Is it nearly impossible for non-native speakers to graduate in Speech Pathology? (1 Viewer)

[isaactam]

Hi I'm new here

I come from Hong Kong and will be studying Bachelor of Applied Science (Speech Pathology) in USyd, but I have heard that non-native speakers will always get fail grade from practicals no matter how well they speak English, simply because they have an accent. Is it true? I am very worried about that since I am a non-native speaker.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[madharris]

I haven't heard that at all, it shouldn't be the case!
In your placement, you're assessed on a number of different things, not just your communication with the client. I do OT, and one of our lecturers is doing his phd with a thick Taiwanese accent. If you think that your supervisor while on placement is being unfair to you in any way then you can talk to the uni and switch placements as you shouldn't fail because you have an asian accent.

However in saying that, if you do fail then it might not necessarily be because of your accent but more that you're not doing the right things and stuff like that.

 

[asianese]

Just try to speak English all the time. You will improve much more than if you speak Chinglish/Cantonese and English. Good luck.

 

[me-mfhs]

Hey, I don't think you should compare yourself to what you've heard as everyone is different But I am going to be completely honest with you; I have had friends who had failed clinical placements in 2nd year because of their grammar and pronounciation (so work on mastering those ). On the other hand, I also had a friend from Hong Kong who passed 2nd year placement ! My friends from singapore also graduated from speech path usyd.

As a suggestion, I think that you should STRAIGHT AWAY speak with "Annie Chan" when you start speech path at usyd (do this BEFORE 2nd year starts, as in make an appointment to see her); I think she can can you awesome advice ^_^! Annie is is a clinical educator at speech path usyd and the coordinator of 2nd year clinical placements.

http://sydney.edu.au/perl-bin/phloo...e=&position=&department=&phone=&search=Search

Best of luck!!

<3