The English in Ghana: British, American or Hybrid English?

As a result of colonization of the British, the English used in many African countries and for that matter Ghana, is the British standard variety. However, the English used in Ghana, appears to have been invaded by the American English. This poses a problem as both teachers and students especially at the senior high school level confuse themselves about which word or spelling is right and vice versa. This study thus seeks to investigate students’ awareness of this invasion, the extent of the invasion and also to ascertain which of the aspects of the language has been much influenced by the American variety. The underpinning framework for this study is Kachru’s (1985) concentric model to situate the type of English used in Ghana. A sample size of 100 Students of English Education Department of University of Education, Winneba was selected for the study. The data was a secondary one: a random collection of vocabulary. Test, interview and questionnaire were also employed to gather other related data for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to analyse the data with precedence on qualitative analysis and the findings were thematically presented. The results indicate that although students use both American and British English together, they have little knowledge about the differences between them, especially, with the vocabulary aspect. Students have fair knowledge about the differences between the two varieties as regards the orthography aspect. These findings have implications on the teaching of English language and on examination issues in the country. It also informs writers of various educational materials about what variety to use.

…the world of large scale commerce, industry, technology, and banking, like the world of certain human sciences and professions, is an international world and it is linguistically dominated by English almost everywhere, irrespective of how well-established and well-protected local cultures, languages and identities may otherwise be.
Following the above, there is explicit indication that English, qualifies as a world language since it is in no way limited in its reach to any parts of the world.

Statement of the Problem
The English used in Ghana has been addressed in different ways. In one realm, there have been issues that the English used in Ghana is very unique from the standard native forms thus the claim of existence of a nativised form referred to as Ghanaian English (Owusu-Ansah, 1991, 1994Koranteng, 2006;Appartaim, 2012;Ngula, 2012;Wiredu, 2012;Okyere, 2013). In another realm, scholars such as Sey (1973), Gyasi (1990), Ahulu (1994), Nimako (2004) have extensively made their submissions, and countered the existence of the supposed Ghanaian English. It appears scholarly works on English as used in Ghana have been to either prove the existence of Ghanaian English or to argue that it is an erroneous structure since it deviates from the standardized form.
Another crucial issue about the English as used in Ghana is whether the country uses BrE, AmE or a hybrid form. This issue needs much attention to ensure that the educational system pulls on that direction. It is interesting to note that countries like Iraq (Ali, 2016) and some European countries have explored the issue and have arrived at intriguing outcomes such as students' inability to differentiate the two varieties thus mixing them up. However, in Ghana, there seems to be no study on the topic so far.
Educationists and policy makers in the country keep on assuming that the British Standard variety is the reigning variety. The main examination body in the country, West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) still insists on British Standard variety for oral assessment of the language. For the written aspect of the language, the expectation is that there should be a consistent use of either a British or an American variety. This expectation implies students are familiar with the two varieties, a situation which has not been investigated and thus has not been proven. Accordingly, this study is meant to assess students' knowledge level of the spelling and vocabulary of the two main varieties so to establish the type of English used or to be used in the country.
The study is guided by the questions below.

1.
Which of the aspects of the British Standard English used in Ghana have been much influenced by the American Standard English?

2.
What is the level of students' knowledge of the differences in the orthography and vocabulary of the American and the British Standard varieties used in Ghana?

3.
What is students' orientation towards the variety used in our educational system?
Below are the objectives that the study seeks to achieve.


To ascertain the aspects of the Standard British English that have been much influenced by the American Standard English.  To investigate students' orientation towards the variety used in Ghana.

