Week 3 is Almost Over

Well, week 3 is almost over and things are going fine.  It's been a week of some excellent discussions.  An interesting question came up this week.  It had to do with authentic English.  What is "authentic" English?  Whose English is authentic?  If students are watching a video, made in America in which the actors are using "Valley" English--is that authentic?  If students are watching a movie that is filled with slang and inappropriate language, this that authentic and good for them?  I wonder.  How authentic does the language have to be?  How do we get authentic language to our students?

Another question that came up concerning pronunciation is what accent (American? British? Canadian? Australian? etc.) do we teach our students and how accent-free do we wish them to do?  Isn't it unfair and impossible to ask our students to be error-free in their pronunciation?  How great a tolerance should we have when we grade our students?  Shouldn't we go for intelligibility?  What's the "right" accent?

Anyway, these are questions that came up for me this week.  I'm finding it intesting to ponder
them.