English Language lessons - American teacher - any disadvantages?

[Portofino]

Being abroad, a group of us have got together to explore the option of hiring an English language teacher to help the dcs - aged 4 - 8 - keep up to speed with reading and writing in their mother tongue, as they are all being educated in other languages.

We are from the UK, and at the moment have the option to get some shared "tutoring" by either an English Primary School teacher, or an American kindergarten teacher. Dd has done a trial lesson with the latter and really enjoyed it, though I think she is a little bit ahead of the rest of the group (mainly through being older).

DH pointed out though, that being taught English by an American might lead to different spellings and different sentence construction. If I have a choice, how much do you think it would matter?

Matter in what respect? Personally, I'd go with the teacher that seems to have the best rapport with the students, provided she seems to know what she's talking about. I don't think spelling/language differences would matter in the scheme of things, even if you ended up moving back to the UK - they certainly wouldn't be a barrier to communication.

It's not so much communication I am worrying about (and I know I'm worrying about nothing) - dd SPEAKS very fluently in English. I guess I want to ensure that she maintains the same fluency and ability to read and write in English that she has (or will have) in French.

This will her first "formal" instruction in English so I suppose we are wanting her to learn "English" spellings rather than American ones. Colour vs color for example. She is 6. If she learns certain ways to spell words, will she get confused reading with us at home? Will she insist one is right/one is wrong? Does it even matter in the slightest? Maybe I should have posted in Pedant's Corner.....

I wouldn't imagine it would cause any real problems (don't have any personal experience mind, but I worked as a language teacher and now in language publishing) - it's easy enough to explain that American people like her teacher spell a word X and British people spell it Y, I think. In fact, it could be seen as a positive advantage that she will be more aware of the differences than most children?

I suppose on top of her formal education in 2 other languages, it is probably a small thing... I will concentrate on other aspects - teacher interaction, how enjoyable she finds the lessons etc....And the end of the day I want her to ENJOY reading in English.

It will matter BUT sufficient exposure to British English books will sort it out if you're that bothered. She probably will get confused at some point, all children do when they come across the 'other' spelling for the first time. TBH I think both sides of the pond are a lot more flexible nowadays - the words are the same word after all. The only sticking point would possibly be GCSE if she took it but by then she's old enough to know the difference.

Do make the teacher aware of your concerns and ask her (when checking spelling etc) to be sure DD isn't spelling it the British way/using a British word before she marks it down as wrong though.

unlearning spellings can be quite difficult for some DC at a later date - I know of a couple of people who were taught "phonic" spelling (I think that's what it's called) where you spell the word how it sounds, rather than properly - they both grew up to be abysmal spellers, couldn't make the jump to "proper" spelling.

So I would prefer to ensure that my DD was taught the English spellings from the outset - but then I am a pedant.

Porto- you can ask the teacher to teach them english spellings.

I have an american friend who teaches english at one of the bilingual schools, she is very good and I would trust my dd1 with her for english lessons.

In many parts of the world (Japan, and most Far East countries) the majority of English language native speakers are American rather than British English speakers (due to geographical proximity- our teachers tend to go to Europe, theirs to Asia, logical really) and it doesn't seem to impact negatively.

The thing about the spelling differences is that they are at least regualar, so that they can be explained away quickly and easily.Grammar use of certain tenses is a more difficult one- "He just went out" (US) cf "He has just gone out" (UK) along with totally different words for things- faucet, sidewalk etc. In short, the spelling differences are probably the least problematic difference between UK/US English.

Do you not feel the children are getting enough exposure to English through the English parent/films/books etc Porto? (Just wondering as I'm also a Brit abroad, dd is 6 and I've never thought about it, despite being an English teacher myself)

If I had to choose between a British and American teacher, I'd be biased towards the British teacher because I want DC to be aware of British cultural references.
But if the American was clearly the better teacher I'd go with that one.
I don'T think the spelling is the problem, more the accent and cultural nuances. But that's just me.

just remembered - it's phonetic spelling (see, told you I was a pedant)

I"m a British TEFL teacher here in Greece working with younger aged students (6-11)and have three bi-lingual children who often had greek American teachers for english at school. I found that they were always very amenable to my request that they use 'english' words (ladybird not ladybug eg) and pronunciation (eg zebra not zeebra)

I would definitely go with the teacher who has the best rapport with the children and who makes the lessons fun and enjoyable to enrich their experience of english.

From an official point of view organisations such as the Cambridge exams for speakers of other languages accept american spellings the only criteria being that it is consistantie all american or all english.