British English is Cramping My (Teaching) Style

British English vs. American English

If you have ever heard someone from England speak, the first difference you will notice is the accent. Obviously. If you continue to have a conversation with them, you might notice some differences in the words used to describe basic everyday things. Take the word elevator for example. In England they say lift. Or you might notice a difference between the spelling: colour as opposed to color (as the spell check on my computer tells me spelling the word color as colour is incorrect...how ironic). Yes, there are differences, but they rarely keep you from understanding a person from England if you are someone used to American English. It's not like a native English speaker speaking to a native Spanish speaker for example. But what if you were an American teaching in a school where the students have been taught "British English" their whole lives?

This is where many of the difficulties lie in teaching English as a foreign language in Spain as I have discussed in previous blog posts. For me, I do not think one type of English is necessarily better than the other type, but I am fascinated by what is considered right and wrong in both types of English. I have discussed before the usage of the word "rubber" for eraser, which as we know in the United States, this is unacceptable. I have also learned that students often say "I've got" for "I have" whereas in the United States, we would fail a term paper if we tried to write "I've got."

But this is where I draw the line...this is where British English cramps my (teaching) style. The other day, I was writing a sentence on the board. I wrote words such as "color" and "program" and my students started whispering while the teacher looked very confused. I asked what they problem was and everyone asked why I was spelling the words wrong. And I told them this is how you spell them in the United States. The teacher then went on to explain to me that if the students write "color" instead of "colour" or "program" instead of "programme," they are instructed to take points off of their exam. How crazy is that?

For me, the most important part of learning a language is being able to communicate with other people. It does not matter if you write "color" or "colour" because when you say it, it sounds the same. Even if you write it differently, people will still know what you mean! Isn't the main goal of learning a language being able to communicate with others? Just one of the many thoughts that has crossed my mind since I began teaching.