T: Do you think all these English speakers sound the same?

Ss: Of course not.

T: While there are certainly many more varieties of English, the two varieties of English most widely found in print and taught around the world are British and American. But there are of course many other varieties of English. Scotland, Ireland, South Asia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West Africa, the Caribbean, South Africa all have their own regional variations of English. These varieties have their own ways of pronouncing words, their own special vocabulary and even their own grammatical rules. It is true there are some differences between American English and British English. For example words ending in -or (American) -our (British) color, colour, humor, humour, flavor, flavour etc. Words ending in -ize (American) -ise (British) recognize, recognise, patronize, patronise etc. Probably the major differences between British and American English lie in the choice of vocabulary. For example Americans go to movie while British go and see a film. The differences in the spoken language are greater. For example, Americans say dance [], and in southern England they say //. In American they pronounce not [//; in southern England they say //. Ok, you will learn more varieties in the following exercises. Now let's come to Ex2. Please work in pairs to match the British English words with the American English ones in the list.

Suggested answers to Ex2:

flat/ apartment, film/ movie, post/ mail, rubbish/ garbage, underground/ subway, vacation/ holiday

Step III Listening Strategies: Identifying different English accents

The listening strategies will help students build listening skills and get thoroughly prepared. Before listening, ask students to read and discuss Listening Strategies on page 8. From the listening strategies students will learn how to identify different English accents.

Step IV Listen to learn

Deal with Ex 3.

Before playing the recording, Teacher asks students to look through the questions