Why do colleges and universities let professors that can't speak English very well teach?

Question

Why do colleges and universities let professors that can't speak English very well teach?

Answer 1

Just because they can't speak English absolutely perfectly does not mean they can't be good teachers.

My criminal justice professor is south Korean, he can't speak perfect English, but he does well enough that we understand him, and I learn tons in that class.

Answer 2

To prepare you for a global market, not everyone is going to be as fluent as you are in English. Also, even though you may not be able to understand the person, there are probably some people who can and don't find it to be an issue.

Answer 3

Professors, or graduate students? The problem is usually more so with grad students than with professors, as some of those grad students have never lived in an English speaking country before, and only learned English from classes in their home country. Their English itself may be perfect, but sometimes their accent and ways of phrasing things can make understanding quite difficult, especially at the start of the term.

You do have some options. You can try to change classes, but that's not always possible. Or you can do things to make the class easier on you, to make sure that you do as well as you can in it.

I've had teachers who've been hard to understand before. I try to make it easier on myself (and on them) by going to their office hours and asking for extra help, and doing this several times early in the term. Often, it's easier to understand someone with a strong accent once you get used to it, and when you're speaking one-on-one, rather than listening to a lecture. That's why going to office hours can really help.

I had one teacher who was recently arrived from Thailand, and she had both a very strong Thai accent and worse, when she did speak, she used Australian accented English. She and I, we got to know each other pretty well, because I couldn't understand her in her early lectures. So I went to her office hours, listened carefully until I got used to how she spoke, went over the material I didn't get from lecture, and then we were good.

You can't always avoid having teachers with strong accents. So sometimes, you've got to find ways to deal with it from your end.