INTRODUCTION
For decades, learning English as a second language has been very important because English is the communication language over the world. “Language learning has been an important issue in Turkey starting from the second half of the XX. century until today. After the Second World War English became the foregrounded language. English is still a language which is in favor in Turkey as well as it is in the world.” (Küçükoğlu, 2013) Nowadays the term’ English language learning difficulty’ is very important for instructors and language teachers to find out how they can improve students’ performance. It’s a well known the fact that this difficulty was realized years ago but now as the educational demands are increasing, this problem has
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Considering the literature review, a number of studies argue that many language learners face difficulties in learning English as a second language at various levels and different skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. (McCardle & Hoffman, 2006) There are many students in Turkey having some problems in learning English at schools and language centers. This research explores the causes of learning difficulties from the perspective of second language (L2) adult learners in relation to their overall L2 proficiency and L2 performance and knowledge. This study, particularly, intended to answer these following questions: What are the students’ difficulties in learning reading?, What are the students’ difficulties in learning speaking?, What are the students’ difficulties in learning writing?, What are the students’ difficulties in learning listening?, What are the students’ difficulties in learning grammar and vocabulary? The answers of these research questions are to enlighten English language teachers about L2 learners’ …show more content…
However, students were given a choice to use either English or Turkish or both to answer the questions. Each interview which lasted approximately twenty minutes was recorded. The samples were voluntarily chosen by the instructor consisted of two male and four females students. The interviews were conducted in 30 December 2014. Before each interview, while distributing consent papers, the respondent was briefed on the purpose of the study and informed that their participation was voluntarily. The responses obtained from the interviewee were translated to English. Meanwhile, half of the students were at lower proficiency level and the other half were at medium proficiency level. The questions and analysis from the interview looked at some difficulties the students faced regarding language learning. The analysis of responses in order to find adult learners’ difficulties in language learning was done by identifying similarities among six learners in terms of area of difficulties, language skills difficulties and reasons behind their problems.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Due to English is not the first language of many students in Turkey, students might face some difficulties when learning the language. In this research, six adult L2 learners demonstrate outstanding levels of difficulties or challenges in certain fields such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. Each of the six students is
Flynn, K. & Hill, J. (2005). English language learners: A growing population. Mid-Research For Education And Learning, 1-11.
There are a lot of students being placed whose primary language is not English. Students walk into a mainstream classroom not being able to speak English. Students in this situation are call English Language Learners(ELLs). These students are not receiving appropriate language support to succeed in their language development which is causing them to not have the ability to acquire language.
With the rise of immigration, English Language Learners (ELL) population is growing fast. By 2025, 25% of the k-12 students will be ELLs. Therefore, a big challenge would be to help such ELLs improve their English language proficiency while there are English-speaking students (non-ELL) in the classes too.
Of the several challenges that ELL students may face at school, one of the most important to remember is that these students not only have the pressure of learning at the same pace of their peers that have most likely spoken English their whole lives, but they have to do so while attempting to understand the English language. Graves' makes a paramount point on page 411 of his text where he states "it is not that English language learners come to school with a language deficit. They come with a lack of knowledge of the particular language that is used in the schools they will be attending-English."1 Therefore, it is easy to assume that even the most ready-to-learn student will have huge amounts of trouble trying to learn everything in a language that is foreign to them.
Mostly children can adapt and/or learn a foreign language better than adults due to children developing language and skills spontaneously (Honigsfield, 2009). Second language learners have variables such as memory, perception, acquisition, conscious and subconscious learning styles, and recall. Even though, second language learners have those instilled variables, it is imperative for the teachers to guide learning and set the conditions of learning.
The process of learning a second language can be difficult, because it requires a great amount of time, energy, and dedication; But most importantly, the determination is what matters most at the end. The outcome of learning English will only be beneficial because many official jobs and educations are based off of English. As a second language, English is most necessary for official business, education, information and other activities in many countries. The English language has brought successful education careers to Tan, Mukherjee and Cofer, and I believe that it will become a valuable asset to others, including myself. In spite of learning a second language, there is a big possibility that one might get confused between the home language and the new language.
