学英式英语还是美式英语好？(1)

相关文章：也谈英语发音 | 学习英音还是美音好? (2)

这个问题是个英语学习者的热点话题，下面是我2005年做的一项小调查兼答学生问，作为该项问题讨论的序幕：

这是我写给我导师的邮件：

Dear Prof. DailyLife and Ms. Wang,

I was asked to deliver a warming-up speech concerning how to learn English well to the freshmen in my local learning centre the other day. The students were very attentive and responsive — real quality time spent on both sides.

After my speech, I stumbled on a question that I really have little to say –

发音的课程给的怎么不是美音呢？

However, I tried to give my suggestions like this –

美国英语经过自己的发展在一定的地方是不同于英国英语，如：单词的拼写，发音，一些习惯用语等等，但是他们在总体上来说是没有什么差距不是我们想的那样是两种不同的语言。

英音和美音在基本音素上是一样，不同的地方就在于一个元音字母在单词中的读音不同，和一些字母组合的发音不同。作为字母文化，音一般是同于形，但是英语是吸收了外来语言形成的，所以他很多的音不同于形。而美音不同与英音也就在于简化这些问题，使得发音同于形。英音严肃，在语调上美国英语更圆润。其实现在很多的英音也是用的美语的读音味道去读的，所以很多人在听现在人读英音的时候总是以为是美音了。

对于音素的学习还有一个目的就是，在学习的时候最好自己用音素的知识去读出来新的单词，很多朋友自己不懂音素，有的懂但是不愿意自己去读出来，总是希望他人读，自己模仿他人。也可以说很多朋友的发音靠感觉，英语中很多语音读起来很混的，所以容易模仿错误。

Professor and Ms. Wang, what else? I want to get your point of view. Of cause, anyone who are interested in this topic can air your view here, your kindly feedbacks are highly appreciated!

Cordially,

Li Chen

下文是我导师的回复：

Li Chen, your summary of the differences between British English and American English is impressive. Honestly, I didn’t study it so thoroughly before.

To answer your schoolmate’s question, I think we need to find out why he/she thought we couldn’t use British English in our textbook. Maybe his/her presumption was that English textbooks should use nothing but American English.American English is probably the most popular English accent in China now, and it is easier to understand to most Chinese learners, but this is not the reason why all English textbooks should follow the American trend. All the other English diversities – British English, Australian English, Canadian English – are all good enough for us to learn from, so an ideal English textbook should be neutral and inclusive. For listening practice, we should even include German, Indian, or Chinese people speaking English with their national accent. Of course, this is another story.

I, too, find the American accent easier to understand than the British in general, but I also find most Canadians speak clearer than Americans. Many Americans feel the British accent sexy and try hard to fake it. Some particular Australian accents sound cute, too.

However, in reality, a textbook is produced with various constraints: the budget, the time and he availability of native speaker actors. I have seen some English courseware dubbed in two versions: the British accent as well as the American, and the users can pick according to their preference. But then, the price is not what most of our Chinese learners would regard as favourable.

Have you heard of people say that British English is a tradition of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU)? So Cong Yunfeng may have a point saying that our writers/editors have a strong preference for British English.

Personally, I am not for or against any of these accents, but I definitely prefer the speakers who speak in a proper way. As a teacher, I’d always encourage my students to do plenty of imitation so as to pronounce correctly, but as a Chinese learner who has no big problem pronouncing clearly, I don’t care about my accent that much, be it Cantonese accent or American. To me, what matters is actually your ideas and your manners.

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