We just had a debate in our department last year about
non-native speaker grad assistants teaching in the Writing Program. The
Comp/Rhet faculty quite effectively made the argument that teaching writing is
much more than teaching English. It’s about argument, clarity of
thought, rhetoric, all of which activities a non-native speaker is at no
disadvantage in. The decision was that as long as the GA’s spoken
English was up to standard there was no reason why he or she should not teach
composition, with, of course, the same training any native speaker would be
required to go through. The practice appears to be working well. Of
course, there is a corollary. Students in writing classes must realize
that they are here to get an international education and that becoming familiar
with other Englishes is a valuable part of that education. They have some
responsibility for being open to other Englishes and making the effort to
understand the speaker. In effective communication there is
responsibility on both sides.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cynthia
Baird
Sent: 2008-02-15 00:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: pronunciation of "been"
Hey, Bob! I often feel shy about adding to his
listserve. And you're a professor and I'm just a high school English teacher!
My "lovable linguistics professor" was quite an
oddity. He was Chinese by birth and ethnicity, raised and educated in New
Zealand, but he taught me more about the English language than any of my
native-USA or British-born professors ever taught me. Go figure.
I don't know where this thread is going, but I what I'd like
to say is that no one has the last word on the English language and that many
second language learners know more about the English language than
first-language users do!
"Miller, Robert" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: