Using matching, filling, and guessing activities as a way to learn how to differentiate

American from British English.

Santiago Parra Giraldo

Introduction

Intercultural awareness of existing English varieties is a topic that institutions do not

usually teach in their curriculum. However, distinguishing and using the appropriate type of
English according to the country and the context in which we are involved has become
completely important in this globalized world. For that purpose, the use of matching, filling,
and guessing activities as a way of learning how to differentiate English varieties, in this case
American from British English, has been recommended. Various scholars have argued that
most students are unaware of the differences between Englishes and that teachers should
teach the subject as part of the institutions’ curriculum. Calvert (2000), for example, contends
that American English and British English vocabularies have diverged over time, resulting in
lexical differences that have the potential to confound English-language intercultural
communication. Similarly, Lindell (2014), states that if the teacher does not explore the
differences between American and British English continuously throughout the English
teaching process, the students will be disadvantaged as they might miss the opportunity to
acquire two English varieties instead of one. In addition, Stelzerová (2014) suggests that the
differences between Englishes could be taught on a regular basis without affecting the lesson
plan and might be an enriching animation of the lesson for both students and teachers. In
general, it appears that teachers have to strengthen this capacity in their students at an early
stage of the process in order to avoid difficulties, such as misunderstandings concerning
pronunciation, and lack of vocabulary and knowledge to deal with people from different
countries.
This paper addresses teachers to a new methodology that uses as a basis a series of
certain activities related to the differences between American and British English to create
multicultural awareness in their students and continue enriching their learning process. For
this purpose, I will give a detailed description of the context, of the participants and of my
teaching practice. Furthermore, this paper will present positive outcomes concerning the
teaching of this new subject in the classroom and the reasons for positive achievements and
raise of awareness in both teachers and students. Finally, I will provide conclusions and
recommendations on the use of this new methodology as part of the lesson plan in regular
classes.
 Methodology
The teaching practice in which my study is centered took place at the University of
Caldas, Colombia. The participants in this project were thirty-five students from different
careers, such as: Veterinary, System Engineering, Nursing, Anthropology, etc., whose ages
ranged between seventeen and twenty-five years old; nineteen of them were men and sixteen
were women. They were enrolled in the English for General Purposes course.
The process included five stages through which I was able to implement different
activities in which they had to discern differences between American and British English and,
at the same time, observe the impact those activities had on the students with respect to their
multicultural awareness. Following I explain what the states consisted of.
In stage one, I asked the students about what multicultural awareness was and if they
knew anything about the different varieties of English, specifically, American and British
English. None of them could respond to the question precisely, but some of them knew some
differences between both Englishes, the most common example was the pronunciation of
‘water’ which in American English is /ˈwɑː.t̬ ɚ/ whilst in British English is /ˈwɔː.tər/ and one
of them answered that in American English they use the word ‘soccer’ whilst in British
English they prefer to use ‘football’.
In stage two, I explained what intercultural awareness is and the importance of
teaching it in class. The most important part of the methodology that I developed was not to
overload the students with information, but to guide them step by step on the differences
between both Englishes, so that they could understand and apply the knowledge they were
obtaining in an easier way.
In stage three, I wrote some words in American English on the left side of the board
and in British English on the right side, all of them in disarray, and then I asked the students
to write them in their notebooks. Some of the words were: Gas, freeway, parking lot, cab,
downtown… (American English) and petrol, motorway, car park, taxi, city centre… (British
English) Then, I asked them to start matching the correct American word to its corresponding
British word. When they finished, we reviewed the answers together and I corrected if there
were any mistakes.
In stage four, I gave them some sheets that had a series of sentences containing gaps,
the task was to fill those gaps using the words they matched in the previous activity. Each
sheet was separated in two parts, the first one was a dialogue between two American people.
Therefore, they had to fill it with American words. And the second one was a story told by a
British person, so they had to do the same but with British words. At the end of the activity, I
asked two people to read the conversation aloud, and one more person to read the story. Then
I provided feedback and corrected some mistakes. The objective of this activity was to
reinforce the vocabulary they learnt by adapting it to situations meant to be meaningful to
them.
In stage five, I asked them to form groups of four people to play a guessing game
called “Dirty Dan”. The story is the following: Scotland Yard police are looking for a famous
American bank robber called Dirty Dan. He robbed a bank in London last Friday night. They
are interviewing three different people. All three have British accents, but the police know
that Dirty Dan can imitate a British accent. After reading the story, I gave a transcript to three
students of each group, they had to read it to the fourth student, their task was to identify who
of them was Dirty Dan due to the words that person used. For example: instead of saying ‘car
park’, ‘taxi’ and ‘city centre’ that person said ‘parking lot’, ‘cab’ and ‘downtown’; those were
some of the clues that helped suspect Dirty Dan. The objective of the activity was to use the
words they learnt throughout the class to discern and differentiate between American and
British English in order to develop themselves in different contexts. At the end of the activity,
the students and I reflected on the importance of multicultural awareness and its application
in real-life situations.

