English Is My Second Language Essay

English as a Second Language
English as a second language is becoming more popular all across the globe. It is not surprising,
because English is the main language of business and commerce, trade, advertising, sport, of science,
medicine, education, of popular music, entertainment, computers, video games and the Internet.
Most of the scientific, technological and academic information in the world is available primarily in
English. English unites and connects people from many different countries and cultures more so
than other languages. People around the globe learn English for different reasons. They study
English because they want to have access to the information presented only in this language, some
of them want to be able to communicate with more people wherever they go, others do it in order
to obtain a good and well–paid job or to study abroad. Nowadays knowledge of the English in
Kazakhstan is no longer just a fad of intellectuals, but a vital necessity. Majority of students here
starts attending English classes 3 or 4 times a week since the second grade, however most of them
do not speak English at all, they do not even understand it. Their English is very poor. Students who
learn English attending courses know many grammar rules excellently, but they find it difficult to
apply it in practice, they cannot express their thoughts. I think it is because of the typical learning
style here – teacher oriented method, book – centered method. Teacher usually speaks Russian in the
classroom,
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English As Second Language Learning
Introduction
Vocabulary plays a significant role in English as second language learning process. For the
majority of English as Second Language(ESL) learners, the ultimate goal of learning the language
is to understand (read and listen) and communicate (write and speak) with little difficulty and the
lack of sufficient vocabulary may be the constraint of such goal (Folse, 2004). As the bedrock of
English and as well as language, vocabulary also facilitates the development of other language
skills: lexical richness leads to the progress in the use of language, namely listening, speaking,
reading and writing skills (Nation, 1994). Reversely, The improvement in such skills may enhance
learners vocabulary size as the exposure to more learning materials improves the capacity to acquire
new vocabulary. (The importance of learning vocabulary/ why vocabulary?)
The last two decades has witnessed the rapid evolvement of mobile technologies. The penetration of
portable devices (smartphones and tablets) and the expansion of potential learners has made the
mobile assisted language learning (MALL) possible. Although there is no explicit definition to the
concept of MALL, it can be interpreted as learning languages with aids of mobile technologies such
as mobile phones, media players, PDAs, smart phones, and tablet computers, which are potentially
available anytime and anywhere (Duman et al., 2015). The concept of MALL has evolved from
using of such on–the–go devices only to learning

As a well–balanced bilingual linguist both in English and Korean, who has an ESL background, I
have overcome numerous challenges that an ESL student must confront. Besides having an
experience of learning English as a second language, I have taught English/Korean to Korean and
Korean–American students from a wide range of age and level of fluency in both Korean and
English for many years in a form of tutoring and as a class room instructor. English and my mother
tongue, Korean, I've learned Japanese and Japanese culture for several years. I have studied
linguistics for consecutive six years as my major at the both undergraduate and graduate level
program. I graduated from Hofstra University with MA in linguistics in May 2016. . My passion,
commitment and talent in learning foreign languages and linguistics have earned me being listed on
dean's list for every semester that I have taken and rewarded me with graduating as an honor student.
Throughout the academic years, I took essential linguistic courses about language and language
acquisition theories including Phonetics, Linguistics, Syntax, Language Acquisition and teaching,
language the law, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and forensic linguistics field method. The
linguistic courses that I have taken during the college years and Master's program provided a strong
foundation and motivation for me to further pursuit a linguistic expert in SLA and bilingual
education. Moreover, throughout my academic experience

My Experience With Second Language Learners
English is my primary language, and I would like to think that I have mastered the English
language. However who ever ends up reading this journal entry might think differently. It did take
me twenty plus years to get to become a proficient reader, writer, and speaker in this language. Do
to my experiences with learning the English language, I do show empathy to ELL's students. Not
only are they learning a new language; they must also use this new language to comprehend and
learn academic areas such as science, math, and social studies. I am fairly new to academia as an
educator, so my experience with second language learners in the classroom is limited. I would be
lying if I said I did not struggle with instructing and communicating with ELL's students. What I
have found is that ELL's students are far better at communicating with me that I am with them.
However, the more time that I spend in the classroom, I have found ways to over come this
communication barrier. By just differentiating how I communicate and using universal signs or
signals has helped. Using drawings and other students in the classroom has gotten me a long way.
Still, I am a work in progress when it comes to working with language learners. Outside the
classroom, by exposure to second language learners is far greater. What I have notice from my travel
around the world is English is an international language. Majority of people outside the United States
speaks a limited amount English, some better than