British English (BrE) versus American English (AmE)
English is a native language of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. BrE and AmE have gained much prominence over the others because Britain and America colonized other countries and spread their languages to their colonies. Thus they are the varieties that are taught in most English as Second Language (ESL) and English as Foreign Language (EFL) programmes.
The term, BrE seems to raise an argument since the country consists of four nations: England, Northern Island, Scotland, and Wales. This apparent argument stems from the misconception that British appears closely associated with just one nation, England (Kumar, 2003). It is thus abstruse which of the nations the term BrE points at. Murphy (2016:4) explains the situation as, "But British is also used to describe things and people from the UK, since there is no adjectival form of United Kingdom". This implies that the term, British English, epitomizes English of the entire country, even though a particular variety may be the point of reference in a particular context. In this very context, the BrE is closely-knitted with the English of the Great Britain.
In Great Britain, there are many dialects such as Cockney, York, Scouse and Brumnie which are used by different people in different communities. Among these dialects, a consensus is reached on which one of them to be used for official purposes even though it might not be the popular one (Crystal, 2003).
Accordingly, the British Standard English (henceforth BSE), a prestigious dialect used by the Royals (Queen Elizabeth) in the country is the acceptable variety due to its poly-functional purposes. It is the English used in the educational sectors, administration and other formal activities; it is regarded language of the educated populace in London. Also, it is the language spoken on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with its spoken form as the Received Pronunciation (RP), a particular accent with which the Standard English is to be spoken. This kind of pronunciation is related to Oxford Schools and BBC company and it is considered an ideal kind of pronunciation which provides the conditions for the English language to be used all over the world as well as it being taught as a second or foreign language in many countries. Other varieties in the country apart from the BSE are demeaned upon in many respects.
Just as the description of BrE is contentious, AmE denotes similar problem. However, AmE could theoretically refer to the English that is spoken by all the people of the United States of America (Murphy, 2016). American variety of English is the language used in the U.S with its geographically, politically and economically conditioned characteristics. Unlike the British who colonized many countries, hence the acceptance and usage of the BrE in most parts of the world, the AmE is used in Asia and some parts of the Americas. Crystal (1995) accordingly comments that BrE is becoming one more dialect of the world English, and it has exercised greater influence on world English than any other variety. This is an indication that BrE has reached many more places than the AmE.
Notwithstanding the dominance of the BrE over the AmE, the latter still has gained international status (world language) because of its position in media, international business and technology (Tottie, 2002;Ali, 2016).
It should be added that many best-selling adventurous and romantic novels are of American origin and thus making the variety very popular and acceptable. Observing this upsurge of the variety (AmE), Tottie (2002, p. 1), comments, "American English was considered less educated, less cultured and less beautiful than British English". However, due to its rank in media, international business, computing and science, AmE has gained the status as a world language (Tottie, 2002). The accessibility of the variety by a large group of people because of its status in media, has made it more inter-continental.
Following the above, clear evidence exists on the popularity of the two major varieties of the language (British and American). This situation poses the question whether or not second and foreign users of the language strictly adhere to only one of the varieties or there is hybridisation. There seems to be the opinion of many users of English language that all types of English are the same since a native of one variety might easily understand another variety. That erroneous impression is explicated by Murphy (2016, p. 4) as, "…while the differences between American and British English may be small, they are innumerable, varied and interesting". It might be that the differences do not involve formal terminologies but misunderstandings are possible in everyday life language. Therefore, it is important to raise the level of awareness of the differences between the speakers of the two varieties (Murphy, 2016). Such differences account for a speaker of American orientation and another of a British orientation saying first floor and ground floor respectively of a storey building, meanwhile, they will be referring to the same apartment of a building.
A standard language is a form of a dialect of a language that has been accepted by many users of the language and has been extensively codified for easy referencing. McArthur (2003, p. 442) submits that Standard English is generally considered, "the variety most widely accepted, understood, and perhaps valued within an English speaking country". He presents some characteristics of Standard English as, it has "at least three identifying characteristics: 1) it is the easiest to recognise in print because written conventions are similar world-wide; 2) it is usually used by news presenters; and 3) its usage relates to the speaker's social class and education".
Some linguists argue that Standard English relates with written form of English and not the spoken form on the premises that pronunciation cannot be tied to any particular accent (Crystal, 1995;Trudgill 1999). This implies that the aspects of the language with which standardization could be applied are vocabulary, orthography (spelling) and grammar but not the pronunciation. This is because pronunciation, many times is blended with different accents of people from different language backgrounds who are so ingrained with their native language accent and thus the likely influence of their L1 accent.
The above suggests that a particular Standard variety is used in places where English is used either as a Second language (outer circle) or a foreign language (expanding circle). Accordingly, British Standard English is the variety used in former colonies of the British Empire as in Africa continent (Ghana, Nigeria South Africa, and Kenya), Asia (Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand), New Zealand Middle-Eastern Countries with the exception of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The Place of English in Ghana
The arrival of the English language in Ghana has its history deeply rooted in colonization. The British did not only seek power, money and fame but rather succeeded in imposing their language on the people of Ghana. The legacy has been with Ghanaians for many decades and many education reforms have not been successful in the quest to downgrade the language to the advantage of Ghanaian languages. Many scholars suggested the use of a Ghanaian language as a national language but the multiplicity of Ghana's language system has been a hindrance (Boadi, 1971;Fasold, 1984;quoted in Owusu-Ansah, 1991) and Pakir (2009). "It is thus clear that English continues to be used as the official national language in Ghana to avoid splitting up the country along ethnic lines…" (Owusu-Ansah 1991, p. 17). Notwithstanding the proposals and the debates surrounding the issue, English remains the medium of instruction at every level of education in the country. This has positioned the language as a sole one for education hence the need for students and all users to use it well. Following the colonial history of Ghana, the BrE is the adopted variety for the country and for that matter, the educational system, especially the studying of the subject, English, is strictly inclined towards a British variety.
The BSE with its spoken form, Received Pronunciation (RP) is used in Ghana for official purposes. It is an undeniable fact that this standard of English used in Ghana has been adulterated in many ways.
Such adulteration manifests in the form of interference at all levels of the language (phonetic, vocabulary, grammar) which has brought into view what some Ghanaian authors such as Owusu-Ansah (1991, Koranteng (2006), Appartaim (2012), Ngula (2012), Wiredu (2012), Okyere (2013) refer to as Ghanaian English (GE). Conversely, many other Ghanaian scholars: Sey (1973), Gyasi (1990), Ahulu (1994), Nimako (2004) do not subscribe to its existence but rather regard those supposed Ghanaian English (GE) as erroneous structures. This "adulterated" English (GE), though people deny its existence, is used by people with all levels of education at different contexts. However, it has been observed that irrespective of the existence of a seemingly nativised (GE) and contact (pidgin, creole) varieties, Ghanaians expect and insist on formal varieties in formal contexts (Sarfo, 2012;Okyere, 2013). A situation which is highly adored by many people, and interestingly, it has been proven that people who speak the language consider it prestigious and a mark of confidence (Morris, 1998).
Ghanaians' insistence on standard variety in formal settings presupposes the use of the British Standard.
At the senior high school levels, where English language terminal examination (West Africa Secondary Unfortunately, the variety of the language used in Ghana, especially, in the educational system seems to be a blend of the two main varieties: British and American English. In situations where a speaker says, "there are elevators and lifts…" "toffees and candies", and other related expressions could result in confusion and misunderstanding. To avoid confusion and misunderstanding that may arise from such usages, some scholars propose consistent use of a particular variety rather than a random mix of the two (Baugh & Cable, 2002).
Although the Standard British English is the language norm in Ghana, there seems some intrusion of the Standard American English. Clearly, the two Englishes (Britain and America) are mutually intelligible, however, there are nuances of differences that might hinder effective communication as it could lead to confusion. It is thus imperative students' knowledge level of the two popular varieties is assessed to help sensitise them on the need to pay heed to such differences.
Many concerns regarding the two main standard varieties have been addressed differently by a number of scholars. Anchimbe (2006) addresses the fast pace at which AmE is overshadowing the other varieties of English in the contemporary world. He argues that English is no more the prerogative of the United Kingdom since it has become a language for all and elaborately advances some key factors that are contributing to AmE superseding the originator's (UK) English. He classifies all varieties of the language into two: AmE on one side and all other forms of English, which he refers to as World Englishes on another side. After critical analyses of the contributing factors that are leading to the AmE becoming a world language, he predicts future reign of the variety over the others. Bayard's et al. (2001) concentrates on three native speaking countries (US, New Zealand, Australia) to ascertain the status as regards prestige and popularity of the two major standard varieties. The study establishes that BrE used to be the most prestigious variety, however, AmE is on its way to equaling or even replacing BrE as the prestigious variety. Rasmussen's (2015) is similar in a sense that he sets out to investigate people's opinion about the two major standard varieties but unlike Bayard et al's, Rasmussen's focuses on the positions of the two major varieties in terms of spoken and written forms. He concentrates on Norwegian teachers' and students' attitudes towards the two varieties and concludes that students prefer to speak AmE but insist on BrE when writing.
Both Garrett et al. (2001) and Dalton-Puffer (1997) support that BrE continues to be the prominent and preferred variety for education as against AmE in European countries. In terms of education, it is interesting to note that all the three authors: Rasmussen (2015), Garrett et al. (2001) and Dalton-Puffer (1997) draw on BrE as the preferred educational choice.
Gongalves ' et al. (2017) is unique compared to the works discussed earlier because the latter is a corpus-based study and also considers the language of both written form (books) and that of social media (twitter) covering a wide geological area. That difference notwithstanding, the similarity between Gongalves' et al. and Anchimbe (2006) is that both investigate which of the two major varieties of English is gaining prominence as regards the people's choice of vocabulary and spelling of a particular variety. Interestingly, all the others referred to in this study concentrate on the two aspects: spelling and orthography. Gongalves ' et al. (ibid) conclude that AmE is more highly employed than its British counterpart in both written and colloquial forms.
Closely related to the current study is Ali's (2016) which purposes to ascertain the level of knowledge of the differences between spelling and vocabulary of American and British English among Iraqi university students' studying English. He submits that since English is a foreign language in the country and also the students have the freedom to choose which of the two main varieties they prefer, there is the need to test students' knowledge level of the spelling and vocabulary differences of the two main varieties. The result of the test, as presented by Ali (ibid) proves that students have little knowledge about the differences between the two varieties. He then questions the issue of students being expected to heed to consistent use of a particular variety and thus proposes that efforts should be made to create awareness of the differences of the two varieties in students.

