Courtesy of IconShock via Wikipedia Commons
Well… do they?
And… well… is really that important?
And if they are, where are you getting those ‘diverse’ materials?
For what it’s worth, the data shows that it might just be important; David Graddol’s report English Next states that 75% of interactions in English take place between non-native speakers.
It always make me think of the problem of students understanding the teacher VERY WELL after a few months, but then falling behind a bit with international exchanges with speakers of different accents as described in the paragraph below.
Courtesy of Business Solutions via CC 3.0
If you’re lacking in a bit of diversity, you could consider using the application my team’s developed— English Addicts — with its 1600 rich lessons where each can be searched by these 12 regional accents. Kinda cool!
Would love to hear what you think… and for students keen on Hunger Games… that’s the current free lesson. Check it out! 
