How do you know if a college has a lot of professors with hard to undertand accents?

[cobrat]

I know at least a few professors that get complaints all the time about their accents, but have lived in the US for the majority of their lives, and are probably more familiar English than any other language. If it's not xenophobia, at the very least, it's students looking for a scapegoat for their poor performance.

Every student I've encountered who made complaints about Prof/TA's accents tended to be those looking to scapegoat others for academic failures/mediocre grades really derived from factors such as concentrating too much on double majors in partying/alcohol, goofing off in/out of class, turning in crappy assignments/missing them altogether, not doing the assigned readings, etc.

It's become such a problem that if someone does complain about this...I'm predisposed to thinking this person is someone trying to find excuses to justify poor academic performance that's really self-inflicted.

I've also read several online student reviews of Profs/TAs I personally knew where they were accused of having "heavy accents". That's complete BS considering my personal interactions with them and the fact they're all American-born. Only common factors with them is that they're "foreign looking".....wonder what conclusions one could draw from that....

[Hunt]

I had a teacher in college who was very difficult to understand--even when he was asked to speak up, he still mumbled incomprehensibly. Everybody in the class frantically wrote down everything he wrote on the blackboard in an effort to follow him. As an 18-year-old freshman, I didn't have the chutzpah to complain about it, although I should have. So I think this does happen, and students shouldn't stand for it. I agree that it's good practice for later life, but not for dealing with accents--rather, it's good practice for demanding to get what you're paying for. Classroom instruction that you can understand is what you're paying your tuition for, and if you're not getting it, you should complain.

[saintfan]

"In reality, this is sort of a silly thing to base your college decision off of. There are so many more actual important things to worry about."
________________

IMO not necessarily. If you are in math, econ, chem etc. and cannot understand your professor and/or TA and are paying 40k+ per year that's a problem. It's often worse in the giant lecture hall classes when you can't ask questions and backtrack. These are also the pre-reqs for majors or professional school where your grade matters and having that base of understanding for the next level matters. In those intro classes you aren't paying for nobel prize expertise - it's basic, established information that needs to be taught effectively.

[mathmom]

I do think TAs and professors should be able to speak English, but agree with Cobrat that getting used to foreign accents is a good life skill. I remember having great difficulty with the Austrian accent at the first lecture given by my favorite teacher at Harvard. I got used to it quickly - his English was in fact excellent and he was a very caring guy who really went the extra mile. I do think some schools use too many fresh off the boat (or plane) grad students who really don't speak English very well yet.

My worst experience dealing with a foreign accent was being given a placement spelling test the first day of school by someone with a strong southern accent. I'm sure they must have realized they had a problem when I spelled "referred" "refud".

[DonnaL]

I tend to agree with Cobrat. I saw the results of at least one experiment in which two randomly chosen groups of college students listened to identical recordings of the same voice, which had a very mild, indeterminate accent; one group had a picture of an Asian woman on their computer screens, the other a picture of a white woman. In the reading comprehension test administered afterwards, the group with the picture of an Asian woman scored far lower. As if they saw the photo and expected not to be able to understand her, and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[cbreeze]

I think it's legitimate to know about that. More importantly, it depends on your child's major.In the humanities courses, there are not so many foreign born teachers. The bigger issue is whether the profs know HOW to teach. I sincerely believe that if we have better teachers who can convey and explain more effectively, we would have more students interested in STEM classes.

[Marsian]

mathmom -- Here's the opposite perspective from a parent in the South: I took my child to an open house at a nearby college. A recently-hired administrator made a presentation on scholarships. She spoke with such a heavy Northern accent and so quickly that I could not understand a word she said. Most people in the room eventually tuned out. At least a lot of the foreign-born faculty know they're hard to understand and speak slowly.

[mathmom]

^I know that problem. I have the bad habit of talking way too fast. It isn't just my Hispanic clients telling me to slow down.

[edad]

If a student goes into a field where lots of the faculty members have accents which are hard to understand, it is also likely that they will work in a field where their coworkers are equally hard to understand. Maybe putting some effort into trying to understand someone with a different accent is not such a bad idea.

[Hunt]

I think the issue of accents is injecting a sensitivity into this that confuses the issue. There are people who mumble, or speak too fast, or who face away from the audience, etc. I don't think any of this is OK, and I don't agree that students should just grin and bear it. With respect to an accent, I think a student should discuss with others if they are having difficulty before complaining, but if a lot of students can't understand the teacher, that, to me, is unacceptable.

[Sop14's Mom]

I think it absolutely can be an issue, particularly if you have any sort of aural processing issue. I knew someone who had to drop a math class in college because he absolutely couldn't understand his TA's accent. OP, you can sometimes get a rough idea by looking at a department's website.

[cobrat]

OP, you can sometimes get a rough idea by looking at a department's website.

And how does one know whether someone has a heavy accent from looking at a department's website? They rarely have voice/lecture samples.

Or are we going to go by looking at who is "foreign looking" on the basis of photographs? Something which can not only be misleading....but also confirm/reinforce underlying biases/prejudices.

[Whatdidyou]

I guess if you absolutely can't understand them, then it is an issue. I doubt this issue comes up that often.

I tend to agree with cobrat.

At my schools, foreign teachers/phd students needed to pass some sort of standardized english speaking exam in order to teach. Consequently, there were plenty of teachers with thick accents but they were all understandable. However, that did not stop students from complaining that they couldn't understand a word (just a thinly veiled excuse for doing poorly).

Anyways, you can always find out about your teachers beforehand and then transfer to a different section of the course.

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by NJSue

Large research universities with big graduate programs are more likely to use international graduate students without much (if any) pedagogical training or familiarity with the American educational system to teach intro undergraduate courses. The issue with hard-to-understand instructors is going to exist primarily at these kinds of schools.

I have only seen graduate students as primary instructors in freshman English composition courses taught in small sections, though I could imagine them being used in beginning foreign language courses that are also taught in small sections.

Other freshman level subjects like chemistry, economics, math were taught by faculty members in large lectures (or small ones for honors courses that only a few students dare to enroll in), with graduate students doing supplemental discussions and labs.

But both faculty members and graduate students can have accents which some students may initially find difficult to understand. However, if you are going to a school with students and instructors from all over the country and world, consider that as exposure to the linguistic diversity of the English speaking world.

[saintfan]

In my freshman calc class at Cal a million years ago the prof was French and my TA Greek, both with very thick accents . . . it didn't help a bit to be trying to decipher 2 different accents when I was working hard enough to decipher the math. My next math class the prof was Korean with a thick accent, but I took a small night section where I could sit in the front row and just stare at him to lip read in addition to listening.