Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Zhongbao Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Ankang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
British English vs American English Author: Tim Van Steenlandt Date: 17/11/2018 English is spoken all throughout the globe and because of this there are many linguistic evolutions that happened separately throughout time and space . The English spoken in London, England, is completely different than the English spoken in Mumbai, India. The English that was spoken in London during the life of Shakespeare in 16th century AD would also be incomprehensible to a Londoner in 2018. The English language has its linguistic origins, according to most linguistic experts, on the British Isle and expanded from there on to the rest of the world, including the USA. So its not that strange to call the English spoken in the USA a sort of dialect of English. Because of political, economical and military factors the USA grew to be the biggest powerhouse in the world. Much of the popular culture consumed by millions around all the nations is made and produced in America. So American English goes further than his own borders of the USA. Although British English and American English are very similar in nature there are still many differences between them as far as vocabulary, pronunciation, conversational style and the list of differences can be much longer. When you are about to teach abroad in a country where English is a foreign country it might be a good idea to get familiarized with the students culture. Are they exposed to the culture from the United States of America (USA) or does their media diet consists out of programs/magazines/music bands out of the UK. This is a useful thing to know since much of your materials will be depended on knowing this. Using a extract out of a American or British newspaper will be considerably different in terms of style of writing, used vocabulary and general content. So be aware of this teaching in other parts of the world. A serious implication in the difference between British English and American English is in its pronunciation of words. British English uses generally a rhotic accents and American English doesn't. Rhoticity concerns the pronunciation of the consonant /r/. In rhotic accents the /r/ will get pronounced after other consonants and vowel sounds. Non-rhotic speakers tend to drop the /r/ sound after a consonant sound. British English is generally speaking non-rhotic and American English is rhotic. Take for example the word park and beer; British English /pa:k/ , /bi:/ and American English /pa:rk/, /bi:r/. Non-rhotic speech is a very comparable to the Thai language since it also drops most of its final sounds. When teaching in a public school / international school / language center it is important to know the schools teaching rules and the schools curriculum. It can vary from school to school, institute to institute whether they want you to teach British English or American English. This has implications for vocabulary, pronunciation and many others. It can be a nice time filler to explain that there are differences between British English or American English when teaching new vocabulary but it shouldn't evolve in an entire new language points. Making your students aware that are more English dialects throughout the world besides the one you are teaching them can be very fun and educational.
