British or the Australian?
I'm asking this because as an ESL teacher/speaker I have noticed that, at least here in Brazil, standart American is considered the "right" way to pronounce the words and when we see native-Portuguese speakers trying to sound differently from that, we tend to believe that this is necessarily unnatural, forced, even an attempt to sound "fancier" compared to the other ESL speakers. This kind of "prejudice" is actually unconscious, I feel it and I've talked about it to some of my advanced English students, who feel the same way.
Could this be a consequence of the american culture widespread - specially in the American continent? After all, as ESL speakers we would theorically be free to use whatever accent we want to and not be judged by it, but that's what seems to happen very often...
Could this also be related to the way that the Americans themselves think about the way the British speak? (I've seen Americans refer to it as "classy" or "noble").
Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.
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