THE YOUTH ATTITUDE TOWARDS BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

The article discusses two types of English – British English language and American English language, the most popular in the modern world. The relevance of this article is the fact that in today's world students are increasingly the question arises which variant is correct. Also the author of the article is concerned with attitudes of young people towards a particular type.  

In the course of research the author interviewed 30 students of People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR), which are studying English language as the first foreign language in the non-professional communication. According to the results, the author built analytical component in the form of statistical tables and diagrams.  

The analysis of vocabulary showed that students most often use British words, but the percentage of American words is also high: the frequency of British words is higher than that of American words by 8.6 %. The grammatical constructions peculiar of the British version of English are more frequent than the American version by 27.6%. 

The author emphasizes that the majority of the students interviewed spoke in favour of the American version, arguing their position by the fact that this version is more understandable, more widespread, more up-to-date and more pleasant for the ear. However, the survey results show that in practice, 57 % choose the British version of English. This is due to the fact that the British version with its canonical grammar is taken as a basis for teaching. 

The results of this study can be used as evidence of changes, which have occurred in the English language in recent years because of the young generation.