Methodology
This study employs a quantitative approach to examine and assess students' knowledge level of the orthography and vocabulary differences between the two main varieties. Nonetheless, little qualitative approach would be employed to describe what exists and why the existence of the situation. The premise for basically employing quantitative and little of qualitative approaches lies in the fact that the study aims at establishing what a situation is and explaining the reasons of the situations. The research design employed is case study which focuses on exploring university students' knowledge level about BSE and ASE.
The population for the study is the English Education Students of University of Education, Winneba.
These students are mainly trained to be teachers of English at the second cycle schools so unlike other Universities where not all the students offer Bachelor of Education, the students of this university mandatorily offer Bachelor of Education thus the majority of them turning up as teachers of English.
Accordingly, the choice of the population is informed by the fact that the topic under study is of great importance to would-be-teachers. One other reason for the choice is, the researcher is a member (teacher) of the institution thus it is highly expected that students would be much cooperative in the gathering of the data.
Systematic sampling technique was employed to select one hundred (100) students from the population of seven hundred and five (785) students. The researcher deems the sampled size appropriate because one hundred students from the population appears a considerable representative which will ensure that the outcome of the study will be a probable reflection of the entire population and many students at large. Accordingly, 25 students were sampled from each level (class) of the four levels (classes). With systematic sampling technique, every Kth item of a group is selected for inclusion. It has been proposed, that an effective systematic sampling procedure follows the sampling formula below: Population size = selective interval

