Should I Correct American Spellings ?

[colino]

Hi all im just wondering about should i correct the spelling mistakes that the students make when writing ie color, and tire (on a wheel ) or am i just beating my head against the wall ?, they seem to be used alot over here by major retail outlets ,,, so spell as it sounds or the queens english ?

it will be intresting to hear what everybody thinks , il go with the majority

ta very much

[PeaceBlondie]

If you are employed by the Queen of England, use her English. If your employer insists on using proper British spelling, likewise. Some schools require American spelling. But Thailand says lift for elevator, toilet for bathroom, and there's a Nissan Saloon that doesn't sell beer, etc. So, if anything, Thailand has more British spellings than American.

Please don't let the spelling drive you mad; be smart; be sharp whilst you're amongst the blokes.

[Ijustwannateach]

Considering the varied background of my pupils, I would consider the following:

1. Are they heading towards any universal test for the country in question (O levels, SAT, etc.)?

2. Does my school have a policy (is it considered a "British" or "American" school)?

3. Have my students themselves expressed preferences, either individually or collectively?

If there are no definite directions indicated by any of the above, I would simply ask the students to choose one system and stick with it (providing some examples in the differences and extra information if the students want it), with the caveat that I will be using and teaching only in one of the systems in the classroom. I wouldn't penalise anyone for correctly using another valid system.

"Steven"

[tayto]

http://www.learnenglish.de/mistakes/USvsBrEnglish.html

I didn't know there were so many.

[toptuan]

In absence of a school "policy" (c'mon how many Thai schools have an official policy on what spelling system they will use?), I always teach my students both spellings.

I also teach them both pronunciation systems (on words that are especially troublesome between the dialects). Thirdly, I teach them the alternate vocabulary (it gets really fun on the subject of motor vehicles.)

Then, as the above poster, I tell them to choose a system and stick with it, including pronunciation. I let them know I will never correct them, as long as they are consistent. It's interesting how virtually 100% of them go American. I think the Queen's English days are numbered in Thailand.

[aussiestyle1983]

Unless the school specifically tells you what type of spelling, pronounciation you should use, just teach what ever you use, as long as it is correct.

[Naam]

Unless the school specifically tells you what type of spelling, pronounciation you should use, just teach what ever you use, as long as it is correct.

[colino]

Ok thanks to all for the advice il go with the flow , and try not to go ting thong

[otherstuff1957]

I just use whichever spelling the school seems to prefer. For older/more advanced students I will point out the differences and let them know that they should try to learn both, because their future English usage might require the use of either or both. The most important point I make is that they should be consistant in using one or the other within any given document or project.

I NEVER deduct points for using one or the other.

[aussiestyle1983]

Unless the school specifically tells you what type of spelling, pronounciation you should use, just teach what ever you use, as long as it is correct.

Would you like a medal?

Okay, my biggest problem is that I attended KG-Grade 1 in Oz, Grade 2-8 in the USA and finished high school in Oz, so my spelling and my accent as well as my pronounciation/ pronunciation changes and is VERY VERY inconsistant.

Any ideas on how I could fix it? Also, being the only farang at my school, sitting in a staff room with 19 Filippinos had only made my grammar, accent and everything else worse

Edited May 19, 2007 by aussiestyle1983

[PeaceBlondie]

Unless the school specifically tells you what type of spelling, pronounciation you should use, just teach what ever you use, as long as it is correct.

Good catch, Dr. Naam. I'll bet that some accents of English pronounce pronunciation differently, too.

[wolfmanjack]

http://www.learnenglish.de/mistakes/USvsBrEnglish.html

I didn't know there were so many.

I looked at that site and many of the words for the UK side we Americans use also. We say toilet and bathroom. Most signs will say toilet. We use both sink and wash basin. We use cinema and movie theater. The movie theater in my home town is called "Cinema 7" since it can show 7 different movies at the same time.

By the way I have never heard of a ladder being referred to as a run. There are rungs on a ladder.

ladder run

There is also the difference in location. The people in the west will know what a soda is but some in the east will not know what a pop is. When the concoction first came out i think it was called a "soda pop".

Edited May 19, 2007 by wolfmanjack

[PeaceBlondie]

The biggest differences are not in pronunciation or spelling, but in vocabulary, as the cited website shows. Some common words have very different meanings, such as smart, clever, mad, braces, private school, saloon, vest, etc., and that can be very confusing. That website appears Brit-centered. There's no explanation that in America, a woman wears a bonnet, an angry man is mad, you drink in a saloon, the vest is outside the dress shirt, you're angry if you're pissed, etc.

