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American English or British English - what do we teach?
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Tue, 03/31/2009 - 10:26
With the world spread computerization of the process of teaching and learning when most software materials come from the USA and even the coursebooks printed in the UK are americanized don't we have a problem? What English should we test and teach?What English must be tested as the final exam at a secondary school?
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 01:48
#2
Dear Moderators:
Dear Olga and Andrea:
I want to point out that we as teachers of English should be aware that Enlish is spoken in many parts of the world.(Is it this obvious?)When we speak about teaching American or British English,I think we should speak about the contexts where it is spoken and this should be taught,too.Especially if we teach English not only as a code but also as a communication system .Another fact is that English language taught by teachers depends on their own language competence.Many teachers speak R.P. in the classroom and don't make the difference between American,English,Australian,etc. style of speaking plays another important role ,too.Some authors of textbooks distinguish between both varieties but they don't include other ones,dictionaries excludes Canadian or Australian English , I would ask you:Why should we test this kind of English?What would be the purpose of its testing?What's the difference between "favourite and favorite" ?I should say that I only would test this if I wanted my students to focus on various pronunciation patterns when they listen to an English speaker,but it is very difficult particularly for English learners other languages to do it and it requires a high phonological competence.Then I should teach the students how to identify them,too.It's a long and winding road...however it's very useful.Think of the word directly,for example,we have three possibilities to say it.Another problem of Testing this kind of English has to do with the design of a reliable evaluative instrument.So,does anybody share this thought?
Marcela-V
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 11:58
#3
Dear Marcela,
I'd like to share my thoughts about testing. That is what is happening in the Russian system of school education. A test for final exam in English (5 parts- 5 skills) is offered to the teachers and the students of secondary schools. there are many questions about the evaluating and assessment of the testa and very often there are no answers to them. The problem is there is no the whole list of criteria for assessment, only main of them are being discussed now. You are absolutely right - there must be clear, complete and definite ( with the examples) instrument for evaluating.
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 06:38
#4
Dear
The non-native speakers of English teach English because it is a global lang. It is generally Ameican or British because of its dominance. In Nepal, we adopt the British lang. though we show its difference with the American.
Samjhana
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 11:41
#5
Dear Samjhana,
the same way in Russia - we teach so called British standard of English and all our textbooks show the difference between AE (American English) and BE. What worries me is the criteria at the final exams at school - for oral speech, for writing and for grammar testing.For example, Future Simple - I shall or I will, prepositions (on Christmas or at Christmas, at school or in the school etc.). American teachers have a different look at modal verbs too. Pronunciation is also very different. What I dream of is to have a so called Sample of Standard English for preparing for the final tests at school ( someting like "hoch" German) and all the rest variants of English are to be declared the dialects of English. They can be taught, spoken written, learnt, pronounced but not tested at the exams. It especially concerns grammar aspects. Who creates tests for your schools, are they international or national? International testing is a personal affair of a student as our students take a State Final Exams in English which are created by the teams of experts teachers-cooperators from Great Britain and Russia, and sometimes from the USA and Russia. What do you feel about the situation? I met a boy from Oxford university who was happy to talk American English with the Americans in Russia and he said AE was on fassion in Britain , many young people consider the British one to be too conservative and strict in rules(those were his words, not mine).Any ideas?
Sat, 04/04/2009 - 02:52
#6
Hello to everyone!
Hello Olga and Samjhana!
I believe that testers have to take account of all these situations you have described and try to give more advice to teachers inside the English speaking community /English teaching community.That would be a quite useless task if your students don't know what will be tested.How can they be prepared to succeed ?
Marcela-V
Sun, 04/19/2009 - 08:56
#7
Hi Olga:
My advice to students is this: if your goal in pronunciation is to be intelligible rather than native-speaker like, and you are learning English in order to converse primarily with Americans, then learn British English. The Americans don't know a good British accent from a bad one and, upon thinking that your accent is British, will just assume that it is perfect. Likewise, if you will be conversing primarily with the British, then learn American English. On the first day of class, I ask students whether they are learning American English, if not, then I inform them that they are in the wrong class since I am a native speaker of American English who is not familiar with other accents of English. By the way, I am not required to use university-wide exams for my classes; I prepare my own exams.
Dan Jenkins (Foreing Expert, English Department, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China)
Tue, 04/21/2009 - 18:56
#8
Hello to everyone,
I don't think , that there are so much differences between BE and AE.
If we analyze language aspects of the English language :
grammar, lexis and phonetics , grammar is considered to be the most
conservative aspect of a language , it is undergone to changes with difficulty,
if we analyse grammar of BE and AE, we can hardly find differences, and these differences
can't influence on understanding.
If we take wordstock of the English Language as 100 % ,I don't know exactly but
about 10%BE lexis has AE synonyms.
Phonetics is the most influenced aspect of a language, how many nations and nationalities are
so many pronunciations the English language has, but in spite of that we understand each other.
But for official testing we should have English standard, but now I understood instead of standard,
we have variations of this language.
Best regards,
fazira
and I would add..why only American and British English? What about other varieties?
best
Andrea