Unit 10 Topic Activities

Topic A: Think about how these various accents differ and how they might be have been influenced in various regions. How might the IPA be used to capture these accents?


In looking at the map with the flags of different accents, you can see that there are smaller differences between the IPA transcription with flags that are closer together. As you move farther from the original flag clicked (for example, starting in the east and moving west and north) the IPA transcription begins looking vastly different. It's also amazing how in the same state there can be so many different accents and sounds spoken differently. For example, the Philadelphia sounds very different than Lancaster. A reason for this could be that there is a high population of PA Dutch speakers and this language is influencing the English for the region. Similarly, Philadelphia is closer to New York and may be influenced by the New York accent. As for the guess where I'm from game, I was totally stumped. I got 3/20 correct because it was tough to tell the different between an Austrian v/s a Germanic dialect. They sound so similar to me because I group them all under one "idea" of a sound.

Topic B: What Would You Do?

In response to the video, it made me realize that as a language teacher we are not only responsible for teaching the student to learn the language to communicate but also to communicate effectively to avoid some of these judgements. Other teachers may even carry some of these biased feelings, not on a concious level, but perhaps subconciously. This knowledge may make it more difficult for us as ESL teachers. (copy and pasted from discussion on D2L)



Topic C: Briefly reflect (3-5 sentences) on how this information helps you as an educator.

As an educator I have always found language to be interesting since at the moment I teach English to first language English learners. Despite teaching native speakers, it's amazing how different we speak and it raises a question of concern of what should I teach? For example, even with the knowledge of Ebonics it was difficult to try and explain my acceptance of students saying "We don't got no..." but when they wrote it how it was not "acceptable." (and I use the term acceptable with a lot of fear...) One question that was raised about e-mail ruining our language. Again, this shows how we must shift our teaching to appropriate v/s inappropriate contexts for language. It is appropriate to type "u" in a text, but do not put it on a job application or even to an e-mail to a colleague. As an educator, it's important to note that language shifts, it doesn't stay the same and we need to be current in the language and show appropriate levels of usage.