Teach English in DaxingzhuAng Zhen - Beijing

British English vs. American EnglishAs an American living in germany, I seldom hear English spoken there. On the rare occasion when I can get help from someone capable of speaking English, it is often with a heavy accent peppered with a British flare. I have been told by many Europeans that I don?t speak English; I speak like a bubble gum chewing American. I often wonder to myself, how is it that so many Europeans adopt this British accent? Which English is correct? Is British English considered to be superior? There is general agreement that there is no correct version of English, but that consistency with a particular version is important when teaching the language (ESL Library Weekly). While the name of the language is the same throughout many countries, English is not a rigid set of rules. It has evolved and continues to change. It certainly is not the same English that colonists spoke centuries ago as they set off to the four corners of the globe. During most of the 20th century Europeans preferred British English, and European instruction in English as a foreign language followed the norms of British English in pronunciation (specifically RP), lexical choice, and spelling. This was a result of proximity, the effective methods of language teaching developed by British institutions such as the British Council, and the perceived 'prestige' of the British variety. As American English grew more influential in the world, it became an option alongside British English in mainland Europe and elsewhere. For a while, especially during the second half of the 20th century, a prominent attitude was that either variety was acceptable for a learner of English as long as each variety was kept distinct. The idea was that one could speak British English or American English but not a random mix of the two. (A History of the English Language) One of the main differences between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE) is spelling. We often assume our Microsoft applications will catch all of our typos. However that is often not the case. While the spell check function checks for misspellings it often poses a few problems. Spell checkers are frequently set to one English dialect. For instance, the course material I received from my tefl course contained the BrE spellings of words. When I opened the accompanying Word document, there would be certain words flagged for spell check like behaviour or organise, because they?re not the American spellings. Similarly, prepositions and definite articles are haphazard. In Britain, one says, ?I was in hospital,? but in America, a ?the? is usually there: ?I was in the hospital.? Likewise, children in the UK learn lessons ?at school,? while Americans learn theirs ?in school.? (University Language) Another difference between the two are word meanings. When one is ?mad? in the UK, one is considered to be crazy. In America, ?mad? means to be angry. I have had some background in freight forwarding. I was stumped when a colleague from London told me ?The lorry is in queue at the quay.? In AmE, ?The truck is in line at the pier.? Some other examples are as follows: British American Autumn Fall Rubber Eraser Biscuit Cookie Boot Trunk Dustman Garbage collector Loo Restroom Different types of spoken English are not the only differences between the US and UK. Other cultural differences can result in even more linguistic issues. For example, england measures things using the metric system while the US doesn?t. If a recipe calls for 150 grams of shortening, many Americans would have no idea what that means. Another example is how time is displayed. Americans use the twelve hour clock. 3 PM is 15:00 in the UK. While these are merely cultural differences they can still create language difficulties. Undeniably British and American English are different. The alphabet and grammar are the same while many spoken words have varying pronunciations. While both forms of English are spoken with two different accents, they should be regarded as two different regional dialects. If EFL students are given the appropriate foundation, they can excel in English with either dialect.