Heavily accented teachers removed from Arizona classrooms
School districts in Arizona are under orders from the state's Department of Education to remove from classrooms teachers who speak English with a very heavy accent or whose speech is ungrammatical.
Officials say they want students who dont know much English to have teachers who can best model how to speak the language, but, according to The Wall Street Journal, some principals and administrators are concerned that the standards for removal are arbitrary.
The recent move by the department comes during the political firestorm over a new law in Arizona which requires police to question anyone who appears to be in the country illegally. It is the most restrictive immigration law in the country.
Arizona's education department has sent people into schools to audit teachers on comprehensible pronunciation, correct grammar and good writing. Teachers who fail may try to improve, but if they dont, school districts can fire or reassign them.
The Journals report says that critics of the new teachers policy believe the education department was encouraged by the new law, and that targeting teachers with heavy accents is just part of the anti-immigration movement in Arizona.
School officials say that is nonsense, and that kids should have teachers who they understand.
About 150,000 of Arizonas 1.2 million public school students are classified as English Language Learners, the Journal said.
Nobody can argue that kids dont deserve teachers whom they can easily understand, and teachers who use proper grammar. Ive been in classrooms where I couldnt understand a teacher, and in classrooms where a teachers grammar made me wince.
The issue here is how to determine which teachers really should be in the classroom and which ones shouldnt be. Speech that one child cant understand could be completely comprehensible to most of the students.
How does one fairly draw the line on grammatical mistakes? Hardly anyone speaks English perfectly according to the rules of grammar. Quick: Give me an example of the pluperfect and the future subjunctive. Is it enough to toss out a teacher because he or she routinely misuses the verb "to be?"
Uncovering exactly how Arizona goes about this will be most interesting.
What do you think of Arizonas new policy? What standards should there be for removing a teacher on the basis of a strong accent or poor pronunciation?
Update: Arizona strikes again, with legislation aimed at an ethnic studies program. Read about it here.
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