Accents

In visiting each website, it was interesting to find out about dialects and how many dialects there really are. It proves that there is an English variance. Listening to the different dialects around North America, I noticed that there was a difference in the speed, pausing, tone, and intonation of the speakers. The vowel sounds were the same according to IPA, but seemed to be stressed at different spots of the words and this changes the accent from speaker to speaker. Some of the accents stressed consonant sounds at different places as well. I also noticed that there were a different amount of accents per state. For instance, Pennsylvania had 9 accents documented, Montana had 1, South Dakota had 1, New Hampshire had 4 and Texas had 16. I thought that was interesting and didn’t realize the variances in accents of each state. The accent game was comical for me because I only got 4 correct. It was interesting to hear the different accents and the one that surprised me the most was from South Africa! I didn’t expect that answer.

The video definitely disturbed me as an ESL teacher because I do feel that we are all humans. WE should all be able to walk in and buy something that we want as a consumer not based on the way we look or how we sound. It isn't anyone's job to assume that people are here illegally or legally and that seemed to be part of the issue. I think we are uninformed as Americans on the differences in cultures and it starts in our schools. I liked the response of the man who visited Mexico and said he was served even though he couldn’t speak Spanish. People need to be taught about other cultures and then maybe they will be more accepting of them. As a learning support teacher, I am advocating for the special needs population of students and parents. I feel as though I have a positive influence on others and it would not be different for my ELL students. I always think that we have rights in our country, but not rights to be rude to others based on their language, disability, race, culture, or gender, etc. We judge too much and accept too little as a society. I hope that our society soon changes into accepting others and following a teamwork motto of working together, not against each other. ELL’s need to have someone advocate for them and I have no problem in doing so.

The PBS websites were very resourceful of the information. I don't think I could show them to my primary ELL students, but if I told older students, I think it would ber very valuable to use in different group activities to derive class discussions with the students.