Basic English: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:22, 30 March 2010

Revision as of 03:58, 2 April 2010

Line 1:

'''Basic English''', also known as '''Simple English''', is an [[English language|English]]-based [[controlled language]] created by [[Charles Kay Ogden]] (in essence as a simplified subset of English) by [[Charles Kay Ogden]] as an [[international auxiliary language]], and as an aid for teaching [[ESL|English as a Second Language]]. It was presented in Ogden's book ''Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar'' (1930). Capitalised, ''BASIC'' is sometimes taken as an [[acronym]] that stands for ''British American Scientific International Commercial''.<ref>Brutt-Griffler, Evans Davies, English and Ethnicity, Palgrave Macmillan,2006</ref>

Ogden's Basic, and the concept of a simplified English, gained its greatest publicity just after the Allied victory in the [[Second World War]] as a tool for world peace. Although Basic English was not built into a program, similar simplifications have been devised for various international uses. Ogden's associate [[I. A. Richards]] promoted its use in schools in China.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886748,00.html Time Magazine. Dec. 31, 1945. ''Education: Globalingo'']</ref> More recently, it has influenced the creation of [[Voice of America]]'s [[Special English]] for news broadcasting, and [[Simplified English]], another English-based controlled language designed to write technical manuals.