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!) Within the students work, I would obviously continue to correct their mistakes in their writing and speaking as their ELA teacher. As for your co teacher, I would approach her in way where she can recognize your concern for both her and your students (possibly giving her examples and helping her to correct them). Confrontation can be difficult esp when trying to be senstive to the others feelings but it is important for the students to correct their mistakes and to avoid picking up bad habits. The co teacher, I would imagine, would also share the perspective that the students come first and they need to learn correct grammar. In doing so, you can help students avoid making further mistakes and help your coteacher improve her English as well.