English As A Second Language
Many people learn English as their second language because English is used as an international
language when people try to communicate with each other. As a second language learner, English is
challenging in grammar rules and comprehension skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing,
especially for adults. The ego permeability of adults affects their motivation in learning a new
language. Therefore, many adult learners are struggling during the process of learning English. This
week, I interviewed Lily, an EIL student, who has an intermediate level of English proficiency at
Brigham Young University (BYU–H). She comes from South Korea, and this is her three semesters
here. Her answers to my questions give me ideas about how she learns English, what is the difficult
parts in her learning, and how teaching styles of EIL teachers affect her learning.
Finishing all assignments for different EIL classes are the essential way of how Lily learn
English. She explained that these assignments take most of her time, and she thinks these
assignments are well designed for practicing her English skills. For example, the assignment of
transcribing a recording in Lily's oral fluency class requests students work in small groups. They
first need to record a 4 minutes' conversation of their group, and then each of them will assign one
minute to transcribe. It takes Lily lots of time to translate, but she feels it is a good opportunity to
practice her speaking and listening skills.

English As A Second / Foreign Language
Language transfer in ESL/EFL writing
Due to the distinctions lie in cultural and linguistics aspects, writing in English is always quite
challenging for most learners of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL). These leaners
tend to apply the knowledge from their native culture and language structures to produce certain
intended responses in second language (L2), so as to produce semantically appropriate essay writing,
which is more formally seen as language transfer (Bhela, 1999). This essay attempts to examine the
issue of language transfer in ESL/EFL writing by relating and providing a general overview of the
literature concerning the issue,
Generally speaking, the application of L1 in L2 production is quite difficulty, especially when one
wish to transfer it into appropriate and coherent structures. If the linguistic structures of the first
language and second language are greatly differed, then more errors in L2 production might occur,
both in its frequency and quantity, which actually indicates the interference of L1 on L2 (Ellis,
1997). And it is furthered claimed by Ortega (2009) that the influence native language has on the
development of target language is unavoidable.
Nevertheless, how exactly L1 influences L2 acquisition is still to be further defined. Basically
speaking, it may be determined by a series of factors, such as the background of native language,
different learning stage, proficiency of target language, plus some certain specific areas of

My Second Language
As a son of Mexican immigrant parents to the United States, I was privileged to learn an
additional language of English. However, I did not begin to learn English until my scholastic
years began because I was immediately taken back to Mexico. During the four years I lived in
Mexico, I was exposed to what became my mother tongue of Spanish. Everyone around me was
monolingual, so I was never exposed to the flavor of the English language; but once school began, I
was exposed to an unknown world of English, my second language. Like many English learners as a
second language, I was placed in the ELD (English Language Development) program where I soon
acquired a distaste towards English. The reason for my dislike for English was because I spoke it

English As A Second Language By Lucy Honig
"English as a second language" is an essay composed by Lucy Honig. She talked about the
protagonist Maria, who came from South America, Guatemala, endured obstacles due to lack of
communication or language barrier. Despite the fact that she went to school at night, she would not
be able to address her message fluently. After the completion of the ESL courses, Maria was chosen
to do a mini–presentation to the audience who were in the press. The mayor was present on that
day. When she was sharing her experience with the people, she was afraid and scared due to the
crowd of the people who have existed on the conference. She had been talking about the mayor of
Guatemala, who got shot by the government soldiers because of he was not a supporter

English As A Second Or Foreign Language Essay
As the world's economy globalizes, English becomes the first priority language among the foreign
languages in most non–English speaking countries, including China. In China, there is a boost of
English learning and teaching (Sun, 2013). More and more Chinese people learn English as a
second or foreign language. However, according to a survey of China's language situation that was
conducted in 2006, only 1.8% of English learners in China claimed to be able to act as interpreters
on formal occasions, 3.53% to converse quite fluently, 15.61% to conduct daily conversations (Wei
& Su, 2012). This indicated that only a few English learners in China can speak English fluently and
that many English learners do not have the ability to engage in daily interactions. The education in
China is exam–oriented, but most of the tests emphasize testing students' mastery of the reading and
language forms while overlooking assessing students' speaking abilities (Wei, 2012). And teachers
tend to give students practices of the knowledge that are to be tested in the exams. Therefore, many
English teachers in China tend to ignore English speaking and they give few opportunities for their
students to practice their speaking abilities (Wang, 2014). In China, English language teaching still
"focuses heavily on language knowledge, not language skills, with the former being defined in terms
of grammar and vocabulary and being taught predominantly in the mother tongue and through
textbook material and

