Judit Pernecker

British and American English: Comparing British and American English Spelling Judit Pernecker

Around the world English has several variants, used either in written or spoken forms. The differences and similarities of variants raise some questions - how and why do they differ from each other? Is it possible that one can influence the other and vice versa? Working on this book has helped me to scrutinize the differences between American and British English. To achieve this I reviewed theories about the histories of American and British English and made an effort to examine their interaction first in general and secondly focusing on their spelling differences. Focusing on the use of spelling variants my hypothesis that the American spelling variants are more frequent in British magazines than British spelling variants in American magazines was proved by research results. The ratio of American spelling variants (found in The Economist) and British spelling variants (found in Newsweek) was quite high. As I am an English teacher the importance of teaching English as a foreign language is emphasized in this book. Great attention is paid to a lesson plan where both variants of English are taught.