British and American Spelling

[hafiz93]

There are two different kinds of English spelling that are being used worldwide, though the differences is not that huge. There are countries that use American spelling and there are countries that use British spelling for the English syllabus.

There are students that sometimes mixed up both of these style, for example when I was in primary school, my marks were deducted because I spelled "color" instead of "colour". So how do you handle when students often mixed up between these two styles?

 

[Karla Franken]

I think the key to distinguishing between British and American spelling is consistency. If you set out to write in American English, you should stick to American English; and if you start using British spelling, you should continue writing in that style. It can be very jarring for the person if they are used to one way of spelling, although with the Internet I don't think this should be the case anymore. I imagine that differences between British and American English are so minimal, that in a few more decades we will see a complete blend of both, and willstart focusing on other things other than the "proper" way of spelling.

Most of my students learn to spell the British way because that's the norm here. They are also taught British expressions, favoring "lift" to "elevator" or "chemist" to "person who works at a drugstore". It can be a challenge, especially since I'm American and I often let a few "Americanisms" slip, but overall, it isn't a big deal. I have had private lessons where the student explicitly wished to learn American English and not British English. I believe it usually comes down to preference.

 

[taco]

I am actually fine with either spelling and will not mark one wrong over the other. The only time I really notice is when the person is switching between the two back and forth which usually means they are doing the old copy-paste from an online source, which of course is a seriously problem!

 

[Alumno]

I do not really see any inconvenient with kids spelling both ways, it's always good to know how to do things different ways, however, teachers should try to let them know and realize which way is British and which way is American so they can actually consider the differences and decide which one to use, it would be a really smart move from teachers, it's such a good thing that kids do it both ways nowadays.

 

[remnant]

We mostly use British English which was the colonial master in my country. The funny thing is that the distinction between British and American English is rarely taught in school, its only mentioned in passing. However, American English is good to master especially those who aspire to be online writers since most writing websites including those which are worldwide in scope seem to be geared towards an American audience.

 

[Alumno]

We mostly use British English which was the colonial master in my country. The funny thing is that the distinction between British and American English is rarely taught in school, its only mentioned in passing. However, American English is good to master especially those who aspire to be online writers since most writing websites including those which are worldwide in scope seem to be geared towards an American audience.

That's because the difference mostly spins around the accent and nothing else, not too many people pay that much attention to words spelling andthat sort of thing.

 

[Denis Hard]

Teachers should focus on one or the other but the differences between American and British spelling should be taught so when the time comes and students students won't have a problem using either American or British spelling. But it shouldn't matter that much that much anymore because with spell checkers you could easily change the spelling of the words to British or American English.