The intent of this article is to underscore why classroom teachers need to be aware of the pronunciation faced by English language leamunictionrners (ELLs), to describe how communication breakdowns can occur, and to highlight what can be done to help. Although competent teachers areadeptathandling such classroom managementissues as profanity, they might be less informed about the processes involved with learning a new language. Unfortunately,what they do not know can hurt them and their students. While the four teachers in the opening scenarios reprimanded their students with good intentions, an opposite effect was achieved-that of placing a roadblock along an ELL’s path to learning English.