Teach English in GuAnzhuAng Zhen - Anqing Shi

British english vs American EnglishUntil researching the subject, the only real differences I understood between to the two so called dialects of British and American english was the irritation that I sometimes encountered when trying to write Essays and apologise would change to apologize when using Word. This itself changed however when I discovered that I was able to control a setting on my computer and install ?australian english? ? some sort of metamorphous between the two which us colloquial Aussies like to call our own. As I now know however, these changes were just a mere annoyance in comparison to the magnitude of separation that divides the two modern english languages. But which is right? There is no real right or wrong when it comes to distinguishing between the two, it all depends on where you are and with whom you are talking. As I know from experience, there are certain phrases which may be used frequently in Australia, Britain or the US, while used very infrequently ? if at all ? in the others. Sometimes these can get you in quite a tricky situation when not culturally understood, but most of the time you can work around this by explaining the context in which it was meant and how it is used in your home nation. The process of variation between formal and notional agreement had never crossed my mind. More importantly however, the morphology of verbs ? while in Australia we are heavily influenced by both cultures ? could quite easily catch the native speaker of the other off guard and in some circumstances, may even question as to whether they are speaking with grammatically correctness. Alternating examples of the past participle of several verbs include; Present British PP American PP Get Got Gotten Saw Sawn Sawed Fit Fit Fitted Shrink Shrunk Shrunken But this all seems hardly worth mentioning when the amount of grammatical changes, including the use of tenses, verbal auxiliaries, transitivity and complementation are taken into account. Are we even speaking the same language? As the differences amount and grow, the speaker of a foreign language may look at an overview and question whether these dialects can even be mutually understood. But thanks to globalization, the world has benefitted from a greater homogeneity and understanding of distinct language dialects. This is not just the case with english ? the most widely spoken language in the world ? but also languages such as spanish, with those in Spain learning of the romantic ways in Colombia and Venezuela through the mass importation of Northern South America?s greatest exportation: the Tele-Novela. For those living outside of these two mega-language enriching nations, the differences are barely recognised (so long as you?ve mastered language programs such as Word). The examples given above in terms of verb conjugations would work and be easily understood throughout nations such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, no doubt each adding a little of their own. I have to admit however, of my surprise when I first started to receive the worksheets from ITTT that they were all set to represent the American way of spelling. Is this how I am supposed to teach english as I enter the classroom? As a teacher of TEFL this must be taken into account, but you?ve got to be confident in representing what feels natural and right to you as a teacher. School procedures, geographical location and students? backgrounds all come into play here. If you are teaching something in one style and the remaining teachers of your school are teaching in another, then adjustments have got to be made. First, take into account where you are. Latin America for example is heavily influenced by the united states when it comes to culture as well as trade and business. Eastern Europe however, has more in common with England than the united states, especially since it was politically cut off from it for many years. Perhaps, and this all depends on the schools policy, in some cases it may be necessary to point out the differences and how they are used. At the end of the day however, it is the same language. You should love, teach and respect it.