Sample size
Due to the composition of the population (four different classes/levels), the formula is appropriately modified as: Level/class (of the populace) = selective interval Sample size Accordingly, the formula was applied to each of the four levels to select twenty-five (25) students to sample the one hundred (100) students.
Below is a table showing the details of the sampling procedure. With the Table 1 above, the starting points vary with every level. As indicated in the table above, the first selected item is the starting point for all the levels. The reason for adopting systematic sampling rests on the fact that it is a type of random sampling and thus ensures the probability of every member of the population to be selected for inclusion. Explanation of the selective technique is indicated in the Table 1. For the level 100s, every 10 th member of the class was selected; for the level 200s, every 7 th member, for the level 300s, every 8 th member and for the 400s, every 7 th member, was chosen.
It must be stated that the selection was serially based and this was done during the School's End-of-Semester Examinations during which time students are serially arranged (sit per index numbers). Accordingly, the sampling seems to ensure the probability of any students (dunce or clever) to be selected. which comprises American and British lexicon respectively.
The random selection of the words would indicate that they will cover range of words that the researcher has no priority of. Forty (40) vocabulary were selected and the reason for the number was to consider average number of words that will not take so much time of the students. It might be argued that the number is insignificant considering the total lexicon of the language; it must be stated that the differences are not very much however the little different varieties are capable of causing confusion and ambiguity in some contexts. Also, though the different words might be a handful factoring the lexicon of the language, the students' awareness of these differences needs to be established.
Data from the questionnaire and the informal interview would be qualitatively analysed and the outcome would be thematically presented. For the test, the performance of the students on individual words of the test would be considered in order to ascertain the words or the group of words students will perform well on and vice versa. If fifty percent and over students' (one half or more than one half of the respondents) score on a word, it would be considered that students have knowledge of the word(s) and whichever word that less than fifty percent of the respondents (less than one half of the respondents) score right would be considered that students are unaware of the word's category.

