British or American English? Awareness, preferences and use among university students of English

This work aims at underlining and pointing out how two varieties of English, more specifically, American and British English can differ both lexically and grammatically, and will explore how these differences are perceived by language university students of English. The work starts by focusing on the historical circumstances that led to the differences between the two standard varieties of English, British English and American English. It then goes on to point out the main lexical and grammar differences between the two languages today, addressing the issue of the blurring of boundaries due to globalization. Additionally, the online corpora COHA is used to underline and highlight evident historical changes throughout the decades. Finally, the last chapter consists of an analysis of a questionnaire administered to English university students at the University of Padua. The questionnaire aims at understanding and examining the students’ preferences of the two language varieties, whether they are aware of the differences, what they are generally exposed to and through which sources and, lastly, whether their understanding of one variety over the other can influence their understanding of the other variety. The work concludes by underlining once again the differences between American and British English, by also adding some considerations in the light of the questionnaire’s results.