After receiving your interesting responses to the poll on using controversial topics in the classroom we thought we would continue the theme. Strong language and swearing are all part of everyday spoken English. Many popular films are full of examples of what we call 'bad language'. The 'f word' is now not uncommon in some types of music. How do you approach this topic in the classroom? Do you feel comfortable teaching this aspect of English or do you think it's something that is not suitable, appropriate or necessary.
Do you teach 'bad language'?
Never!
29% (184 votes)
Mild expressions only.
28% (179 votes)
Some strong expressions.
17% (107 votes)
I teach anything and everything!
27% (174 votes)
Total votes: 644
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Comments
richardabroad
Why on earth would you NOT teach something that is a part of every day life?
So - if your students asked you to teach them or explain a certain phrase you would say "No, sorry, it is against my policy to teach this beacuse in my view it is bad language" Do you really think this will stop them from learning it?
Sorry, but people with these views really - p me off
jvl narasimha rao
Dear mr Duncan m,
I don't teach bad language in the class intentionally. But i use certain mild expressions to keep the attention of the class. It is true that everbody likes bad language. certain people express it vulgarly and certain others like me moderately or mildly but every body enjoys bad language in their heart of of hearts. I had the experience of a professor of english talking bad language in our personal communication. Although we cant use bad language directly, it is very common to use words and expressions which give double meaning in the class. One of my colleagues who is a maths teacher uses vulgar language not only in the staff room but alse in the class. of course, he uses it humoursly. surprisingly, both the teachers and students like him very much. He was transferred to a remote high school recently. everybody feels sad for his transfer. So personally i feel that there is no harm in using bad language mildly in the class, afterall, we are all human beings. we are no longer the strict pedagogues
Yours sincerely,
Wth kind regards,
JVL NARASIMHA RAO
aliciaorri
I do not use bad language myself but if a student comes up with an expression or a question I feel it is really important to answer. Therefore I would emphasize the necessity of understanding of when and how you use it.
liz_fishwick
I use a lot of authentic materials in class from a wide variety of sources so inevitably the odd swearword appears. They usually know it anyway and it is interesting for them to see it in variety of contexts.
Another reason why it is useful to highlight the use of swearing is that because of widespread (US) media, some learners believe that the 'f-word' is actually not so bad. Although over the years, the strength of this word has lessened somewhat, I still feel it's important to let them know that for the majority of native speakers of English, this word is still taboo.
anna_retino
I've been working with students of very different ages, well, starting with the kindergarten kids and up to the adults older than myself. Of course, even in the high school I will not teach bad languge specifically -- I think today's teenagers are pretty good at picking it up themselves from the movies and songs -- and I will discourage strong language usage in the classroom; but when it comes to adults it can be useful to teach them some strong expressions; it does not necessarily mean that they will leave your ESL classroom swearing like a pack of sailors, but at least they will be able to understand if other people say something bad to them, and that's rather practical, isn't it?
hicham astaifi
Dear all,
An interesting topic!
I have never taught the so called "bad" language. It happens that I use authentic material in the classroom, however it's rarely that the material I bring to students contains taboo terms. I try to be selective. I usually use music and songs in the classroom, but I do not tend to teach the vulgar words the songs may contain though students listen to, but I would have no reservation explaining the meaning of a word a student asks me about. I would raise the attention of the class to the type of the word and tell them that it is slang, taboo, etc and then explain it in brief. My objective is to teach language as a whole entity. Language is not only "bad" words to teach. Language is the means people use to make themselves understood by others.
Learners might be interested in knowing "bad" terms and expressions in English, but is that enough for them to be good speakers of the language? Of course not. So why bother teaching something learners will sooner or later know.
My role as an educator necessitates on me not to indulge in such language teaching. I have to be a model. Learners have great respect to teachers, and when respect is lost it becomes impossible to regain. I should not preach students to be good citizens and tell them that the good citizen watch the language they use, while I myself use that critisized language.
