Comments | tefl: Scottish Accent help please

the_reda in tefl

Scottish Accent help please

Sep 08, 2010 11:55

Our University has an exchange program with a University in Scotland. We have a visiting professor here at the moment and he confirmed what I feared, the uni is an accent heavy region ( Read more... )

Comments 11

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the_reda September 8 2010, 04:40:24 UTC

Thanks so much! This will be really helpful.

brinker September 8 2010, 07:59:14 UTC

I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions, but I have a question, so I'll ask...

Are you trying to get the students to have Scottish accents? Or to not have them? Or are you expecting them to have difficulty with non-Scottish accents or something?

Sorry for the confusion... I think I'm just very confused. :/

the_reda September 8 2010, 12:18:36 UTC

My students are going to Scotland and I want them to be able to at least understand some of what people are saying to them.

brinker September 8 2010, 15:21:54 UTC

Ah, I see. Like I said, I don't have any suggestions, but thanks for explaining and good luck with it. :)

the_reda September 9 2010, 01:14:13 UTC

Cheers :D

cityratbuddy September 8 2010, 13:56:57 UTC

One fairly obvious answer is to watch movies with heavy scottish accents and watch them with english subtitles. Ken Loach has some great films set in Scotland, such as Sweet 16.

It should be pretty easy to find a copy of trainspotting, since it was a major release. That can help them practice.

None of my suggestions are particularly PG-13. Maybe the morbid nature of these films tells you something about Scotland itself. ;)

the_reda September 8 2010, 13:59:59 UTC

Not quite so obvious since I am not allowed to show anything over PG-13 in class
and the availability of movies here is hit and miss unless we are talking blockbusters.

cityratbuddy September 8 2010, 14:03:42 UTC

Trainspotting was a major release, if not a blockbuster. If this is something you're showing in class you probably don't have time to show the whole thing anyway. I'm sure you could find a few scenes that are PG-13 and have your students try to comprehend them with and without subtitles.

the_reda September 8 2010, 14:08:04 UTC

I live in China, and not in Beijing or Shanghai. Trust me, I have not see this movie for sale here, most of what they carry are US blockbuster from the last 3 or max 4 years. Never mind that I would not be willing to risk my job showing it.

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the_reda September 9 2010, 01:13:14 UTC

Thanks, this is awesome!