Foro ASW FORMACION

I think that one of the biggest issues in this matter is that the majority of students don't actually know what "accent" menas and, consequently, the ignore the existence of different accents when speaking the same language. The first thing teachers must do is, as I see it, is having students know what an accent is and, later help the students be aware of the actual existence of those accents by using realia such as audiovisual material, etc.

Students sometimes are not aware of their own cultural diversity thus not being able to comprehend language diversity outside of their immediate context, this of course entails some other problems such as deifying one specific accent or stigmatizing another one. It is common to hear students saying that British English (Which they may think is the one and only spoken all over England, without taking into account how vast the UK really is) is more formal or that English spoken in Africa is to be rejected out of its lack of "purity". I believe approaching language studies without taking into account the massive knowledge you have already gotten as an individual in a given society affects the learning process.

When I always start to talk with my students about accents, I figure out that they are always worried about developing either American or British accent. Due to this, students ask for some clues to learn how to sound more British ir American in their speeches. When this comes to happen, I talk about globalization and how every time more and more non-native English speakers are taking part in all environments, so I try to encourage students to not be worried about a particular accent. Students need first to understand and be understood in order to be accurate in their performance. For this reason I tell them that first to develop an accent in particular, first learn to understand how people from all over the world are giving different varieties to English accent language. When they learn this then they can start to try to improve their way to speak. Thank you so much. Duban Gonzalez H.