Result and Discussion
Presented below is the analysis and the result of the questionnaire administered. The analysis will be done on question by question basis.
Question 1: How many native varieties of English exist?  research. Following this, it can be said that the majority of the students, and for that matter many students, are familiar with two native varieties of the language. The subsequent questions would lead to ascertaining the types of varieties the students know.

Which of the varieties is used in Ghana?
All the respondents responded that the British variety of English is the one used in Ghana. This is not surprising since that is a common fact from history: Britain being the country's colonial masters.

Do you think the variety used in Ghana has been influenced by another or other variety/varieties? If yes, which is/are the influencing variety/varieties?
None of the respondents answered "No" to this question which indicates that they all answered "Yes".

This is a good indication that students have some knowledge about the British variety so what warrants
investigation is their level of knowledge of the language. Responding to the second part of the question, ninety of them, representing (90%), answered that it is the AmE which is influencing the British Variety as used in Ghana. The remaining ten respondents did not indicate any variety even though they all responded affirmatively to the early part of the question. The respondents were not provided options for the second part of the question and that may explain why the ten respondents did not provide any response. This response is intriguing considering the fact that many researchers have indicated the trend of AmE speedily competing with the British variety (Tottie & Hoffmann, 2006;Anchimbe, 2006).

Which of the aspect(s) of the British English used in Ghana do you think has/have been much influenced and why?
The first part of the question was a closed-ended question and as many as eighty-nine (89) of the respondents indicated that orthography (spelling) is the much influenced aspect. Seventy-six (76) of those who chose orthography also chose pronunciation as another influenced aspect. Eleven (11) of the respondents did not answer the question. The eleven respondents who did not respond to this question, upon enquiry under the unstructured interview session indicated that they did not know whether or not any of the aspects have been influenced. The second part of the question which required students to explain why the influenced, recorded various responses of which the dominant ones are presented as, "Different spellings are allowed in Ghana", "Different pronunciations do not change the meaning of words", "Different spellings do not cause meaning change", "Different spellings and pronunciations have been used ever since". It is unfortunate that students do not know that different spellings of words which are taken as the same may have different meanings. For example, the spellings "program" and "programme" which many people take as the same spelling mean different things in American and British English respectively. None of the respondents indicated that the vocabulary and grammar of the British English (as used in Ghana) are influenced in any way. This indicates that students do not know the differences between and among different native varieties of the English language because there are quite a number of words which students use interchangeably. Probably, students and for that matter many people take it that cookies/biscuits, elevator/lift, holiday/vacation, chemist/pharmacy and others are synonyms of a variety but these sets belong to British and American varieties respectively.

Do you think there is the need to use more than one variety of English in Ghana?
Seventy-six (76) of the respondents responded negatively to this question. The remaining twenty-four (24) respondents responded in the affirmative. This question was followed by informal interview to ascertain their reasons for their choices. Those who supported the use of the British variety only were of the opinion that it ought to be the only one since it is the language of education and also since it has for long been the official language of the country. Their response is in line with Tottie's (2002) that BrE is the language of education. Few of them indicated that the British variety sounds more formal than the American variety thus the need to continue using the former. The respondents' opinion directly supports the studies that show that BrE continues to hold its strong position in educational sectors, especially, in European educational sectors (Dalton-Puffer, 1997;Ladegaard, 1998;andRindal, 2010, 2014). The respondents who suggested the use of the American variety in Ghana argued that AmE seems to be a dominating variety now: it appears "flexing" (what they meant by the "flexing" was related with language that is in vogue since many youngsters use that variety

Results from the Test on the Set of Words
As indicated earlier, the students were tested on their knowledge of the spelling and vocabulary differences of some words belonging to either the American or British English variety. The first analysis will be based on the spelling test which will be followed by the test on vocabulary.

