Spelling and spelling reform

This is a fascinating issue, but despite frequent public debates, relatively rare.
The last high profile reform was the German Orthography reform in 1996.

The essential point is that languages evolve, English probably more than
most, and spelling reform has been half-hearted in both the UK and US.

It does make things a bit more difficult for all students but it is not the main
problem for children with reading difficulties.

If you want to learn more, look at American and British English spelling
differences and Spelling reform in Wikipedia.

In the Glossary you will note that we have adopted US spelling for
standardize etc (which corresponds more to the sound). Amusingly,
Wikipedia says that Oxford University, the institution, does not use the
recommendations in the Oxford English Dictionary which cites -ize as first
preference. Most UK papers and journals use -ise.

US color is more regular than the UK colour.

Numerous other differences are noted in the Wikipedia article.

As students increasingly have access to international materials on the
internet, you may seen more variability in their spelling, e.g. interchanging US
and UK spellings. Overall we suggest that students are not marked down for
using e.g. program instead of programme (which in any case is more
correct for a computer program), as they may not always be conscious of the
distinctions. However, it is important that time is spent talking with children
about these differences, so that they can become more aware of when they
are code-switching and what the implications of this are in different
communicative situations.

See also Professor Simon Horobins article on English language in
Resources.

Feel free to discuss this in the Discussion Forum.