Teach English in Wanghaotun Zhen - Heze Shi

On the surface, "British English" and "American English,” are considered the same. The general population (even native English speakers) often think the only real differences are like those in the pronunciation of words such as "tomato" or "potato," for example. Or even, the difference between "color"and "colour". However both the UK and the USA have an enormous amount of different accents and idioms localized to certain areas of their respective countries. London alone has several accents, where as Florida has become such a diverse state that it has many different accents from all over the USA. In some cases, the pronunciation of words are so severely different it may be incomprehensible, for example someone from Boston would probably have great difficulty understanding someone from rural Scotland. Although many languages have varied accents and dialects (as for example in China), I believe there is not a more diverse set of accents that exist within one native speaking population, making this of course, a challenge for students. Naturally, there will always be people who speak "properly" in their native language, for example "the Queen's English," however there are a great deal more who have what would be considered "heavy accents". When presenting material to students, it is best of course to save the more advanced, native speaking material for more advanced students. As an entry level student would certainly not understand a word with the accent commonly heard in New York City. When trying to get past the boundary of accents, it is best to expose the students to purely authentic material. The best exercise would be to use a native speaker with say, a heavy accent, speaking normally in their own natural way, and then slowing down for students to more accurately decipher what was said. However, as this is not commonly an option to be used in the classroom, I have found that using TV series can work the best. Either showing clips, or entire episodes, I find the method of students seeing native speakers in a natural environment, with a story, allows for periodic stopping and comprehension questions to the class to make sure that they are following along. A great exercise would be to show both original pilots for the TV series "The Office," as one is with a completely British cast, the other American, with the script being completely the same. It works as a great exercise where students can see how people in either country interpret the same exact language (given the material is age and culturally appropriate for the class). In addition to a plethora of accents, we also must observe the many idioms related to both cultures, or better to say, the idioms that can be found across the English speaking population. Idioms can be especially challenging for students, as they are often nonsensical phrases that have no literal meaning, only figurative and/ or metaphorical, or maybe even something completely unrelated, such as "let the cat out of the bag." Additionally, it can be just as difficult to explain an idiom, as it is to understand it. What is most challenging is that idioms are used in everyday life, and by every culture in the word, and not only will each area of a country have their own set of idioms, each country will also, as the UK, Australia and the USA, all have their own unique sets. They are very commonplace phrases that often come up in even simple speech, with lower level students finding them in a simple phrase. They may, for example, be able to read the phrase, however cannot comprehend it as it will be taken literally, and furthermore they lack the vocabulary required to understand an explanation of something that is being used figuratively or metaphorically. There is no real way to go about approaching the explanation of idioms, as there are seemingly infinite amounts, with the question usually being raised spontaneously. However, it would always be good to include in a course lesson plan activities using idioms, especially during the engage phase of a lesson. Students could learn them in a fun warm up, playing a game using pictures, acting things out, or maybe even creating their own. Finally, what is most important to remember in the classroom is that the teacher should be well informed about all forms of the English language, meaning UK, USA and Australia, as they have the potential to have students from all over the world who may be influenced by any or all of these cultures. It is imperative to have at least a basic understanding of the more populist pronunciations between these three places, and a general understanding of their ventricular, use of idiomatic phrases, and commonplace slang that they might hear regularly on the street.