The Importance of Knowing The Differences Between British and American English
in Teaching English
Deris Triyadi
Siliwangi University
e-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract
This paper aims to discuss the differences between British and American English as it's important thing in teaching English. It's obvious that British and American English are standard English that are used all around the world. Even British English is the most used by teachers in educational aspect in Indonesia. Not only British English that the teachers in Indonesia must master, but also American English. Teachers need to know the differences between British and American English to answer such a question like ; centre / center, which one is correct? This paper will guide teachers to handle such a question mentioned that may come from some students.
Keywords : British, American, English
Introduction
British and American English are the same, both are English language. But there are some significant differences between them, such as in pronunciation, grammar, and spelling. Some students know the differences, but most of students have less knowledge about the differences. Sometimes students are confused when they face this case :
Dialogue / dialog, colour / color
Have u done your assignment? / did u do your assigntment?
Car /kα:/ or car /kα:r /
Related to the phenomenon above, the teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia should not neglect its varieties, especially British and American English, since English language is composed of two national standards, as Randolph Quirk and Sidney Green Baum (2013) say: "There are two national standards that are overwhelmingly predominant both in number of distinctive usage and in the degree to which these distinctions are institutionalized: American English and British English. Grammatical differences are few and the most conspisious are widely known."
According to Mackward, Albert H (1958), the differences will cause real problem of intelligibility, as he says: "The perceptible but minimal differences that distinguished American from English of United Kingdom (British) seem likely to cause any real problem of intelligibility."
Salama, Nancy (1976) says "… the teaching English in twentieth century demands an accurate awareness of differences between British an American English, because the influence of both varieties throughout the world."
The Differences between British and American English
British English (BrE) is a kind of English variety which comes from Britain or England, and it is well-known as Received Pronunciation (RP). It denotes the speech of educated people living in London and Southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in this way.
While American English (AmE) is the English language of the United States as distinguished from that used elsewhere more narrowly, it pertains to any word or expression that originated from United States. The accent of English which American people almost speak is called General American (GA) but it is not defined precisely. General American is the pronunciation used by the majority of the population of the United States and by most US radio and TV announcers. It is also the model accent used in teaching English in such parts of the world as Central and South America, the Philippines, etc
The difference between AmE and BrE is in pronunciation, spelling and grammar. The awareness of those kinds of differences is cosidered really important to avoid the confusion and misunderstanding. Some people consider these dissimilarities to be of minor concern. Nevertheless, the differences between the two varieties are not always as unimportant as we would like to believe (Modiano, 1996)
Pronunciation
The differences between AmE and BrE are most apparent in pronunciation (Modiano, 1996). As it is discussed above that British English uses Received Pronunciation (RP) and American English uses General American. There are some differences between RP and GA in diphthong, vowel and rhotic accent. Here are some differences :
Word
RP
GA
Go
gǝʊ
goʊ
No
nǝʊ
noʊ
Class
klα:s
klӕs
Ask
α:sk
ӕsk
Past
pα:st
pӕst
Car
kα:
kα:r
Near
Niǝ
nir
Spelling
In spelling, as it is well known, there are hundreds of differences between AmE and BrE. Keep in mind that BrE spelling is slowly adapting AmE standard, but with features such as the u in colour, we find that BrE is adamant in retaining the vowel never used in AmE spelling (Modiano, 1996). It's simple difference but it's important to know.
British
American
Centre
Center
Colour
Color
Dialogue
Dialog
Theatre
Theater
Programme
Program
Adviser
Advisor
Grammar
There are some fully acceptable constructions in one variety which are considered ungrammatical in the other. In most cases, however, the use of distinct AmE or BrE grammar will not impede communication. Nevertheless, it will serve the student well to become aware of some of the more apparent dissimilarities (Modiano, 1996). Sometimes some ungrammatical sentences don't mean incorrect, but it's the difference between BrE and AmE. Here are some grammatical differences between BrE and AmE :
British
American
In future
In the future
On average
On the average
Fill in a form
Fill out a form
In respect of
In respect to
Their attitude towards government
Their attitude toward government
The Importance of Knowing The Differences Between British and American English in Teaching English
Teachers need to know the differences between British and American English to avoid the confusion of students when they face such a problem like this; Students are confused which is the right word they have to write on their paper ( Theatre / Theater), students are confused to pronounce the word 'Dance' (dα:ns/dӕns). It is teachers' responsibility to solve this students' confusion. The perceptible but minimal differences that distinguished American from English of United Kingdom (British) seem likely to cause any real problem of intelligibility (Mackward, Albert H, 1958).
A good understanding of the differences between AmE and BrE will help students to communicate more effectively. This is true for the spoken as well as the written language (Modiano, 1996). Teachers can help students to know the differences between AmE and BrE in order to make them speak English well.
Salama, Nancy (1976) says "… the teaching English in twentieth century demands an accurate awareness of differences between British an American English, because the influence of both varieties throughout the world." The awareness of the differences between AmE and BrE must be known and understood by teachers in teaching English, so that the teaching English will be clearer whether using American or British English.
Conlcusion
Knowing the differences between British and American English is not difficult. There are a lot of books, websites and articles provide the information of the differences between BrE and AmE. It's demanded to know the differences between BrE and AmE to avoid misunderstanding and students' confusion. The benefits of knowing this difference are to help students to communicate more effectively (see Modiano, 1996), to avoid the confusion in kind of variaties in pronunciation, spelling and grammar.
The writer believes that it's important to know the differences between British and American English in teaching English for teachers especially in Indonesia to minimize the confusion of students in studying English. So teachers need to be aware about the differences to have a good teaching English.
References
Salama, Nancy, 1976. Teaching Foreign Language Skill. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Markward, Albert, 1958. A Communicative Grammar of English. Singapore: Longman.
Modiano, Marko. (1996). A Mid-Atlantic Handbook : American and British English.
Sweden: Studentlitteratur
Algeo, John. (1986), "The Two Streams: British and American English," Journal of English
Linguistics Vol. 19, No. 2 (Oct 1986), 269–84.
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