[Jockstar]

A few years ago when i taught in LOS. I had a little girl(6 or 7 years old) ask me why Americans say Z(ZEE) and English(ZED). This girl was Thai and her parents are Thai but she was born in New York and spoke English with and American accent. She was/is a very smart girl. My answer was that "Neither was wrong. But since i teach English and i am British then Z(ZED ) is what i will continue to teach. She seemed happy enough with my response.

[Ijustwannateach]

In absence of a school "policy" (c'mon how many Thai schools have an official policy on what spelling system they will use?), I always teach my students both spellings.

Well, quite a number of schools in Bangkok- especially the private ones- advertise themselves as "British" or "American." I was trying to make my post as general as possible.

[wolfmanjack]

A few years ago when i taught in LOS. I had a little girl(6 or 7 years old) ask me why Americans say Z(ZEE) and English(ZED). This girl was Thai and her parents are Thai but she was born in New York and spoke English with and American accent. She was/is a very smart girl. My answer was that "Neither was wrong. But since i teach English and i am British then Z(ZED ) is what i will continue to teach. She seemed happy enough with my response.

I wondered about this too. I never heard of it until my children came home saying zed when they said the alphabet. They pronounced it more like sat though. I told them it is a Zeeeebra not a Satbra or Zedbra in your case. Now they have the thai teacher using Zee instead.

[wolfmanjack]

The biggest differences are not in pronunciation or spelling, but in vocabulary, as the cited website shows. Some common words have very different meanings, such as smart, clever, mad, braces, private school, saloon, vest, etc., and that can be very confusing. That website appears Brit-centered. There's no explanation that in America, a woman wears a bonnet, an angry man is mad, you drink in a saloon, the vest is outside the dress shirt, you're angry if you're pissed, etc.

Yeah you would be angry if you were pissed off or pissed on but you would be drunk if you were only pissed. Good point about the usage and I agree that it seems the site was probably set up by a brit. An American would not have come up with some of the examples.

I like the idea that some another poster said about teaching both King's English and Webster's English. I know an American teacher that taught his daughter english at home before she managed to get into an english class. She came home after a spelling exam crying because she flunked the test. I looked at the test and she spelled every single word correctly based on Websters spelling. I can see a problem with the students having an American teacher one year and then a British teacher the next. So my suggestion is teach both and explain the differences if you know them yourself that is. It would be most beneficial for the students.

[enuff said]

.

There should be enough room in a person's head for two different spellings of a word. Anybody who reads "colour" and doesn't know it's "color" or reads "honor" and doesn't know it's "honour" surely has blinders on.

I say both are correct. As are zee and zed. Aluminum and aluminium etc., etc.

Sofa, couch, divan, settee, davenport. All words for basically the same thing. Just depends on where you grew up.

Please don't make it more difficult for the poor students by insisting on the use of certain words or spellings in order to be "correct"

'nuff said

~

[The Dan Sai Kid]

For me the key is consistency, I will let the students choose (if they are old enough) and they better stick to it, or else!

[PeaceBlondie]

As 'nuff said, an EFL teacher should know both sets of vocabulary. I'm teaching the entire language, not just one nationality of it. I know some guys who tutor international students who go to different schools, and the teachers have to think twice: which school does this student attend? One has a student whose ESL teacher insists on London English, and the regular English teacher uses Chicago English. Boys in Chicago don't put on a jumper and play in the garden with Hermione and Cedric.

[toptuan]

Boys in Chicago don't put on a jumper and play in the garden with Hermione and Cedric.

The more flamboyant Chicago boys might....

Edited May 19, 2007 by toptuan

[aussiestyle1983]

Zee and Zed are very common for me to deal with as well. When I'm singing the ABCsong to KG, I always pause before I get to that 26th letter and hope I say the one that the Thai teacher has been teaching, I don't know why. It's sad that there is not specified English to teach at my school, so some classes say zee and some say zed. I am an Aussie and mostly use British English when I speak, except for the letter Z, I never say zed or zedbra, I always say zee or zeeeeebra, like an American. I also spell like an American because most of my schooling years where I was taught spelling was done in America, but then I still spell COLOUR, like a Brit. The best way I deal with Thai adults on the letter Z issues is say "Up to you" they love to hear that. I say, if you want to sound like a yank, say zeeeee, if you want to sound like a brit, say zed. All of my students have chose the brit pronuncitaion, as I think it is more common here for the general speaking public, but one guy loves the USA and is obsessed with sounding like a yank and is the only student I have ever taught that says Z like zeee, the same way I say it. He deliberatly slurs the end of some of his words, especially the ones that end in "er" just to sound american, spit flying out of his mouth and all.................. Oh well, I tell them all, its all about communicating at the end of the day, as long as you can communicate successfully in the language you use and people understand you and you can understand them, that's all that matters, the more perfectally you speak and use the language is just a bonus.

