Disadvantages of Learning the English Language

Disadvantages of Learning the English Language

        English arguably has become a "universal" language. According to AskOxford.com, one in four people worldwide speak English, and English has official or special status in at least 75 countries. But the commonality of English may gloss over some of the disadvantages of learning the language. Educators and those interested in learning English should recognize these disadvantages so they can weigh them against the benefits of English study.

 
  Vocabulary Extent and Roots

 As shown by etymonline.com, many of the words in English are not really "English" at all. They have their roots in other languages such as French, German, Latin and Greek. As a result, there may be many words for the same exact concept. For example, a person may say "book" or "volume" to refer to a bound set of written pages. This means that to be truly fluent, a person has to have a very large vocabulary when compared to some other languages, and that he may need an understanding of the root words before he can fully comprehend the meaning of an English term. To make matters even more confusing, people learning English may encounter both British English and American English. British English has different vernacular terms and spellings than American English, so English learners have to understand and differentiate between these two forms of English every time they write and choose vocabula

    Flexibility and Rigidity

 
 Written English has very rigid syntax rules (e.g., subject before predicate). Textbooks provide examples based on this "proper" form. However, hardly any native English speaker talks the way that he writes. For instance, it's perfectly acceptable in spoken English to say "I wonder what he's up to," ending with a dangling preposition. This duality of rigidity and flexibility can be extremely confusing for ESL students, especially given the extent of English vocabulary. For instance, an ESL student who trusts what he hears everyone say may write improper syntax. Additionally, English teachers may miss these linguistic errors unintentionally, simply because the teachers themselves are used to vernacular syntax misplacement.

    Language Extinction

 As pointed out by Joe Kloc of "Mother Jones" magazine, languages are dying out around the globe. As more people concentrate on the advantages of English, they may abandon their native tongues, accelerating the loss of additional languages. Kloc goes one step further and associates the loss of language with the loss of culture, since language can provide a sense of authenticity to a people and is part of how people express themselves and their beliefs






Source: http://www.ehow.com

how to enforcement listening in english learning

Listening for young learners

Submitted by TE Editor on 12 July, 2005 - 13:00

In this article I will briefly focus on how I try to develop listening skills with our young learners who are learning English as an additional language. I will identify a number of learning theories, together with a list of considerations and cautions with some insights that I have gained from trying to make listening in my classroom more comprehensible.

 - The nature of listening

 - Why we need to develop listening skills

 - Theories I consider when I develop listening skills

 -  Some considerations for classroom listening

 -  What I do to be more comprehensible

 -  Conclusion

 

The nature of listening

'Listening is an active not a passive operation.' Garvie. With this in mind I would like to emphasise three things:

-  The importance of understanding this concept of listening being an active engagement. That is, as a listener, the mind is actively searching for meaning.

 -  The importance of what Krashen calls 'comprehensible input' (CI) or that 'we acquire when we understand what people tell us or what we read, when we are absorbed in the message.' Individual progress is dependent on the input containing aspects of the target language that 'the acquirer has not yet acquired, but is developmentally ready to acquire.'

        This seems to imply the importance of ensuring that the language level is matched to the learners, which means teachers must understand their learners' abilities.

 -   Krashen advises that acquisition proceeds best when 'the acquirer's level of anxiety is low and self-confidence is high.'
        This seems to enforce the importance of making the learning environment in our classrooms non-threatening.

 Why we need to develop listening skills

'If someone is giving you a message or opinion, then of course you have to be able to understand it in order to respond.' (Brewster, Ellis, Girard).

    Listening skills need to have a 'real-life' meaning, Donaldson says that children need 'purposes and intentions' which they can recognise and respond to in others 'these human intentions are the matrix in which the child's thinking is embedded.'

    This implies that we need to carefully select materials and purposes for practising listening skills and that they need to have an authentic meaning to young learners




Source :  http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk