Pronunciation Variations in British English and American English

Abstract

'Pronunciation Variation in British English and American English', the entitled dissertation attempts to make an inventory of words that are varied inBritish and American English related to pronunciation aspect from OALD seventhedition, the Oxford 3000 TM , to verify dictionary pronunciation with respectivenative speakers, to find out the pronunciation variations of M.Ed. second yearstudents. Both primary and secondary sources were usedin order to collect the data tocarry out the dissertation. For the collection of primary data, a list of the wordswere given to the students/informants to pronounce in which most of the wordswere familiar to them and varied in pronunciation as well. Their pronunciationswere recorded in tape recorder for the ease and further analysis and interpretation.They were twenty native speakers of both British and American English: ten from each and thirty students of M.Ed. second year, 50 respondents altogether. 55% of students used British English, 42% used Nepali English and 3% used American English. There is difference in British and American English. There should be consistency in using the varieties of English. The work is divided into four chapters viz. Introduction, Methodology,Analysis and Interpretation and Findings and Recommendations. The first chapter deals with the study in terms of General Background,Related Literature Review, Objectives of the Study and Significance of the Study. The second chapter is basically related to Methodology that is applied to carry out this dissertation. Under this heading the Sources of Data, Process of Data Collection, Limitations of the Study and the like sub-headings are dealt with. The third chapter is mainly concerned with the Analysis and Interpretation of the data. While analyzing, interpreting and describing the data an attempt has vii been made to describe the collected data descriptively as well as analytically using appropriate diagrams, charts and tables using simple statistical tools to make the analysis objective and accurate. The fourth chapter presents the lists of findings and some pedagogical implications made on the basis of analysis and interpretation of data.