Findings

The teaching practice described above had two major effects on students: They were
aware of the importance of distinguishing American from British English and vice versa, and
they were able to recognize and use a wider range of vocabulary.
As it was mentioned, the students acquired an awareness of how important it is to
differentiate both types of Englishes and their use in real-life contexts. In stage five, the
students gave their opinions towards the activities; for example, some students mentioned
that the activities developed were meaningful since they were something completely new for
them. Moreover, They emphasized the fundamental role of teaching language and culture
together, which was really beneficial because, as some of them said: “taking those differences
into account, communication in both countries will be easier for us in the future.
In addition, at the end of stage five, the students received feedback on the entire
experience not only of developing a multicultural awareness but of using a wider range of
vocabulary when doing the activities proposed in that class. As it was noted by one of the
students, the new vocabulary provided them with more options at the moment of speaking
and writing, and they would be able to understand different types of words depending on the
country they are used to. For instance, if they were watching an American movie or a British
film, they would acknowledge the English that is going to be spoken. In general, in terms of
vocabulary, students learnt that there are different words in both countries that have the same
meaning. Example: American English: Downtown, gas, parking lot; British English: City
centre, petrol, car park. And in terms of pronunciation, they learnt that there are different
ways to pronounce a word according to the country. For example: Car: UK /kɑː/ - US /kɑːr/;
Centre UK /ˈsen.tər/ - Center /ˈsen.t̬ ɚ/. Finally, They remarked that the class gave them the
opportunity to interact with more than just one type of English, and that significantly
enriched their learning process.

Discussion

I consider that the reason why the students felt that the activities were meaningful was
because they were able to increase their awareness towards American and British English
differences. Moreover, in the process, they acquired a wider range of vocabulary thanks to
the way in which the activities were developed. In other words, by moving from a general
activity to a more specific one, the students consolidated in their minds the words we used
throughout the class. It seems that using the topic of multicultural awareness was a
meaningful resource that helped to increase the students’ set of vocabulary as they had the
opportunity to experience a new methodology beyond the grammatical part that led them to
see English not only as a system but also as a process in which the human being is its
essence. Finally, since this type of topic is uncommon for most students, this class took them
by surprise making them more interested and committed to the topic. This may have been the
reason why this methodology had a positive impact on the students.

Conclusions and recommendations

This paper explored the effect of using matching, filling and guessing activities to
learn how to differentiate American from British English. As I reported, these effects relate to
the students’ increase of multicultural awareness by showing differences between the most
recognized varieties of English. Besides, it can relate to teachers as well by using vocabulary
as one of the main sources to teach how American and British English differ from each other.
Considering the findings of my teaching practice, I strongly encourage teachers to use
American and British differences in term of pronunciation and vocabulary as a starting point
to increase students’ overall knowledge of English language. In addition, I recommend that a
space be opened to reflect on the activities and the possibility of adding them to lesson plans
to diversify the English learning curriculum, since it was demonstrated that the methodology
provided positive learning outcomes. In closing, the use of matching, filling and guessing
activities to teach differences between English could benefit students’ learning process, as
they contribute significantly to increase their cultural and grammatical knowledge.

References
Calvert, S. (2000). Differences in American and British Vocabulary: Implications for
International Business Communication. Business Communication Quarterly, 15 (4),
27-39.

Lindell, C. (2014). British or American English? - An investigation of awareness of the

differences in British and American vocabulary and spelling. (Unpublished bachelor
degree thesis).University of Halmstad, Halmstad, Sweden.

Stelzerová, P. (2014). Teaching Differences between British and American English in

Lower-secondary EFL Classes (Unpublished master's thesis). Charles University,
Prague, Czech Republic.