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
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.
Flynn, K. & Hill, J. (2005). English language learners: A growing population. Mid-Research For Education And Learning, 1-11.
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.
Basic foreign language skills are important in communicating with people. With new technologies, we can communicate with people who do not speak English. In recent years, the number of people in the United States who do not speak English has also risen. Also, only ten percent of the world's population speaks English. Although one year of a foreign language will not allow students to...
When observing and studying ELLs, there are many advantages and disadvantages in a classroom and school for these students. In the classroom, ELL students have many individual opportunities to develop their literacy, especially in small reading groups. English learners also, are pulled aside by an ESL teacher during class hours to focus on reading and writing skills of English. According to Netten, Droop, and Verhoeven (2010), reading is “an activity which benefits from practice” (414). Many of these students struggle to become literate at a young age, but the more practice they receive the better they will become when focusing on developing literacy. Also, ELL students have an advantage when learning two languages because this makes them bilingual. The goal of bilingual education is to develop
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.
This source goes into detail about the use of a foreign language versus a second language. It is written in a non-bias style of teaching for a second language. It will help to show how age can be a factor in learning in many styles of teaching a second language. Amelia Lambelet, one of the authors, “is a Research Manager at the Institute of Multilingualism at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland”. Her co-author, Raphael Berthele “is a Professor in Multilingualism at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.” Both are very involved in the research of the effects of multilingualism on learners in school. Because this source was located through Google Scholar website, it will be a credible source with supportable data toward the thesis statement. It will support the early learning process from a researcher’s and a professor’s point of
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.
English Language Learners range from Newcomers learning survival English and developing foundational literacy skills to Long-Term English Learners who have had 6 years or more of their education in English yet continue have significant language gaps. These students may speak English with little or no accent and still lack the vocabulary, grammar and grade level literacy to be successful in school. English language learners may remain silent in the classroom as they adjust to a new school, environment, and culture unless he is a native language comrade to interact with. The English language learners are concerned about decoding verbal and non- verbal communication as well as understanding the social culture framework of the school. Most of the time English language learners are observing during instruction, trying to repeat words used by others, memorizing simple phrases and sentences, tired by midday or be frustrated attending long lectures unaccompanied by visual and gestures, relying on first language translation used peer translation or bilingual dictionary, as the students begin to learner they become more involved in the classroom, they can respond non-verbally to commands, statements, and questions in simple form. As their oral comprehension increases, they begin to use simple word and phrases and may use English spontaneously. They can understand short conversation on a simple topic when reading students can understand a narrative text and authentic materials, although they will be below
O’Neill,S., Gish, A. (2008). Teaching English as a second language. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
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
Teaching students a language that is foreign can really be challenging for students as well as for the teachers. The dynamic rule for implementing instructing in a diverse class to English-learners is to use resourceful life skills such as diligence, hard work and patience. There are also methods that are involved in teaching English as a second language that can be creative for the teacher, yet beneficial to the student. First building a strong foundation that is essential to English learners will promote the language acquisition process. To do this teacher’s should always start with preparation. Advance preparation is essential in order to provide necessary adaptations in content area instruction and to make content information accessible for second language lear...
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
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.
It is necessary to draw a distinction between foreign language and second language learning. According to (Wisniewski, 2007), a language lear...