English Is My First Language
People may think because I grew up in California, they may assume English is my first language.
Thats not the case my first language was Spanish mainly because It was important to my dad to
speak the language. Since he didn't want myself and brothers to not be able to speak the language
and not be able to communicate with family members .The way he saw it, was that because we
were not born here doesn't mean we shouldn't know Spanish. As I grow up I understand how
important for him because I have cousins, family members who can barely speak Spanish or even
write and its pretty upsetting.I find it upsetting because they have parents who only speak Spanish.
If they only speak Spanish, "How would they be able to communicate?". As it was...show more
content...
Maybe at that moment was when I realized I was an English learner.Now I realize how beneficial
bilingual class was and is. Since I was able to speak both languages. Knowing two languages has
been really helpful. For one, I was able to help out my grandparents ' and translate thing they don't
understand. Most of the time it was things that would come in the mail.They barely understood
English let alone knew how to write it or even read. You can say I was there personal translator,
when ever they needed me. Also, when I would volunteer I was usually a translator , which I was
glad to do. Although not everyone has the opportunity to be fluent in languages, if they 're
determined to learn they will. For example, my family in Mexico don't speak English. In my
opinion, there is no reason for them to speak English unless they come to California. In a country
like California it necessary to speak as many languages as possible. I mean, where are the country
where we get the most tourists. By having people from all over the world visit, it can become
difficult to understand some of them but not impossible. Honestly, I see it all the time. Some act like
they don't understand or don't even attempt to understand them because they say their accent is too
strong or there English is ''poor''. Ive experienced with my grandparents when they 're talking to
someone talking in English and I can tell they 're having trouble understanding so I have to interfere

English As A Second Or Foreign Language Essay
Introduction As the world's economy globalizes, English becomes the first priority language among
the foreign languages in most non–English speaking countries, including China. In China, there is a
boost of English learning and teaching (Sun, 2013). More and more Chinese people learn English
as a second or foreign language. However, according to a survey of China's language situation that
was conducted in 2006, only 1.8% of English learners in China claimed to be able to act as
interpreters on formal occasions, 3.53% to converse quite fluently, 15.61% to conduct daily
conversations (Wei & Su, 2012). This indicated that only a few English learners in China can speak
English fluently and that many English learners do not have the ability to engage in daily
interactions. The education in China is exam–oriented, but most of the tests emphasize testing
students' mastery of the reading and language forms while overlooking assessing students' speaking
abilities (Wei, 2012). And teachers tend to give students practices of the knowledge that are to be
tested in the exams. Therefore, many English teachers in China tend to ignore English speaking and
they give few opportunities for their students to practice their speaking abilities (Wang, 2014). In
China, English language teaching still "focuses heavily on language knowledge, not language skills,
with the former being defined in terms of grammar and vocabulary and being taught predominantly
in the mother tongue and through textbook

English Is My Second Language
English, is my second language, is a big challenge for me because I didn't know how to say any
English when I came to U.S. The only sentence I knew which is how are you doing. People usually
are very powerful when they understand English because a lot of professional documents are written
by English. In this quarter, I have learned how to write an essay in efficiently and professionally,
and I have become more advanced than previous. By moving to next level this is ESL 5, I will keep
my English learning attitude and patient to develop and practicing my writing skill. In ESL 273
class, I learned about write a powerful conclusion paragraphs and a smooth organizing skill, and I
also noticed I need to continue improving to make a strong topic sentences, and then explain the
topic clearly. For those reasons, I should keep to the next level of education on my second
language, and the level is ESL 5. I believe I have the eligibility for ESL 5 because of my strength
in writing a conclusion paragraphs. The conclusion paragraphs are very important parts to
restates the main idea of my essay, and it also can help reader to recall the writer's main idea for
whole essay. This is a good skill for me to move on to ESL 5. When I write a conclusion
paragraphs, I always read my essay again to make sure my ideas is clear. For example, in "The
benefits of internet filter", I wrote that the internet filter has multiple advantages which help the
libraries manage the public computer usage, and

