Teach English in ChuAncheng Zhen - Suqian Shi

Whilst entire countries will spend their day to day without much dispute in how to use common language, the question is raised when the English learner is asking how to properly pronounce a word that in Boston, London, New York, or Texas, would sound entirely different. Would it be correct to teach "buh-tuh" or "budder" to put on your pancakes or rather, your crumpets? Would you like a cookie or a biscuit with that? Would learners be better off learning one way than the other? Many students are not concerned with having perfect pronunciation, so long as they are understood. Considering that communication can often be successful without need for a native accent, it would not greatly matter whether the student were basing their English on British or American English. Even so, some students wish to have the best pronunciation possible, and one could consider making this question part of the needs analysis at the beginning of a term to find out how important it is for the majority of your classroom to cultivate good pronunciation in order to know how much you may dedicate to this area of skill. When it comes to understanding, one is bound to meet different types of speakers in life; therefore, it could be argued that it is important to accustom one’s students to all kinds of different accents so that they will not be caught off guard in these situations. There is a great abundance of commercial material in American English in media such as movies, shows, and music, so students are likely familiar with this accent to a certain degree. The British accent, though less abundant, is also available to the common person in most countries with libraries or internet access. One might consider advising students to seek out such materials on their own time in the desired target English, depending on where they wish to use the language and how they are wanting to get their language abilities certified. Academic material is also readily available for them to seek out, or for the teacher to recommend. A teacher should familiarise himself with the listening section of different exams that the students may be aiming at and make use of recorded resources to better prepare students for what they are to face even if said teacher is not a native with the target accent. Should there be no need to learn or any preference for a particular type of English, it would make sense to include a number of variations of accents in the classroom to better prepare students for whatever they may come across. Colloquialisms could be a very interesting part of a class as I find most people find these cultural differences at least a little interesting if not entertaining, and knowing certain aspects of language could help somebody avoid inappropriate behaviour or speech in a country they may be planning to spend time in. Looking up such differences could prove quite rewarding as a teacher when the moment comes to be able to explain these curious differences to the students. One could possibly even base an activity around explaining these differences to each other and the class. One way of speaking will have its challenges in one area while another will have them in another. It is hard to debate which is easier or more complicated to learn as far as syntax or phonetics go, and whether one way is ultimately “better” than the other is irrelevant to the question of which to teach when you consider the desire of the student and how and where they are to use the language; therefore, one should be taking into account the goals and motives of the student to choose how much time and space shall be dedicated to each.