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Standardisation

	Standardisation is not an overnight process (it did not happen in 1755 or any other specified date)

	Standardisation involves grammar as well as spelling (remember Louth and his fabulous rules taken from Latin and Greek)

	“Standard” is a loaded term, indicating the ‘norm’ but also a concept of quality (“standards are falling”)

	The orthographic irregularities we see in pre-standardisation texts are not the author getting it wrong or being uneducated.  Pre-standardisation there was no right way, just as in txt lang, 2moro is not more or less correct than tmro.

	Globalisation is likely to mean that we end up with a standardised World English, which may well have different features to British English (of course, it’s likely to be modelled on US English).

	Globalisation of English is occurring because of: increased global trading; the internet and software operating largely in English - and what other trends (useful revision activity!)

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Globalisation is resulting in the death of small languages, and we are losing linguistic diversity.  Many see this as catastrophic, or at least sad, but what other arguments are there?  What is language for?  Remember the Tower of Babel story (the biblical explanation of why we have many languages)?