There has always been a preconception that people who learn English as a second language are
somewhat less intelligent than people who learned it as their first language. Subconsciously some
people think that people who learn English as a second language don't have the ability to understand
the language completely. Especially if they speak with an accent, a person tends to use "simple"
words to somewhat help that person understand. When in fact, people who learn English as a second
language are just as intelligent or even more intelligent than people who learn English as their first
language. When a person who learned English as their first language or is just fluent in English has
an encounter with a person who has an accent or has...show more content...
Tan would then have to go onto the phone herself, and explain her mother's thoughts in "clear"
English,to then find out the hospital had the results the whole time, and would be able to pick it up.
This shows one obstacle that many people have to face when learning English as a second language:
they often get taken advantage of because people seem to think that they don't understand what's
going on. As an immigrant, it is sometimes difficult to learn English even after living in the U.S.
for over fourteen years. It is more difficult for an adult to learn a new language than for a child.
I've experienced this situation first hand. When moving to the U.S. my brother and I were between
two and four, while my parents were between thirty and forty. It was easier for my brother and I to
learn the English language because our brains weren't fully developed, and it was simple for us to
take in new things. On the other hand for my parents, it was more difficult, even though combined
they knew more than six languages (Italian, Twi/Fante Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Hausa,
Ga, and English).
Though both my parents learned some English in school, speaking it in the US was intimidating, due
to the fact that the way you pronounce words, can instantly label you as intelligent or unintelligent.
The English language is not necessarily the hardest language in the

Learning English As A Second Language
English is one of the main languages which is widely used all over the world. However, for some
students, the process of learning English as a second language is not that smooth compared with
other subjects they have learnt. Due to the difficulties in learning, it is easy to make students lose
their interest. Nevertheless, interest is one of the strongest motivations for learning English. Parsons,
Hinson and Brown (2001) defined motivation as an important component in learning the process.
Thus, it is significant to find out the underlying possible factors in which affect students' motivation
and interest in learning English (Wimolmas, 2013). After observing video recordings and the
interview, several factors were discovered which contributed to the development of Jack's motive for
participating the peer feedback. Firstly, he regarded English as 'beautiful language' because it sounds
nice which means that he is interested in learning English. Also, he was hard–working studying
English both inside and outside class. Specifically, not only did he adopted his teachers' advice
about teaching English in the class, but also watched English movies, glanced over journals and
magazines and memorized new vocabulary and grammar emerged in those materials in his spare
time. These experiences proved that he is an initiative learner. It is worth mentioning that at the
beginning, Jack was not attracted by writing before he participated in a writing program where he
met a professional

For me, learning a language is a complicated process. It is different from learning other subjects. It
involves a lot of practices and follow up. When I talk about my personal experience, I would say
that I have a rich experience in learning English as a second language. English was taught to me for
ten years starting from grade seven till graduation from university. After graduation, I felt that I
should improve my language skills. Therefore, I did a lot of efforts personally to increase my
fluency. Until now I still learn the language. Indeed, learning a language takes a lifetime.
I started learning English as a second language when I was in first intermediate. I still remember my
first classes and my first teachers. I remember that my teachers changed frequently in the first year
but all of them have much in common. All of them used grammar translation method. They used to
write bilingual lists of words on board, then we, as students, were asked to copy these lists and
memorize them by heart. All teaching concentrated on reading and writing skills, but there were no
activities concentrating on speaking or listening. In addition, grammar rules were taught in that stage
of learning the language as mathematics equations, and we were asked to memorize the rules as we
...show more content...
Of course, there are certain defects or gaps in my knowledge or ability to use the English language
like using idioms and the appropriateness of some vocabulary. Idioms have many connotations and
denotations in the English language. Sometimes I use an idiom and I mean something, but the
connotations of the idiom means something else. Another gap of my knowledge of the language is
the appropriateness of using certain vocabulary. English language entails high sense of using the
appropriate word for describing or narrating something. To my mind, I have not reached this point

Learning English as a Second Language Essay
English is an international language which is used officially all around the world. Anybody who
wants to make connections with the world we live in should learn English. I had English language
classes in my secondary and high school years. I also took some private English learning courses
throughout summers in my country, Turkey. However, I could not improve my English effectively
as all Turkish students in Turkey. I fully agree that English will be learned most efficiently in the
boundaries of an English–speaking country not in the home country because of some cases.
Therefore, I came here, USA, to learn English better after graduation from my university. First,
English is dealt with all the time while staying in an English–speaking...show more content...
Neither was I able to get their points, nor could they understand me. The reasons were that my
Turkish English teachers are not the experts in pronunciation and there is no class focusing on
speaking at state schools in Turkey. An experiment was performed by Major et al. about speaking
and listening problems for international people. Four groups of one hundred listeners, whose native
languages were Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and American English, heard brief lectures presented in
English by speakers with different native languages and answered questions based on the lectures.
The results indicated that both native and nonnative listeners scored significantly lower on
listening comprehension tests when they listened to nonnative speakers of English, and Chinese
group scored significantly lower when listening to speakers who shared their native language.
Only Spanish group did well when they listened to their native speaker (174). This experiment
showed that learning English from a nonnative speaker may cause troubles in both listening and
speaking parts of English. Additionally, I lacked of ability on word choice for the first couple of
months in the USA. For example, I was using adjective "too" for positive circumstances " instead of
"very" or "so", and I used to say "according to me" instead of "in my

