Teach English in Tiyu Zhongxin Jiedao - Tianjin

British english vs. American EnglishInstructors must be aware of the differences in pronunciation and spelling between British english and American english. In my first few weeks in the ESL classroom, I recall going through the alphabet. For the letter ?A?, I wrote on the board a wood chopping implement. Imagine my surprise as a class full of young students shrieked and insisted that ?axe? as I knew it was spelt with only two letters: ?ax?. Even as I write this, my UK spell check program has flagged the ugly two-lettered impostor with a wavy red line running beneath it. All teachers have heard horror stories of academies that demand they change their accent, seemingly irrationally hire only one countries natives over another and also (gasp!) ask instructors to change their accents. Since the only adequate American accent I can produce sounds like it should really belong to the love-child of Kermit the Frog and Ruby Wax, I have always chosen NOT to traumatise my students by attempting an entire class in that voice! Even with academies and institutes preferring one accent for one purpose but not for another: (usa is for business, apparently everyone speaking english for business will have an American accent! But UK is for those who wish to sound a little more ?Elite??they have obviously never heard an accent from the North of England). What can instructors do to help our students overcome the problems that arise from the differences between American and UK english? I guess our only option is neutrality. I will not mark a student incorrect if they use the British or the American spelling of the word, similarly with vocabulary. So long as I can understand them and there are no obvious mispronunciations the kiddies can get full marks with either American or UK english in my classroom. I have noticed that people from the UK are generally more familiar with the USA spelling (?ax? excluded) of words or pronunciation than (generally speaking) most Americans are with the British pronunciation, spelling or even meaning of words (esp slang). This must be due to the popularity of American soaps, movies and books acclimatising the rest of the world to the American Way. Sometimes the pronunciation differences can be quite profound ?either? (ee-ther) or ?either? (eye-ther), leading students to question whether they are in fact the same word at all! In these cases, and to prevent confusion when teaching new vocabulary, I often illustrate BOTH pronunciations before teaching the one I would use naturally (I think the principal would be far less disturbed by a class or children speaking with a slightly British twang than he would be when confronted with 30 children speaking this odd ?Kermit meets Wax? Pantomime hybrid accent that I use to illustrate the American pronunciation. I think to an American teacher these problems are not as apparent. The students are already used to hearing American accents (on tapes, TV, internet videos, MTV, even in the CDs and DVDs provided with ESL course books) Their previous encounters with ESL have all presumably been initiated in a mainly USA biased manner. American teachers are therefore less likely to have their students interrupt or query their way of speaking. The main thing to remember, I feel is to aim for neutrality. Do not ?put on? an accent and then teach students how to speak in your ?fake voice?. You are doing them a disservice. Just be aware of the differences and be prepared to show them the different pronunciations. Most importantly, DO NOT mark down a student for speaking in one accent rather than another, nor penalise their spelling unless it is imperative and specific to the course that you are teaching that you must do so. Your goal as a teacher is to help the student find more ways that they can be RIGHT, not invent new ways that they can be WRONG!