Mixing between American and British English in Academic Writing.

Abstract

Today English language is the most dominant language in any fields. It has many features, most of the countries speaking it and they use it as module in their schools. One of these countries that see the importance of English is Algeria. English is taught as second foreign language in Algerian schools, many Algerian students choose English at the university rather than French language, and that is because they are exposed to English language more than French. Most English foreign language students they are not aware of the differences of the most important varieties of English, which is; British English and American English. They know there is a difference but only in pronunciation, not other than that. That is what makes them using both varieties in their academic writing thinking that is correct. The aim of this study is to indicate the differences between both varieties in order for third English foreign language students to know the difference and select one style in their academic writing, because it is not academic to use both styles. This research consists of two methods; teacher‟s questionnaire and student‟s interview, the results show that students do not aware of these differences and that could affect their academic writing. So it is always recommended to select one style.