If you have ever experienced a teacher with pronunciation difficulties, it makes sitting in class comparable to watching an uneventful foreign film without subtitles.
Some foreign-born teachers, who are not and should by no means be construed as unintelligent, are nonetheless hard to comprehend. Are they employed simply because there is such a shortage of instructors, most frequently in mathematics and science courses? (I vividly remember frustrating experiences as a freshman in Calculus I).
Does the University check for thickness of accent and understandability when hiring new teachers? Or is it in such desperate need of instructors that as long as the interviewer can somewhat converse with them, they’re hired on the spot? Do those in charge of the hiring process ever put themselves in the student mindset and think about what we actually might have to go through? (i.e., “Gee, this guy might be confusing when talking about carbon reactions or the summation of one to N.”)
If this is the case, what can be done? Perhaps the University should make it mandatory that heavily accented instructors have their notes available on Blackboard, and furthermore, that these classes must be equipped with clearly understandable TAs.
The point is, if we can’t understand them, we can’t learn from them.
A related point of contention arises as early as the first week of classes. We acquire textbooks and spend a lot of money doing so. Then we go to class, which if you dwell on long enough, comes out to be roughly $100 per session. If we’ve paid over a hundred dollars for a textbook and then we pay an additional sum per each class we attend, shouldn’t we therefore be learning material in class that is not found in the textbook? To the teachers who lecture and base notes straight from the textbook, I have this to ask: Why? Ever wonder why nobody ever comes to your classes? Why are you teaching information in class that we may just easily garner by sitting at home? What, then, are you getting paid for?
Professors should teach within a subject that they have had extensive experience in, in order that they may explain to our youthful vibrant minds the “real deal” of the specific material we are studying. The textbook, because of its academic limitations, should be used as a simple educational aid, if at all. We certainly do not go to class to be read the textbook like a bunch of impaired, helpless dependents, and that is, without question, not why I paid my tuition.
No, we are young and restless, and thirsty to know and dominate what’s really out there. We want the actual knowledge of those that have already been places and seen and done things. Why are professors who have no real experience within the subject matter they are teaching even given jobs? It is disconcerting that certain professors here at Binghamton must be kindly reminded that reading time — and elementary school, for that matter — are both over.