They may have difficulties or problems using language such as speaking, listening and understanding. This essay will discuss the situations of individuals
The article Language Proficiency in Academic Contexts by J. Cummins, was about some issues among English language learner students becoming fluent in English as their second language, along with meeting expectations of keeping up with the academic content in schools. The main idea or concept that I grasped from reading this article, is the large gap between English language learners becoming fluent in English and learning the content being taught in the classrooms without falling below grade level. The article expresses how these expectations of ELLS causes such a gap between becoming fluent in English and learning the academic content, causing English language learners to fall behind. Some information that I pinpointed from the article that
Thus, the book answers numerous practical questions that teachers have often struggled with; for example, how to increase the chances of academic success for language learners, how to use technology to teach language effectively, or how to teach language and content material concurrently. From the preface, the author makes it very clear that the book is designed to support language teachers in their journey as new teachers and throughout their teaching careers. In total, the book contains eleven chapters, which have been divided into four parts. The first part, "What Do Language Teachers Think About?" includes topics of foreign/ second language acquisition theories and language teaching methodologies. This part introduces the background knowledge readers will need in their journey as language teachers. The second part, "How Do You Teach a Language?" introduces approaches to teaching and learning that improve students’ writing, listening, speaking and reading abilities. Each chapter in this part includes suggestions for how students can be motivated and describes teaching and testing approaches to assess students ' language skills and academic literacy. The third part, "How Do I Know What to Teach?" is instrumental in helping teachers adopt teaching practices to particular teaching settings. The fourth part, "Where Do I Go from Here?" helps teachers gain a clearer perspective of what language teaching is all about; this section also considers teacher 's self-assessment and personal
Graduates also need higher English proficiency for job-related tasks and also to express themselves clearly and fluently. It is because English is the world lingua franca. Furthermore, the authors are studying on the factors that cause the decline in English proficiency among Malaysian graduates which are included the little attention is given on the language, the use of English does not happen at surroundings, English is not spoken all over Malaysia with equal frequency, English language is not compulsory to be passed in examinations and the English teachers are not able to encourage learners to use second language for oral communication outside the classroom. The factors mentioned are logic and relevant, however the authors have not listed out the research or data that could support their ideas. Despite that, the ways suggested to improve the English proficiency among Malaysian graduates are critic and practicable.
Qualities of a successful language learner’s Age: Age variation in English learning and learning differences between children and adults are significant factors that must be taken into account in choosing the right approaches, design and procedures. In the survey it has been found that those respondents who had some exposure to English language in their childhood managed to acquire good communication skills. Infants are born as universal receivers of all language sounds, but this ability slowly disappears, as they grow old. So early childhood experiences aid the learners in acquiring good English successfully in later life.
Initially, some subjective questions were addressed to the students to provide a brief background about the individuals language. In addition, the answers to the questions provided helped in supporting the analysis carried throughout this project, as they are factors in affecting the acquisition and learning of the language. The first query required the age of the student, nationality, mother tongue, gender, languages spoken, personal desire to learn English and whether the school they attended was a private or public
In most institutions of learning today, the classes are made up of students from different ethnic backgrounds. These have different traditions and also speak different languages. In a typical classroom, the majority of the students will speak the same language. The teacher must then employ strategies which will accommodate all the students in the class. This will ensure that every learner gets the best quality of education. This will enable them to be better prepared for career and expressing themselves. In this paper, strategies to assist learners of the English language in their literal development for third grade learners. In the paper, three strategies that can be used by the teacher will be discussed. New strategies and research that will help the English language learners to gain in depth mastery of the language will also be discussed. Due to the widespread learning of the English language in most schools, addressing issues of the language learners is of vital importance. Teachers should have the understanding that cultures are what give someone identity and therefore no student should leave their culture for another. Instead, there should be the blending of different cultures so that students can appreciate and learn from each other.
Experiencing those days where people would laugh at other for the broken English; the grammar and pronunciation are the toughest parts of the language. People with English as a second language always stumble upon difficulties; however, the determination of learning a new language do not decrease easily as the motivation is still surrounding one’s mind. Today, English has become an international communication; even the teaching and learning of the language has already spread throughout the world. English is known as one of the most common use language and has been offering classes everywhere for years especially around Asia; additionally, the world common language has now become the number one language uses in every fields of career that is being offer everywhere. Non-American students should be required to take English class as a second language in school
Numerous investigators have emphasized on significance of vocabulary. In this way, Zimmerman (1997, p.5) states that, “vocabulary is the most important aspect of second language learning. The more you know the better chance to understand the language or make yourself understood.”