“I’m concerned about my accent. The only way to get a good job in the U.S., is to not have an accent.”

I was stunned…. firstly, because this student did not have an accent that was impeding her ability to communicate effectively; and secondly, because I had never heard that this attribute would prevent someone from getting a “good” job.

The Baruch Campus is incredibly diverse, multilingual campus. Everyone has an accent of some sort, right? In this global economy, could this attribute truly prevent one from getting a job?

I bring this issue up again, link it to previous Cac.ophony thread discussions, the Baruch Teaching Blog, and Baruch resources…

• Accent Reduction (3 May 2006)
• Accent Reduction: Take 2 (5 June 2007)
• Teaching Blog at Baruch: A+…despite heavy accent (11 March 2009)
• Link to Baruch ESL Language Lab

A pertinent and persistent student issue!

The students have a wide range of musical “skills:” some have no musical experience, while others have had a couple of years of piano or violin. On quizzes, it is required that the students be able to discern elements of music of an unknown piece of music: instrumentation, meter (duple/triple), melody (major/minor), and texture (the interaction of musical melodies). From these components, they must engage with what they have hear to determine the genre, composer, year, and historical context of the piece. For example, if they hear a homophonic vocal piece accompanied by a harpsichord with an regular meter, they could determine that the music was an aria from an early Baroque opera possibly composed by Monteverdi. (with practice! this can be done!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnzXbx97_UI[/youtube]

You might ask, “what is the point of such a listening exercise where students need to learn components of music from a different century and time?” In Rebecca Shafir’s book, “The Zen of Listening,” she not only connects “mindful” listening to increased attention spans, but also to higher grades, better negotiation skills, a stronger knowledge base, and more fulfilling family, social, and professional relationships. Besides the obvious of expanding students’ musical horizons, I see this skill as one that can actually increase their attention span and refocus them from hyper listening to deep listening … from hyper attention to deep attention.