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Native speakers opinion

4 Apr 2014
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A Ukrainian refugee was appointed by the Kyoto Board of Education to an ALT position at one of public high schools in Kyoto.



Now, accents aside, what do you think of Mrs. Horoshko`s grammar and syntax level? Is it good enough to teach high-school students?
In the attached video alone, there are at least 3 typical slavic-English bloopers. If you search for more videos, you will see that Mr. Horoshko intentionally avoids speaking in English and speaks in Ukrainian instead.

According to ALT eligibility criteria, an ALT candidate must "Be adept in contemporary standard pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation in the designated language and possess excellent language ability that can be applied accurately and appropriately; have the ability to form sentences in a comprehensive and logical manner." Mrs. Horoshko claims to have volunteer English teaching experience back in Ukraine. Is that claim alone enough to qualify?
 
I would need to hear more of her English. She makes some mistakes but the same mistakes natives also make. "You don't have number one?" is a mistake a native may sometimes make. Too small a sample.
 
How about "Which group?" it's supposed to be "Which band" isn`t it?

Next one



"Cities are continua$%# bombing... are being bombed."
 
Her intonation and accent isn't American but she seems qualified enough to be an ALT.
"which group" is the natural choice in my opinion. I would only use "band" when it's actually a band (a group that plays music with musical instruments).
All those dancing/singing groups such as AKB48, bts or even the Backstreet Boys I would not call bands.
 
@salyavin @mdchachi
Thank you for your opinions! They really mean much too me.
I guess i was too self-demanding in the past, avoiding public school positions and anything above Junior-High school levels.
 
@salyavin @mdchachi
Thank you for your opinions! They really mean much too me.
I guess i was too self-demanding in the past, avoiding public school positions and anything above Junior-High school levels.
My standards are possibly too low. I'm comparing to public school teachers in the U.S. who often are not qualified to teach but they do anyway.
 
In the late 70s, Braj Kachru taught my sociolinguistics course at U-Ill. His version of world englishes was just getting started. I'm not current (a distance measured in decades...!), but those concepts have since been taken up in one way or another by ESL/EFL.

She seems like an excellent choice for the work/job.
 
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