A STUDY OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH FOR CHINESE STUDENTS

Abstract

The English language developed on the British Isles and spread all over the world to all continents through British colonization and conquest. English became a world language, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. This spread of English, however, means that there now exist a number of English varieties around the world (Barber, 2000:236). English is unmistakably one language, with two major national varieties: British and American (Pyles and Algeo, 1993:212). British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formalities of dates and numbers. In this work, the emphasis is only on the differences between British and American English in the areas of spelling and vocabulary. The learning of English in China has a long history and probably began in association with the Canton trade. From 1978 on, English teaching has been stressed a lot because China has developed the race to communicate with the world. The government made a policy that all the students from primary school to university are to learn English. The objective of this work is to help the Chinese students learning English understand the differences between British and American English.