How to serve English speaking learners with far from standard dialects?

Josh, you have posted a very important question that I hope has a lot of response from our members. Yes!!!

In addition, there are many similar issues that we must address regarding how our "standard" English grammar is being transformed. I'll keep an eye open on this discussion and will also add my own prejudices and resources in that regard to add what others are posting. Thanks! Let's hear more! Leecy

One thing you can do to change an accent is to use truespel phonetics.  It's free.  The converter and tutorials are available at http://truespel.com.  Truespel can be learned in an hour and capable of being written in a few hours practice.  The beauty of truespel is that it's based on US English phonics as much as possible, using primary spelling forms and no special symbols.  It is easily writable.  So the instructor can illustrate accents by writing them.  Here's what you say.  Here is what you should say.  The learner gets a visual reference, and they can use truespel at home for practice.  When the learner can say each of the 40 sounds of US English (and they probably can say nearly all of them now) they can pronounce any word in standard US English - even common street talk, which the teacher can demonstrate in truespel as well.  See the science of truespel at http://justpaste.it/truescience .  See a list of street slang pronunciations http://justpaste.it/streettalk1  

Truespel being used now in some places for speech therapy.  Phonetics isn't difficult anymore.

I would be interested to hear from someone familiar with one of these countries on this topic, but in my experience, people from Jamaica, Liberia, etc. do not always want to reduce their accents, and they may refuse activities that they see as geared toward ESL students. My Liberian students were adamant that they already did speak English. On the other hand, I know that they did speak differently with me than with each other, so they may have already done all the adjustment they intended to do.  Has this student requested help with being understood over the phone? Or have you brought it up with her? Because I would not automatically assume this is something she would want to do.

If her reading/writing is the main issue, but student is at the intermediate level or above, I would approach that the same way I do with my other students. Almost none of us speak "standard" English in our daily lives--it's a matter of learning a different register of formality. I teach vocabulary, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and essay writing skills to students with the caveat that this is academic language. It might not feel or sound natural at first, but it is important for college, formal writing, workplace, etc. A student from a different place might have different patterns of mistakes than your other students, but I don't think this would preclude her from understanding your lessons. You might need to provide different targeted practice.

If you need to start with phonics, then it's going to be a matter of coming to a place of mutual understanding. I have found key words to be helpful when I am unsure if a student is reading a word accurately (ex: Is that /e/ as in egg or /i/ as in itch?). It's helpful to formalize these words so that you're using the same ones each time. Even the difference between my Michigan accent and the local Pittsburgh accents can make vowel sounds confusing. (A student from Philadelphia once looked at me and said, "I never make that sound when I talk!") It's most helpful to have the students read the words themselves, especially if you're doing word families and other sound comparison activities. With my Liberian students, I had to get used to their pronunciation of an initial h as /y/ (ex: hear would be pronounced like year.). Once I made the adjustment, we were fine. I occasionally had to be willing to clarify meaning, and the students were generally willing to explain or repeat themselves. As you said, they had no trouble understanding my pronunciation. They just echoed back the words in their own accent, the same way a student from New York or Alabama or California would have done.

Josh, others here have expressed many of my views relating to your concerns.

The issue of acceptable or unacceptable language is totally related to the environment where that language is designed to function. I would really hesitate to "improve" a student's English pronunciation if her own language is functional in her own English-speaking environment. That being said, if a student is not able to communicate effectively to attain her goals, then your concern is certainly valid.

I would make it very clear to the student that her English is perfect and it has always worked perfectly for her. It doesn't need to change at all! However, much like any tool, language is used to accomplish different tasks. When it comes to certain academic or workplace tasks, language must adapt to that need. I would approach her by stating something like, "Academic or formal English has its own rules and regulations. Most people struggle to apply all of those. That's what we will be working on together." Have the student give you examples of  language that she uses at home that she would never use in school, or in church, meeting new friends, meeting new authority figures, etc...

One approach that I have used a whole lot with students facing the issues you listed is the Language Experience Approach. You'll find huge lists of resources showing you how to apply LE. Essentially, you have the students narrate something to you, such as what happened last week, what her dreams might be, what her family is like, in fact, anything at all. As the students speaks, write down EXACTLY what she says. Never correct. Never explain. If you don't understand, ask her to slow down. I would keep it short to start out.

Next, have the student read what you wrote as you assist if needed. Since it came from her, vocabulary won't be a problem, but phonics or sight words might be. Go over each sentence until she can read everything perfectly. Then work on any challenges she might have faced in reading the passage.

You can follow up on that passage in dozens of ways. However, in terms of your issue, I would focus on helping her with terms, or statements, or pronunciation issues that will help her meet the rules and regulations set by academic or workplace environments. I can image that this process would be filled with laughter and fantastic communication. I envision comparing how you both describe a picture or a situation, on and on. I envision comparing your recordings of something. Have you ever used Voki? (voki.com) :) What a hoot! It's free, easy to learn, and totally entertaining while being very useful. Click on this link to find a sample Voki that I created to show what an ESL student might create. I used the auto voice in the application, but students would create their own recordings with their own voices.

I hope others here will ad to this so that we can continue this fascinating and important issue working with our adults! Leecy

Leecy Wise, Moderator
Reading and Writing CoP
leecywise@gmail.com