Obstacle Or Aid : Learning A New Language

Learning English as a foreign language demands learning the four skills of the language which are reading, writing, listening and speaking. The four skills of language are divided into two groups: the productive skills (writing and speaking), and receptive skills (reading and listening). In this paper much attention will be paid mainly to one category of language skills and those are productive skills. In my experience as a teacher of English in Egypt, I have met many students who have some challenges with writing and speaking English. This essay will spot the most common challenges that my students faced and how they overcame these challenges.

There can be several different reasons why an English Language Learner can have troubles comprehending the English language. Poverty can play a huge role when in explaining why many English language learners have the troubles in mastering the English language. The State testing has varied throughout the years, along with the degrees of assessments and progress. Teachers also need constructive feedback to properly assess their own progress. The increase prescription of ADHD medication can also be a factor. Programs like SLADI in effect that pulls ELL’s from mainstream classrooms to focus on advanced grammatical structures of the English language; all in which, have been unsuccessful in aiding the student to acquire mastery within the English language domains of reading and writing. Comparing a personal experience I had dealt with wasted school year time, regarding an ELL student, involves a teacher being out of touch with her student and giving inappropriate leveled work. All of these issues work hand in hand. The ultimate goal is to teach literacy and to reach proficiency within the English language.

How does our native language affect we think about the world and our place in it? How is speaking more than one language difficult? Tom Munnecke’s purpose was talking about how learning many languages frustrated him, and how each language frustrated him. Each of these languages he saw as “shells,” and he goes on to talk about each language and its limitations and/or opportunities. The audience for Nothing is Missing are people who are interested in learning one, or more than one, different language. This article could also apply to people who are already bilingual, or already know multiple languages. Munecke would like people who are interested in learning more than one language to know how the first language we speak affects the way we

Language is the primary way to communicate, learn and express identity. Some language learners are successful by virtue of their sheer determination, hard work and diligence. However, there are other crucial factors influencing success that are largely beyond the control of learners. ' 'Second language is any language other than the learner 's native language or mother tongue ' '(Mitchell pg 5). To be successful in second language acquisition, there are various factors which act as barrier in the process of learning English as a second language.

Children all over the world are taught every day that communication is vital to life in this modern world, but they are being kept from learning any language beyond their native tongue. In Europe alone, there are twenty-four official languages and that count does not include the more regional languages that are dotted across the continent. There are forty-four countries in a land that is of comparable size to the US. Twenty-four languages in forty-four countries, yet each new generation that comes along has been taught that it is fine to seclude themselves to knowing a single language. A child in the US could be able to talk to a child in Finland, Vietnam, or South Africa in a literal moment, but that connection often never happens, because they don’t speak each other’s language. Without the knowledge gained from a well known second language, they will be unable to reach their full potential in expressing themselves in a world where they have the potential to be constantly interacting with people from other countries, cultures, and language backgrounds. “We Americans do a less than adequate job when it comes to teaching our children a foreign language. We start too late and we do too little to convince our children about why learning a foreign language is so important. “ Children need to be exposed to as many forms of the world to expand their minds and allow them to convey what they experience. To not allow this to happen, would be akin to attempting to write a paper with

Speaking a different language with a different word structures and accent makes learning and speaking English quite challenging at first. For instance, English puts the adjective before a noun whereas most other languages in the world put it after the noun. English has so many idioms and expressions that it makes quite confusing to learn. We usually don’t speak English with friends and at home back there and because of this; it can get more problematic to retain what was previously learned because of lack of exposure.

In the video titled The Four Stages of Acquiring Language, in which I observed. The first stage is “Babbling” one syllable sounds. I observed an infant at 4 months of age babbling. According to the CDC, at 4 months of age infants begin babbling, they can babble with expression and copy sounds he/she hears. Infants at this age can cry in different ways to express hunger, pain or being tired.

Learning language could consider very difficult for everyone. Be it speaking it in a casual conversation or writing an essay using that language. Implemented the use of grammar the correct way to speak or write are two different things.

Knowing a second language isn’t always a wonderful thing. Though my parents had as a supreme goal of their lives to teach me a language that I will probably never use again, I never liked being seen as the guy who also speaks another language. I am not saying that knowing a second language doesn’t have its perks, but it’s all the other things that made me want to erase it from my brain forever. I never liked it and I found it totally painful every time when my parents used me as a portable translator, every time when I had to meet with my relatives during holidays who don’t know any English, and every time I found myself being around people that were speaking this language, and they were speaking it just to bash the people around them who were not understanding a single word.

Communication is key. When two year olds are told by their mothers to “use their words” when they groan and cry, it is the start of an understanding that the ability to communicate is the most powerful tool human kind has. Parents have told their children that once something is said it can never be taken back, and that is the power of words. They show feelings and thoughts in such a way that they can raise people up, or bring them crashing down with a single sentence. The ability to speak has allowed the human race to evolve from building small hovels into building great empires, and it is all due to the ability to share ideas through words. In the modern world, not only do people trade with those closest to them, but they are in partnerships with countries who are on the opposite side of the globe. With the invention of the internet, humans can now communicate with each other instantaneously. Yet they cannot always understand one another. There are language gaps and barriers that countries are failing to teach their children to close. The students in the United States will not be as internationally marketable compared to students in the rest of the world when they are falling behind in education. In order to compete and integrate globally, Americans must introduce foreign language earlier in school, embrace the benefits of bilingualism, and recognize the growing role of foreign language in all aspects of society.

Coming to a new place that is out of your comfort zone is an very difficult task that can take a very long time to adjust to and some people never adjust to the change .In the articles “mother tongue” , “leave your name at the border” and “mute in an English only world” the author'ss Amy tan, manuel Munoz and Chang Rae lee discuss the problems and hardships of being a non native English speaker such as getting employment, the language itself,and even accepted by native English speakers. Not just the speaker themselves, but also their families as well. All while trying to find their place in the United States. One of the huge problems that non native English speakers have to deal with is language.

* In the educational field, the teaching learning cycle is a model used in contemporary teaching in both school and adult educational settings. Rothery (1996 in Derewianka & Jones 2012, pg 43) who originally developed the model used this to aim at disadvantaged children for teaching literacy and writing in the KLA (Key learning areas) who were from socially disadvantaged areas. Over time the model has been phased across other areas of the English language such as listening, speaking, reading as well as writing. The key involvement of the teacher also known as ‘expert other’ in the teaching learning cycle is guiding the learner to understand key concepts in academic literacy through use of scaffolding strategies to transform students

Nigeria’s geographical position where she is surrounded by francophone neighbors such as Chad, Republic du Benin and Cameroon calls for a functional knowledge of French. With the knowledge of French, Nigeria and her Francophone neighbors would be able to work together locally and internationally. This however can only be achieved if there is communicative proficiency on the part of the citizens. Without this, Nigeria will be linguistically, politically, educationally and socially isolated from her francophone neighbors. This realization informed certain provisions guiding language study in Nigeria education system.

Writers in the Foreign Language Discipline have recently targeted to research and write on how human beings learn, adapt, and study any language that was not taught from birth; making that language an entirely foreign entity to them. Writers also tend to use a variety of different technologies to do studies on

The problem of learning languages is very important in the contemporary world. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at present time when the progress of science and technology gas led to an explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. The total knowledge of mankind is known to double every 7 years. Foreign languages are needed as the main and the most efficient means of information exchange of the people on our planet.