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Ms. Aguayo is a veteran teacher in the Creighton Elementary School District in central Phoenix as well an immigrant from northern Mexico who learned English as an adult and taught it as a second language. Confronted about her accent by her school principal several years ago, Ms. Aguayo took a college acting class, saw a speech pathologist and consulted with an accent reduction specialist, none of which transformed her speech.
As Ms. Aguayo has struggled, though, something else has changed. Arizona, after almost a decade of sending monitors to classrooms across the state to check on teachers’ articulation, recently made a sharp about-face on the issue. A federal investigation of possible civil rights violations prompted the state to call off its accent police.
If she can't be understood in English she has no business teaching it. A teaching job is not a civil right. TOEFL (Test of English as Second Language) contains a speaking section. Testing a student's spoken language fluency is hardly irrational or unfair.
The school hired her. I would imagine she had to speak during her interview.
Interesting read though. The school had to pay to bring in an "accent reduction specialist" who worked with 10 teachers whose accents were pretty heavy.
Sounds like there's a whole mess of problems in AZ with regards to English, ESL and Spanish instruction.
Location: Democratic Peoples Republic of Redneckistan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
The school hired her. I would imagine she had to speak during her interview.
Interesting read though. The school had to pay to bring in an "accent reduction specialist" who worked with 10 teachers whose accents were pretty heavy.
Sounds like there's a whole mess of problems in AZ with regards to English, ESL and Spanish instruction.
LMFAO...where do they come up with these"experts"?
If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for Texas."
My esteemed governor, Rick Perry, when asked whether or not he believed Spanish should be taught in Texas public schools.
Oh please tell me he did not say that. Please,...
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