|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > American or British English--which is more predominant?
American or British English--which is more predominant?
|
douglas
|
American or British English--which is more predominant?
|
|
(I reallly hope I didn �t get this link from this website)
The link below discusses the predominance of UK vs US English--I found it pretty interesting.
When in doubt, use US English.  |
11 Mar 2011
|
|
|
|
sclail
|
I �m afraid I would have to contest this theory - and also the experiments carried out in you link.
For example, just as a quick test (I was quite curious!) I just did a google advanced search on "color" restricting it to only pages in the UK.
At first glance, there is a huge number of pages. But let �s take the very first one in the list - INTERNATIONAL COLOR CONSORTIUM. Ok, seems like it �s an international website, and should be based in the UK and is using the spelling color. Or not? If you go to the About ICC on this website it states:
Contact ICC:
International Color Consortium
1899 Preston White Drive
Reston, VA 20191
Tel: +1 (703) 264-7200
Clearly not a UK address. The problem with using the internet to provide these kind of statistics is that it �s difficult to see where the pages really originate from - and there are often make copies situated all over the world for replica purposes and to help speed up search results.
I think the page you refer to is misleading and doesn �t provide accurate evidence to support the argument one way or the other - although would be very convincing to non-techies.
Unfortunately, statistics are often misleading, not always intentionally...
Interesting topic though! Just to add another angle to it - I �ve often heard that due to the huge number of indian people learning and the way their often distinctive accent and alterations to words have become so commonplace there, the most spoken form of English could one day be "Hinglish"!
....there �s no stopping progress!
Have a nice day
Shane
|
11 Mar 2011
|
|
|
dawnmain
|
|
Douglas.... why I oughta...! ;-)
|
11 Mar 2011
|
|
|
dawnmain
|
|
Ive just skimmed the article - it is saying that US English is used in more websites. Because there are more American websites? What about the written word in the rest of our lives?
|
11 Mar 2011
|
|
|
sclail
|
Lol!
...and yes, there are a lot of people in America, hence more website.....definitely contributes to the word count!
Have a nice weekend both of you!
|
11 Mar 2011
|
|
|
