re: #182 Obdicut

My mother has taught freshman English at Rhode Island College for more than twenty years. I used to read the papers her students had submitted; most of her students couldn’t regularly construct grammatical sentences. I doubt things have improved. She does a very good job at whipping them into shape, but many of them still don’t see the need to write English well; they say, “Well, everyone knows what I mean.” I consider that the lamest defense of bad writing.

The students she has who write the best are the immigrant children, since they have had to actually learn grammar.

Yep.

Everyone knows what someone means who says “I could care less”, and you know what? In the right circumstances, I’ll say it too.

I used to hang out with a lot of rough-and-tumble bikers. Damned if I’m going into Daniel’s Bar on Route 1 outside Baltimore and start talking like George Plimpton. I also take on the coloration of a Bavarian when speaking German in Munich. I’m kind of a Zelig.

The point you’re making is the one I’m trying (apparently very lamely) to make on another level. If you teach non-native speakers English in their non-native accent, you perpetuate their non-nativeness. Whom does that serve? Not them. They may end up writing better than their dim-bulb Arizona-English-speaking classmates, but how does that help them in daily life?

I’m saying that there is surely no shortage of native English speakers who are fluent in Spanish to teach native Spanish-speaking kids English. Certainly not in Arizona.