On Monday, we'll be talking - among many other things - about different accents, and the way in which simply being a native speaker doesn't mean you can necessarily speak English as an International Language particularly well or that you'd be a good model / source of input for students.
Below are some YouTube clips featuring a range of different accents from across the United Kingdom.
Enjoy watching these and then add your own thoughts to the discussion that follows.
First up, a short documentary about the Scouse accent from the Liverpool area.
Next up, an interview with a young TV and music celebrity, Cheryl Cole, who's from Newcastle and speaks with a broad Geordie accent.
Next, two clips about Scottish English - and the Glaswegian dialect in particular.
And here's a video comparing standard RP and broad Belfast / Northern Irish.
Here's one of my favourite songs, sung in broad Cockney, by four guys from the East End.
Finally, here's a breakthrough hit from the 1980s by a guy called Smiley Culture, who sadly died this year. He was born in south London, but had Caribbean roots and this song compares the way Jamaicans talk English with the way Cockneys do!
I'm sure you'll be able to find the lyrics via Google if you're interested.
Once you've watched all these clips, post your thoughts on the following questions.
- Which accents do you like the sound of most? Why?
- Which do you find hardest to understand?
- How worried are you about your accent?
- If you could choose any accent for yourself, what would it be? Why?
- How different are accents in your country? Which are seen as standard and feature most in the media?
- How important do you think it is for students to try and get a 'native speaker accent', whatever that means?
- How important do you think it is for students to be exposed to a range of different accents? Why?
5 comments:
I like the Cockney accent most because it sounds really 'English' to me, hard to explain further.
The Liverpudlian and Glaswegian are hardest to understand, simply because they use completely different words (gave = gived = gied). The pronunciation doesn't help either, what about the guy at the end of the Scouse film: what's he saying?! The Glaswegians fail to pronounce a lot of consonants, especially at the end of words. However, I have to say that this is even more confusing when reading the words, instead of hearing them.
I am quite worried about my accent. I love the English language, but I am not really proud of the Dutch pronunciation so many of us have (for example our former PM). We call it 'steenkolenengels' (charcoalenglish) and although I know that after my studies I'm probably better than people who only had English at school, I am still looking for a way to improve my pronunication.
In Holland we have Dutch and one other language: Frisian (which is only spoken in the North of the country). I think they even had some influence on the English Language, back in the days. Frisians can speak Dutch as well obviously, but the rest of Holland cannot understand them. It's really a completely different language with different words and everything. We also have many, many different accents, Limburgs (south) being the one most difficult to understand. However, just like Amsterdams, it is understandable for everyone in the country, it's just that the pronunciation and intonation is different. In the media however everything is in ABN, which is similar to RP.
I would say that pronunciation is not a primary focus in my teaching. I think it's important that my students feel brave enough to communicate with each other in English without me being fussy about their vowels or th-sounds.
I think my students experience a lot of different accents already in films. Most of them are American accents, so yes, I do teach them about different accents, albeit only the major ones like American, RP, Irish, Scottish and Australian.
I once used this clip in one of my classes. It's about a guy who is trying to speak many diferent English accents. I think it's quite interesting and my students all liked it, trying to copy him even. But what do you think? And Hugh, is he actually any good?
http://youtu.be/dABo_DCIdpM
Thanks for taking the time to listen to everything and post Juul. I know plenty of northerners who'd be most annoyed to hear that Cockney sounds the most 'English'!!!! Ha ha.
It's funny what you say about the Glaswegian accent. My mum is originally from Sleaford in Lincolnshire, so relatively northern. When she was 17, she left home and hitch-hiked a lift. She was picked up by a truck driver and for the first hour she couldn't understand anything he was saying. She assumed he was Norwegian and just a bit mad or something, before eventually realising he was actually speaking English! Turned out he was Glaswegian!
I think there's slowly becoming less and less of the old-fashioned extremely localised accents, due to the spread of the media and so on, but as you can hear, there are still really big differences from area to area.
I find it amusing and also amazing that you're bothered about your pronunciation as your accent is so good already and it's difficult to think in which ways it could really be improved.
Did you ever hear the old England football manager, Steve McClaren, when he was living in Holland? He managed FC Twente for a year or two and was interviewed on Dutch TV - in English - and ended up sounding more like an Intermediate Dutch speaker of English than the interviewer did. Like some kind of assimilation / integration thing gone mad.
Here's a clip to show you what I mean.
I find it painfully funny.
I think in teaching terms, one of the main benefits on a strong focus on pronunciation is the fact that it has a knock-on effect on students' listening. The more you model things like weak forms, elision, linking between words, and so on, even if students don't end up able to completely say them, they'll be able to HEAR them better.
The guy you posted doing the accent - I'll repost it below so the others can see it as well - speaks broad London naturally and when he does the other accents, he either sounds like he's taking the piss (making fun of people!) or else he struggles to cope without bringing London into it. Swears fluently, mind!
Here's the Steve McClaren clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZnoP4sUV90
I can't embed it in the comments, but you can copy and paste it and add it as the url.
Just to say hello to see if the system works
Ciao
Jesus
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