In some cases, it depends on the society one belongs to. Some words and expressions might be accepted in some country, while considered a taboo in an other. So a teacher has to take into consideration the culture, habits, costoms etc of people s/he teaches.
Thank you.
ProfAnglais
I try not to use bad language.
But -- having said that -- I wrote the word "worksheet" on the board...and my secondary French students looked genuinely confused. "But, madame...sheet..." The penny dropped, and I turned to a quick pronunciation lesson (I used ship and sheep, as they're clean, and fit the same pronunciation!)
They also put 2 and 2 together on the French word for a female deer (biche), and the English word for a female dog...so a quick lesson there on yes, that's where the word comes from, but it's not very nice.
It was hard not to laugh out loud, though, when I asked them for examples of verbs, and the f-word was one of the ones they suggested. (it IS a verb...) I said that yes, it is a verb, but let's use words that we could use in front of our grandmothers.
I'm not going to bring it up...but such words are a part of the English language, so I'm also not going to turn away from a legitimate question.
(My Spanish professor in uni took one day to teach us all the bad language he knew in Spanish...because there are times when you need to know what that means, even if you don't use them yourself!)
anaumoska
My comment to the question is the following: Is bad language really so bad that we can't pronounce it in the classroom and thus we as teachers feel forbidden to teach it? In fact, when one thinks about it, it's not so much the word itself and its spelling that makes a word bad, but rather the behaviour and reaction of society that gives out such an image to the rest of the world! We can however explain to students that such language belongs to the informal (mostly spoken) register of the language, and that it would be best when doing academic work to replace it with a more register-appropriate word.
But leaving it out in general will certainly not bring about positive consequences!
Aneta
racantillo
hi, and thank you all for posting about bad language in schools - no, I don't teach them bad language/swearwords as it's contrary to my understanding of what a teacher's task is or should be, that is to teach your EFL students their verbs, grammar, vocabulary and conversation/idioms in order to improve their written/spoken English. Depending on their level of language awareness however, there are times when they themselves will ask you about something (it could be a word or phrase they found on a book or the internet, or in a song/video they watched on telly/i-pod or youtube). When they ask you, say, 'what does...mean?' I do feel compelled to say, at the very least, could they get a dictionary and find out on their own; this is because 1) children and, even more importantly, young adults, should know this implement exists. So dear to linguists and scholars, named 'dictionary or bilingual/monolingual dictionary'; 2) they should want to find out 'secret or strange words' on their own - and if it's something bad or inconvenient, let the book tell'em! We can't always look like language policemen. Moreover, once they know you know about swearwords they might deviously make up stories at home that 'the teacher teaches bad language', and possibly (who doesn't know what worrying and possessive parents are like, always ready to 'shoot the teacher') causing you problems at work. So no bad language in class, please redirect your EFL YL to a dictionary:)
Then there are words which one might term colloquial or informal, but which are definitely not of themselves 'bad langauge', such as 'cool', 'wicked' & the like. I don't mind explaining these, as long as it doesn't turn into a 'please spell out all of my favourite band's lyrics' session - thank you, I don't need anybody's copyright infringement policy on my desk anytime soon:)
and, if I may add a spurious thought about translating song lyrics, this is an interesting exercise which middle schools children simply adore, and the mistakes they make make it an even funnier language game!
Cheers,
raf
Ajit Singh Nagpal
I think you don't have to teach 'bad language'
Ask anyone and he/she will tell you that he/she already knows the bad language (What some refer to as swear language); as that is what he/she was exposed to before he/she even started taking formal lessons in the language. I guess that is true for almost any language.
The finer (yes.....there are finer points) points of bad language may be brought up as and when there is an occassion or situation to explain a certain point of the language, for example to fornicate is another word for f***, and when is it appropriate to use.
More important than teachibng bad language is teaching where and when it is appropriate to use such language, i.e. in the presence of a lady you do not use certain language.