Okay, time to go to bed now............ ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

Edited May 19, 2007 by aussiestyle1983

[PeaceBlondie]

When I teach the ABC's, I use the song that they seem to know. But I joke and run very fast through pqprstuv, which they like, and then I hold the notes on wyy and z (of course, zee rhymes with be and bee). Then I sing the sequel they don't know:

Now I've said my abc's;

Tell me what you think of me!

That wouldn't work if it ended with, "Tell me what you think of Ned."

Likewise, at the end of the "Ha-pee-bwuh-day" song, I like to add dramatically, "and maaaaaany moooore!"

[aussiestyle1983]

I agree. I think Z or zee is the best way to say the letter Z, the American way. I break it down into spelling the letter, and what ever is easiest wins. To say the letter Z like an American, you just say Z or Zee (two different letters) but to say Z like a Brit, "ZED" or "ZEAD" it actually looks more like a word than a letter. I just think Z "Zee" is a lot simpler and easier to learn, that is why allthough I sound more British, I will always say Z "Zee" like an American. I also think Zebra or Zeebra sounds a lot better that Zedbra or Zeadbra. <deleted> is a Zedbra or Zeadbra anyway? Is it a type of bra or is it the same as a Zebra?

[ProThaiExpat]

Speaking from the students point of view, I would think having them spell as their computer spell check does would be the most helpful. Perhaps there are different spell check versions available but where is the student most likely to go to determine the correct spelling in todays computer age, his computer's spell check.

[wolfmanjack]

When I teach the ABC's, I use the song that they seem to know. But I joke and run very fast through pqprstuv, which they like, and then I hold the notes on wyy and z (of course, zee rhymes with be and bee). Then I sing the sequel they don't know:

Now I've said my abc's;

Tell me what you think of me!

That wouldn't work if it ended with, "Tell me what you think of Ned."

Likewise, at the end of the "Ha-pee-bwuh-day" song, I like to add dramatically, "and maaaaaany moooore!"

I learned the abc song to end with

maybe next time you can sing with meee.

Which does not rhyme with zed either.

[wolfmanjack]

I agree. I think Z or zee is the best way to say the letter Z, the American way. I break it down into spelling the letter, and what ever is easiest wins. To say the letter Z like an American, you just say Z or Zee (two different letters) but to say Z like a Brit, "ZED" or "ZEAD" it actually looks more like a word than a letter. I just think Z "Zee" is a lot simpler and easier to learn, that is why allthough I sound more British, I will always say Z "Zee" like an American. I also think Zebra or Zeebra sounds a lot better that Zedbra or Zeadbra. <deleted> is a Zedbra or Zeadbra anyway? Is it a type of bra or is it the same as a Zebra?

That's what I thought when my kids came home with zed or sat instead of Zeee.

[PeaceBlondie]

When Koreans begin learning English, they pronounce z as they do j. So, you could end the alphabet song with Jee. They say there are jebras at the joo, but jebras have jero jippers.

[aussiestyle1983]

When I teach the ABC's, I use the song that they seem to know. But I joke and run very fast through pqprstuv, which they like, and then I hold the notes on wyy and z (of course, zee rhymes with be and bee). Then I sing the sequel they don't know:

Now I've said my abc's;

Tell me what you think of me!

That wouldn't work if it ended with, "Tell me what you think of Ned."

Likewise, at the end of the "Ha-pee-bwuh-day" song, I like to add dramatically, "and maaaaaany moooore!"

I learned the abc song to end with

maybe next time you can sing with meee.

Which does not rhyme with zed either.

So did I, something like this.............

"Now I know my ABS's, next time come and sing with me" or "Next time won't you sing with me"

I guess there are many different endings.

We learnt a song called the "Hokie Pokie" and it seems that the Filipinos at my school call it the "Oggie Boggie" and when I asked about this, an old Brit woman also called it the Oggie Boggie. So I guess many names and words for many songs, it just depends where you learned. It's just sad for the Thai teachers and studnets when you have six different teachers singing six different versions of the same song................ If can be fun and gets a laugh, but then, they will never learn how to sing the song fluently.

[calibanjr.]

Not much to do with teaching, but I'm American, yet I dig the "zed" name since it's harder to mistake for the letter "c" when speaking to other people.