Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

The Learning of English as a Second Language

Satisfactory Essays
262 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Learning of English as a Second Language
The Learning of English as a foreign Language

In order to communicate their ideas and survive in a society, human beings needed to use languages which vary depending on the country they live or are from. The acquisition of such languages involves no effort providing that such a process is natural. Individuals develop their communicative skill as they are exposed to the language, but when these face the learning of a second language, such a process gets complicated.
Due to globalization, an urgent need for communication worldwide arose. People from different countries had to find a means thru which they could interact. So, for this to be possible, they chose to learn one language, English. Having a language in common, they would be able to carry out business, entertainment and trading. Unlike acquiring a first language, learning English a second or foreign language is a complex process that involves the development of four communicative skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing, but if the learner combine the tools they are given in class and extra tools they might find by themselves out of the classroom to strengthen their learning process, such a complexity may be minimized.
In short, learning English as a foreign language is a two way process in which teachers and students take equal important part, and the success in such a process depends on the effort of both parties. Also, learning English as a foreign language allows non-native English speakers to widen opportunities to success in their works, studies and even the day-a-day activities.

VG/vg 2011

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Coming to the United States from a Spanish country means facing many challenges such as learning a new culture as well as a new language. Learning English has alway been a challenge for everyone. However, this gets worse when you’re learning English as a second language. This is because the second language English learners fears of getting bully. Another reason is that they’re scare of getting people laugh because of the way that they pronounce the words or their accent. At the same time, they scare to give the wrong answer because they couldn’t understand the topic of the conversation or lesson. Thankfully I wasn’t the exception because this make me stronger.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is a struggle to adapt to a new culture and language, which may be completely different from the ones young child may have already learned. This can lead to inner conflict, confusion, and even anger. One way to handle the conflict is to cut ties with the first culture including language. But is this the answer? Doing so can create a sense of loss. In the essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, Richard Rodriguez shares his personal experience with learning English as a second language. In his linguistic journey, the author feels a disconnect between Spanish, the language used at home by his Mexican immigrant parents, and English, the language used in the public world. He raises an important question…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Learning more than one linguistic system is a challenge and when teaching the mother language at home is its only exposure, it becomes harder to develop those multilingual skills. With the difficulties that come with learning two languages, some children give up learning one, usually the native tongue and with advancing languages such as English in the business and political world, children might not even learn their cultural language at home. Just as quickly as these dominant languages have been growing,…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘English Seen as Co-star among Global Languages’ and ‘ Can English Be Dethroned?’ Decide which article is more persuasive in your opinion and why. Use examples from the articles to support your ideas.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Being Bilingual Benefits

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”-Rita Mae Brown In the US, there are a lot of people from all across the globe. You can find diversity in culture and language. The most basic necessity for everyone is to communicate with one another. In today’s society it seems that knowing multiple languages is almost a necessity.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The Grass Eaters”, written by Krishnan Varma was about how Swapna and her husband Ajit Babu finally found their stable home---a pipe. The setting of the story was during wartime which made the general mood anxious and worrisome, plus the mood changed rapidly according to different places in the story.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    English has become a very universal language and well known in other foreign countries, however here in the United States more and more students are being deprived of being bilingual. Monolingual English speakers at a huge disadvantage because not only does learning a second language help ones communication skills but it also allows one to get connected with a foreign culture and understand situations through their perspective.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Language

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For a long time ago, people started to use language to communicate with each other. In different countries or areas, people use different language. Today, English is used as a general language that people use around the world. Second language speakers may encounter many difficulties, such as: a new language can cause confusion, learning a new language requires frequent usage; a person fist language may hinder process, and those who don’t speak English as a first language feel embraced or stupid in public…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Welcome to the Jungle

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In today’s world, it is very important to learn and understand more than one language, as it will help you with new opportunities in the future. Learning more than one language is very important to help you communicate with people from other…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE

    • 2600 Words
    • 9 Pages

    It is undeniable that English is not an easy language to learn. Malaysian ESL students oftentimes find English to be rather confusing and difficult to learn. Pronunciation seems to trip most students up. Though the English language syllabus makes room for pronunciation skills to be included in classroom practices, many often have problems with the pronunciation of certain words. According to Abbas and Muhammad Reza (2011), many ESL learners have “major difficulties” with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language. Pronunciation skill is considered the most difficult skill to teach, making it the least useful to teach (Rajadurai, 2006). The teaching of pronunciation involves the segmental level and the suprasegmetal level. The segmental level covers the phonemes including consonants and vowels while the supra-segmental level comprises features such as linking, intonation and word stress.…

    • 2600 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    English has an important role in our communication broadly. It can convey the different messages from different countries around the world. Like our mother tongue, english opens new and great opportunity for us to make relationships in any sector of life. By comprehending english, it enables us to know more on education, culture, politics as well as social differences. There are three stages to learn english: learning autodidactic, attending the course, and practicing the language.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human language is arguably the most highly developed human system and the foundation stone of every human culture. Language plays an essential role in not only how individuals and groups within a society communicate but as a powerful demonstration of how a society operates as well. Language is a reflection and expression of the individual in their own environment. (CULT ANTH 103, 106) Language expresses one’s feelings, necessities, ideas, and “often reflects what is socially important or culturally meaningful in their community”. (CULT ANTH) Having grown up in Brazil, English is my second language. There are many occasions when an expression in Portuguese does not mean the same thing in English and often does not make any sense at all. This is because the realities that originated the expression were only experienced by the people of that specific society. Removed from the culture in which it originated and developed, language can lose much of its efficacy and must be adaptive or perish. Similarly, a culture, deprived of its native tongue will experience rapid, profound, and irreversible changes. We can see that very clearly when an individual is learning a second language it is very hard to continuously “translate back and forth in their own minds between the language they know and the language they are learning.” (CULT ANTH, 113) It is best to learn by context and accept the language for what it is.…

    • 962 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When we learn a second language, we learn to communicate with other people. This can be writing (including grammatical structures) or speaking (knowing how to begin and end conversations).…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Learning English means mastery four language skills namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking. (Richard, 1990:19) states that English is a major skill for many second-language includes in the mastery of speaking skills. Moreover, the functions of speaking serve to establish and maintain social relations, and the transactional functions, which focus on the exchange of information (Richard, 2008: ..... ).…

    • 545 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    DEVELOPING LANGUAGE SKILLS

    • 3228 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Traditionally, more attention was paid to some skills (reading and writing) while the others (speaking and listening) were forgotten and not practiced. Nowadays, in order to do this integration, teachers make use of different methodologies in second language acquisition, but all of them agree with the fact that a communicative approach is the most fruitful one in the learning of a foreign language.…

    • 3228 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays