Presented thesis deals with teaching differences between British and American English. Its aim is to suggest a suitable way of teaching selected vocabulary differences between these two English varieties in EFL classes. The theoretical part of the presented thesis summarizes the knowledge background gained by studying relevant researches and professional publications. On that study the author's original teaching materials are based. The practical part consists of a brief research; original materials were used in five EFL classes, and consequently their efficiency and utility was examined. The main goal of this thesis is to propose this topic as a kind of useful enrichment of English lessons and to examine the way it could be included in a lesson plan without affecting it or burdening teachers with an extra preparation. Key words: American English, British English, differences, teaching EFL classes

Besimokantiems kalbėjimo įgūdžių yra svarbu parodyti jo/jos stipriąsias ir silpnąsias vietas. Šio darbo aktualumą lėmė, tai jog kalbėjimo įgūdžius lavinantys pratimai, naudojami mokyklose, buvo menkai ištirti. Taigi šio tyrimo tikslas yra atskleisti sistemą, kuri suteikia mokiniams kalbėjimo įgūdžių anglų kalbos pamokose. Didelis dėmesys skiriamas realiam bendravimui klasėje ir už jos ribų. Pateikiami kalbėjimo pratimai, kuriuos daugelis anglų kalbos mokytojų naudoja pamokose. Šio tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad dauguma mokinių jaučiasi laisvai ir pasitiki savimi bendraudami. Galiausiai, rezultatai rodo, kad anglų kalbos mokytojai per mažai dėmesio skiria kalbėjimo įgūdžius lavinantiems pratimams ir ne visi iš jų naudoja realų pasaulį atspindinčius pratimus, kurie skatina moksleivius laisvai bendrauti. / As communication takes a considerable amount of knowledge, time and specific skills to be able to communicate in the world, it is essential to show a learner his/her strengths and weaknesses. The relevance of this thesis took into account that there has been little research done in types of communicative activities used at schools. So the aim of this study is to present the system empowering students‘ real world communication in EFL classes. A significant attention is paid to the use of real world communication in and outside the classroom. There are given communicative activities that are used in EFL classes by most English teachers. The results of this research showed that most of the students feel free and self – confident during communication. Finally, the results show the EFL teachers pay too little attention to speaking activities and not all of them use the real world activities, which encourage students’ free speaking.

When deciding on topics for academic research papers, many students face difficulties that vary from choosing themes whose scope is too extensive to be satisfactorily analyzed in the given task, to selecting topics that are too limited, to not being able to make a decision on a topic at all. Such struggles seem to manifest themselves in both native and non-native speakers of English. Despite extensive research on the writing process and its strategies, be it for academic writing or other genres, and even research focused on writers’ difficulties, previous research has found little about the troubles students must overcome when deciding on a research topic, and how to overcome them. This study employed a qualitative case study design with two graduate students in a master’s program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, who were enrolled in two sections of a course on research, to investigate these students’ writing processes as they defined a topic for their literature review research paper. Through an in-depth analysis of samples of their writing in combination with their verbal reports, collected during individual semi-structured interviews, this case study examined how two graduate students successfully calibrated their topics, which strategies they employed to that end, and how their instructors’ actions helped them in the process. Consequently, the findings shed light on instructional practices, and their implications for teachers’ training programs.