Accents Cause Few Problems

Imagine you have had nine years learning Spanish as a second language, Imagine, again, that you are sent to a foreign country to teach undergraduates Spanish all their lives, Then, imagine the subject you teach is a subject as arcane as political science. Substitute English for Spanish and you have the task foreign-born faculty have saddled themselves with when they took up teaching in the United States.

Although students sometimes complain of not being able to understand foreigh-born faculty, department chairs say it does not pose much of a problem here at Eastern.

Morton Heller, psychology department chair, who has four foreign-born faculty in his department said it is not a problem in his faculty while political science chair Richard Wandling and mathematics department chair Claire Krukenberg both said it is not a problem of significant concenr in their departments.

All said that prospective faculty have to spend a full day meeting up with peers and students before they are hired. During these meetings, their communication skills are scrutinized by the faculty. Depending on their departments, they also have to present an oral presentation which lasts more than 15 minutes.

Since there is an emphasis on classroom teaching at Eastern, Wandling said communication would be one of the more important factors in the interview process.

"My reading of the situation is that EIU does not have a problem in that regard. We are very careful about hiring," Wandling said. "I stand fully behind my faculty members communication skills."

"It is not uncommon for students not being able to understand the instructor," Krukenberg said, adding that it often comes down to the teaching methods and complaints were not solely on foreign instructors. "It doesn't make any difference whether the instructor is foreign or not."

Suhrit Dey, mathematics professor, was born in India and came to the US 32 years ago, He said he did face some difficulty with American English even though students in India start learning English as young as kindergarten, However, he said his Indian accent is too deeply imprinted to be changed.

Dey said English is not much of a problem since it involves more of equations and symbols than complicated verbal explanations.

"I think foreign teachers are drawn from some of the very best teachers in that country," Dey said. "Although their accents are very different, their intellectual ability is precious to the US."

"If you want to understand, you'll understand," Dey said. "If you don't, you'll complain forever."

Dey suggested that if students have difficulty understanding, they should ask the teacher to repeat, slow down or write the words on the board. He said accent is not a problem if students and teachers commit to a joint effort to understand each other.