Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: My Colleague Speaks Broken English In my school we practice team teaching. One of my colleagues and I share the same students. She teaches Science and Social Studies, while I teach Math and Language Arts including Reading. Because we teach lower elementary students—2nd grade—I pay special attention to modeling correct use of English in both writing and speaking in my lessons. This is where my problem begins. My team teacher is an immigrant from Korea. She speaks English well, but she makes mistakes regularly. I can see some of my students making mistakes in their speech and writing that mimic the mistakes I hear from my team teacher. What should I do about this? I do not want her to get in trouble because she is a very good teacher. If I inform her about what I have observed in her speech, would I be culturally insensitive? How should I tell her about this? I am at a total loss. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) Goodness, tell her when she makes mistakes. She is probably aware that her English is imperfect. Be her coach. I have a Vietnamese teacher who can't enunciate the difference between arithmetic and arithmatic or geometry and geometric. There is little to be gained for her or her students in holding back the different pronunciation. She will probably appreciate your concern.