High-score question: Do I need to strictly distinguish between American and British pronunciation when I first start learning English?

1. About British pronunciation and American pronunciation

In fact, throughout the development process of modern English, American English and British English influence and promote each other, but in general It seems that the former has the main influence on the latter at present.

Some people predict that the differences between British English and American English will become larger and larger. They worry that in the future, British and American people may not be able to understand each other's English. In fact, this worry is unnecessary, because the basic elements of these two English varieties are almost the same, and they maintain the common core of English.

Just as China has five major dialect areas (Northern Dialect, Wu Dialect, Cantonese Dialect, Min Dialect and Hakka Dialect), English also has different dialects. Just like the northern dialect areas of our country include Beijing dialect, Northeastern dialect, Shaanxi dialect, Shanxi dialect, Shandong dialect, Sichuan dialect, Lianghu dialect, etc., as long as there is a slight flavor of Mandarin, it is not difficult for people from different regions to communicate with each other. American English and American English are the main dialect areas of English. Although there are some differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, the similarities far outweigh the differences, so they will not affect the standard of English expression. gender; therefore, these differences do not prevent Americans and British people from communicating with each other and exchanging ideas.

In this case, it does not matter which phonetic pronunciation a beginner learns first. Which one you choose to study mainly depends on your external environment, such as textbooks and audio-visual materials, and the tutors you have access to. In fact, when studying in China, most people learn second-hand English and want to learn one of the standard English unless they are in a single language environment.

Take myself as an example. In the 1960s, most of the teachers, teaching materials and limited recording materials were British English. I only learned a little about the difference between the two from other aspects. It was not until the 1980s that I saw "English" 900 Sentences" before I came into contact with systematic American English. However, this does not affect our acquired English communication and teaching of two languages.

2. About English teaching materials for primary and secondary schools

Currently, primary and secondary schools in my country have adopted the "Compulsory Education Curriculum Standard Experimental Textbook English (New Target)". This set of textbooks is the latest Go for it! published by Thomson Learning Publishing Group (USA). Based on the textbook, it was adapted from the cooperation between People's Education Press and Thomson Learning Publishing Group. It adopts the Task Based Language Teaching model, integrates topics, communicative functions and language structures, and adds a complete text based on the "English Curriculum Standards" (Experimental Draft) issued by the Ministry of Education. The former is dominated by American English, while the discourse incorporates British English.

3. Propositions about the CET-4 and CET-6 exams

The content of the CET-4 and CET-6 exams consists of four parts: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, comprehensive test and writing test.

The listening comprehension part accounts for 35%, of which the listening dialogue part accounts for 15% and the listening essay part accounts for 20%. The listening dialogue part includes the listening comprehension of short and long conversations; the listening essay part includes short text dictation and multiple-choice essay comprehension; the listening topics include dialogues, lectures, radio and television programs and other more authentic materials.

The reading comprehension section accounts for 35%, of which Careful Reading accounts for 25% and Fast Reading accounts for 10%. In addition to testing chapter reading comprehension, the careful reading part also tests vocabulary comprehension in the text context; the speed reading part tests various speed reading skills.

The comprehensive test ratio is 15 and consists of two parts. The first part is about filling in the blanks or correcting errors, accounting for 10%; the second part is about short sentence question and answer or translation, accounting for 5%.

The ratio of the writing ability test part is 15, and the genres include argumentative essays, expository essays, practical essays, etc.

The above parts include both American English and British English.

5. Suggestions on translator software and English dictionaries

Translator software, whether it is Youdao, iPowerWord, Baidu, or others, the things translated are full of jokes. For reference only, it is best not to use it in the beginner stage.

You can choose "Kingsoft PowerWord" and "iPowerWord" for online English dictionaries, which include British and American interpretations and phonetic notations. In terms of pronunciation, you can select Mary, Mike or the speech synthesis provided in the settings. Sam chooses one of them, the word is pronounced in British pronunciation and the sentence is pronounced in American pronunciation; the entire sentence in "LoveWord" is pronounced in American pronunciation.

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