Spelling
With this test, none of the students scored the total marks of forty (40). The  The result of the test indicates the students' knowledge about the spelling differences between the two main varieties. The performance of the four different levels (levels 100, 200, 300 & 400) revealed there are no significant differences (therefore it was not important to present the result on class by class levels). From the Group1words on the table, it could be realized that less than fifty percent of the students could not identify as many as twenty (20) of the words, showing that they do not have firm grasp of the spelling differences. The students were able to rightly place words that end with -ise and -our such as "organise" and "patronise" and "colour" and "flavour" respectively since in all instances with those endings, as high as sixty (60) and above students rightly categorised those words.
The reason for students' knowledge about those words could be attributed to the fact that words with those endings are innumerous and are also often used. One other reason could be attributed to technology: the use of computer which "accepts" those American spelling at the detriment of those British words. This explains Tottie's (2002) submission that AmE has gained popularity to the extent of being a world language because of its status in media, international business, computing and science.
Aside from that, students found it difficult to determine the variety of the ce/se words such as defence/defense, licence/license, and offence/offense since more than one-half of the students could not correctly decide their varieties. The category of the double/single vowel words for British and American variety as in paediatric/pediatric and leukaemia/leukemia respectively could not be determined by many of the respondents thus a clear indication of their unfamiliarity with the words' varieties. Similarly, the respondents did not know the difference between words like pyjamas/pajamas, enquiry/inquiry, catalogue/catalog and others as shown in the Table 3 above. The result is a clear indication that the students have little knowledge about the spellings of the two varieties although they are aware of its existence. This is what raises the argument about the consistency in the usage of one variety in writings as expected in Ghana's educational system.
The result directly shows that students are not familiar with the orthographic differences and thus mix the two varieties in their writings. The situation appears worrisome since the respondents are prospective teachers of the language at the senior high schools and its equivalent level of education. If English students who are being trained to be English language teachers exhibit such knowledge level of the differences, then it could be speculated that many English language teachers on the field are not acquainted with the differences.
The students' performance on the Group 2 words appears worse than those of the Group one. They could not score an average mark of fifty percent in twenty-six (26) out of the forty (40)  implying that they could not determine the variety of many of the words. The students' performance on the -ize words was very impressive; this might be because words with that endings are many and thus students, especially those who use computers often, might have encountered them many times.
A good number (50% and above) of the respondents could correctly categorise as many as twenty (20) of the British words while they could categorise only fourteen (14) of the American words correctly.
Comparing students' performance on the words of the two varieties, it could be said that students' knowledge of the British words is relatively better than their knowledge of the American words. The relatively better performance of the students on the British words could be attributed to the issue that students are more familiar with the British spelling than the American spelling probably because that is what they encounter in many write-ups since the former has been the formal language since the era of colonization (Morris, 1998). The abysmal performance of the students' knowledge of the vocabulary of the two varieties (British and American) explicitly indicates that they are very much unacquainted with the vocabulary differences between the varieties. From the Table 4 above, the students are familiar with just thirteen (13) of the words which represents just 33%. The students could not rightly place as many as twenty-seven (27) of the words representing 67%. The wide margin between the two responses (the correct and the wrong) clearly shows that the students do not know the vocabulary differences of the two varieties. This brings to view the need to ascertain the reasons of students' unfamiliarity with the vocabulary of the two varieties. Since BrE has been the language of education throughout the period of the inception of formal education in the country (Morris, 1998), one wonders why there seems to be invasion of the American variety. A simple response to this question might be the influx of American movies, novels and the dominant use of the variety on social media.
The performance of the students on their knowledge of the vocabulary compelled the researcher to hold an informal interview with a section of the respondents in order to ascertain the cause of that performance. Following the interview, four groups of words were established. The groups are: British words that are commonly used thus are easily identified (words that were correctly placed); words of the two varieties which are often used interchangeably and therefore their variety can hardly be determined; words which are American variety but have been often used instead of their British ones and thus have become common with students instead of their British variety and few British words which are hardly used in contextual domains and as such look so odd to the students. In the Table   below is a summary of the above explanation. In the third column of the Table are the words that are of American variety but have or seem to have replaced their British varieties in the country. From the respondents, they never knew words such as "mackintosh" but rather "raincoat", "chemist" but rather "drugstore", "phone box" but rather "phone booth" and the others. This invasion is an evidence that the "American variety is well on its way to equaling, or even replacing British English as the prestige, or at least, preferred variety of English" (Bayard et al., 2001, p. 22).
British words that are hardly used because of their contextual domains form the last category of words and those words as regards the test that was conducted are only two in number: "drawing pin/thumbtack" and "draughts/checkers". Many students could not correctly place these two words because they did not know their varieties; many did not even know what the words meant or represented.
The responses to the questions that guided this study could be summarized in what follows. It should be stated that although different levels (classes) of the students were sampled for the study, there were no significant differences among the groups as regards the result gathered. The only significant difference that emerged was the issue that the levels 100 and 200 students were not familiar with the number of native English countries. Of the two aspects (orthography and vocabulary) considered in the study, it could be said that the vocabulary aspect of the Standard British English used in Ghana is the more influenced aspect by AmE. Evidence of that is the respondents' low performance in the test as shown in the Table 4. As said earlier, the reason is attributed to the random use of the vocabulary of the two main varieties by teachers, journalists, newscasters and course books writers for which reason many have considered the vocabulary of the different varieties as synonyms. The second question was to ascertain the students' knowledge level of the differences between the two varieties. The results as could be appreciated from Tables 3 and 4 clearly show that students have very little knowledge of the differences between the two varieties. Students' knowledge level of the orthographical differences is somehow better than that of the vocabulary differences. Lastly, the students exhibit positive orientation towards the variety used in the country (BrE). The majority of them prefer the use of the SBE in the educational system to the use of SAE.