Language is important because it's one of the main ways to communicate and interact with other
people around us. It keeps us in contact with other people. English language is an example for the
importance of a language because it is the international language and has become the most important
language to people in many parts of the world. It is most widely used in communicating around the
world, Also it is spoken as the first language in many countries. English is playing a major role in
many sections like education, medicine, engineering and business. There are many reasons that
makes English is the most important language in the world.
The article lists four reasons why English is important the first reason is that even...show more
content...
Moreover the internet sites are in English and we can see the other languages sites gives options
to translate into English and a lot of information we will find are written in English. Another fact
is that it the writer thing is that it is the easiest language to learn and suggest that starting learning
English for one week and see the results. If we understand and communicate in English it will be
every easy for us while traveling and we can get help in English around the world. Many
companies and governmental companies hire people who are good readers and writers and can
speak English very well.
One of the most international languages is English. It is from the requirements from studying
abroad and the textbooks are almost in English. If a person wants to get PHD degree English is
important and helpful for them. The writer of the article wants to shed the lights on how to
improve English skills. 1) students should differentiate between textbooks languages and real
English language and focus on grammar and how to write without any mistake. The writer
compared between the use of English and Arabic language. 2) How to get fluent English language
speaker and explains the tips for it. We don't have to memorize each single word but only the
phrases and statements. Also read and write stories, articles and conversation. Moreover download
and listen to BBC, CNN, WEE and Euro news agencies to be familiar

English As A Second Language Essay
Learning Academic English as a Second Language
When I started searching about topics that are related to Academic English I came up with the
features of Academic English but this was a general topic so I looked for other topics. I searched
on google about other topics, such as the importance of Academic English. I noticed a website that is
about the importance of Academic English for non–native speakers. That really interested me
because it is a personal topic since English is my second language. My initial assumption was that
English is a very important language to learn because it is widely spoken around the world. It is
important to maintain the skills of academic English especially for those who desire to be special in
their academic life because English is the most spoken language in the science and economic wise.
Hence, learning another language is important especially when it comes to the academic language.
My research question is what is the importance of learning academic English for non–native speakers
in the career life perspective. As my topic is about the importance of Academic English for
non–native speakers I started my research by searching on google about The Importance of
Learning English regarding career life. I think speaking a good English is important because It helps
in communicating with other people from other cultures and that is important with the increasing of
today's economy around the world. I found an article that is "Why Speaking Proper

English As A Second Language Essay
English As A Second Language Education
When the English as a second language learner (ESL) or the English language learner (ELL) students
have achieved English proficiency, it helps students to develop their understanding of mathematics.
Students then effectively use mathematical tools, charts, patterns and other strategies, as well as
their prior learning experiences to make connections to solve related problems. The majority are able
to transfer their manipulative exploration to solving problems with pencil and paper. Students use
multiple solutions and strategies when they solve problems. They express their mathematical
thinking through drawing, writing, and speaking. Students socialize their intelligence through
playing games...show more content...
They need to understand all the strategies because strategies help students make meaning. The myth
is until students learn English, there's no point in trying to teach them content–area subjects. In
reality, it is not necessary (or desirable) to wait until students are fluent in English before teaching
them subject matter content (Carpenter, 1995). In fact, one effective way of learning a non–native
language is to study content area subject matter through the media of the non–native language
(McKeon & Samway, 1999).
From my own experience, many ESL/ELL students gravitate towards mathematics and towards fields
where mathematics is essential such as physics, economics, engineering, etc. They assume that their
language deficiencies will not handicap them as much as they would in other fields. They believe
that the necessary level of English proficiency is lower in the study of mathematics because of the
symbolic nature of the subject. Although learning English is essential for school success for all
language minority students, the acquisition of English alone in no way guarantees that ESL/ELL
students will succeed academically. Since understanding develops out of what people already know,
teachers who teach for understanding constantly try to connect new problems to their students' prior
mathematical knowledge and backgrounds.
ESL/ELL Students' Academic Advantages & Challenges
ESL/ELL students have knowledge gained in their country of origin, and this knowledge

English Is My Second Language Essay

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