Ginger Major 
Working as a tutor and a teacher for over 25 years has led to questions about language in Southern Ontario and my accent. Yes, we all have an accent from the sounds we hear growing up. There are significant differences between the accents used in rural parts of Ontario in comparison to what you hear in Toronto. Even how we pronounce the name of the city, or use shortcuts like TO, can help to identify where you grew up.
Here is a tip sheet created as a visual aid that is ready to present to help answer students’ questions, explain differences, and provide context for some of the differences.
Did you want to add some local content to your course?
This was created from personal experiences, student observations, and a few borrowed examples that I wanted to demonstrate collectively on one easy slide to teach from. It is convenient to have all the examples visually to help answer student questions. The patterns in context with the map help students who may not be as familiar with the area, and could help with the pronunciation patterns that drop letters and making it hard for ESL learners to understand what native speakers are saying due to the patterns.
This one page could help communication for many different learners with contact from those in Southern Ontario.
Editable format
About The Author