Conclusion
The study reveals that the majority of students are conscious of the various native varieties of English.
Also, clearly, students are cognizant of the fact that a British variety (British Standard English) is the acceptable variety for educational purposes in Ghana and they support its continuity as the language for education. This preference of the respondents tows the direction of Janicki's (2005) finding that some teachers hold the view that British English variety should continue to be the ideal variety of English to teach in schools. Apart from Janicki's (ibid) outcome, Dalton-Puffer (1997), Ladegaard (1998) and Rindal (2010Rindal ( , 2014) also indicate that BrE continues to hold its strong position in European educational sectors. Notwithstanding the students' recognition and acceptance that the variety is and should continue as the variety for education in the country, the results of this study indicate that students do not have firm grasp of the orthography of a number of the Standard British English (SBE) words. The implication of the students' partial knowledge of the orthography of the variety is that they blend the use of the two main varieties; a situation which ought to be penalised in examination situations in the country. What appears worrying is whether or not examiners and English teachers at the senior high school level themselves are familiar with these differences and thus ensure the issue of consistency in the use of one of the two main varieties. The basis for this worry is the fact that the students are upcoming teachers and thus potential examiners.
Comparing the respondents' performance of their knowledge of the orthography of the variety with their vocabulary knowledge, it was gathered, students' awareness of the vocabulary difference between the two varieties is abysmal; a situation the students traced to a number of reasons. It thus brings up the issue whether Ghana's education system accepts the use of the vocabulary of both varieties or it accepts the consistent use of one as the case is with the orthography. This issue, the researcher believes must be accorded much concern since the country needs to explicitly establish what the situation is and must be in our usage of the language. The belief is, if clear standards as regards which of the variety or varieties is or are to be considered conventional variety, writers of text books and other course materials will be informed about the situation and accordingly act on it.
Although Ghana claims to use the British Standard English, this study has shown that what obtains in reality is different. That claim seems theoretical since in practice, students, teachers and media men comfortably blend the two varieties. Following that, the researcher proposes that it is time the country adopts the use of the two varieties because undoubtedly, the two have gained the status of world language to the extent that AmE is overriding the other (Anchimbe, 2006). The position of this paper appears very different in a sense that many scholars have insisted on the continuity of the "norm" (British Standard English has been the language of education). However the inevitability of a shift is strengthened by the fact that language grows and thus there should always be room for modification to suit the current realities of communicative exigencies. Ghana, should therefore use hybrid English since the two are unquestionably, famous; British English is famous because of the past (political power) and American is famous because of contemporary trend (economic and social status) (Graddol, 1997). This proposal does not suggest an avoidance of creating awareness of the vocabulary differences especially among Ghanaian students as the differences can result in confusion in many contexts. Some courses in English Language should cater for the creation of such awareness at least, for a start.
To sum up, it is evident that Ghana fits very well as an outer circle category in Kachru's concentric model since it still depends on inner circle norms to communicate; Ghana still insists on an inner circle standard. Since the confines of this study have been on only vocabulary and orthography, it is deemed expedient that other researchers consider the extent that pronunciation of BrE has been influenced by the AmE.