• Home
  • Login
  • Registration
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS
ESLarticle.com
Tweet
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • Members
  • Add Article

Top Categories

Teaching 509
Other 210
Classroom Management 138
Career Development 135
Learning Methodology 121
Study Skills 91
E-Learning/CALL 87
English Language Learning (ELL) 78
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) 77
Teaching Methodology 76
English Language Teaching (ELT) 74
English as a Second Language (ESL) 64
Teach in Shanghai
Home / Articles / English Language Learning (ELL) / View Article

Publishing

  • Articles
  • Add Article
  • Articles Archive
  • Latest Articles
  • Popular Articles

Latest Articles

Jan 5, 2019

Metacognition in Reading Competency

As related to the reading process, metacognition can be defined as contemplation concerning one's own thinking processes or knowledge of one's own...

Jan 5, 2019

Mass Media Literacy Reflections for Language Instructions

"You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself." Galileo Galilei Mass media forms thrive today. As development...

Nov 30, 2018

Ideas for the First Class with New Learners

~~The first class with new learners can be an anxious one for all concerned – teacher as well as learners. Below are some tips to make that first...

Nov 19, 2018

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners It is estimated that there are over a billion English speakers in the world, including native speakers,...

Nov 15, 2018

Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Hom

Education Today, December 2013 Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Home  Timothy G. Weih University of Northern...

Popular Articles

1105610 Views

5 Creative Ways to Decorate Your Classroom Bulletin Board This Winter

Back to school, fall leaves, Thanksgiving and Christmas all easily lend themselves to great decorating themes, but what to do when those are over...

346414 Views

Three Unique Ideas To Make Your Bulletin Board More Useful

Bulletin boards have long been existent in campuses. They have proven to be such versatile and useful aids in both the learning and teaching...

119914 Views

History of the Chalkboard

Walk into just about any classroom and you will find one: A dark green board on the wall, lined with pieces of chalk and felt erasers. Chalkboards,...

57508 Views

Report Card Comments

For a small minority, writing report cards isn't a big deal. But most teachers generally dread report card writing time. Completing the comment...

37294 Views

The Most Useful American Business Words

The Most Useful American Business Words: Here's a list that will come in handy for any student enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL)...


The Biggest Challenges a Foreign Person Faces When Moving to an Englis

by A. Nutt

Feb 11, 2009 English Language Learning (ELL) 2485 Views

Anyone who moves out of their native homeland can encounter many obstacles that will make starting out fresh a very difficult process. The cultural differences alone between two neighboring countries can be like that of night and day, but there are few barriers more difficult to break down than the language barrier. The inability to speak or understand the native language of a country you are entering makes for a very imposing obstacle to overcome, and despite the fact that the English language is one of the most widely spoken, it's multitude of tiny intricacies and nuances make it one of the hardest for a foreign person to get a good grasp of or feeling for.

On appearance alone there are some languages that appear much more imposing than the English language, partially due to the fact that English has many similarities to languages spoken in other counties. In the English language there are striking similarities to many of the characteristics present in Spanish, French and German - so what are the things that make the English language so difficult for a foreign person to learn?

What to Stress

English doesn't necessarily have more regular consonant or vowel sounds than other languages, but how the stress is placed on some of those consonants or vowels that make it such a difficult language for someone who is learning. There are hard and soft consonants like 'c' taking on a 'k' sound or an 's' sound depending upon the situation. There are silent letters in some words and then some consonants that when combined take on an entirely different sound (like 'th'). The unusual combinations and ever present rule changes in the pronunciation of words make English much more complex to learn than it would seem.

Verb Tense

Another thing that sets English apart as one of the more difficult languages to learn has to do with verb tense. Some languages have very limited connotations of verb tense, sometimes basically just present and past, making it relatively simple to grasp. English, on the other hand, is a bit more complex in this area - for example in different situations it may be appropriate to use any of the following tenses: present; past; future; past perfect or present perfect - the verb 'choose' can be used in the following forms depending on tense: choose, chose or chosen - this can be very difficult for someone with no familiarity with the language to grasp.

Slang

All languages have words, terms and phrases that are used in a situational nature and that, in those instances may not have the same meaning that they would normally have in a dictionary definition. Slang is reasonably common across the board in all languages, but in some areas (especially when talking about American English); slang is more widely used than proper grammar. To be truly comfortable communicating, someone must be comfortable speaking and be able to understand the language how it's spoken within an area - in the US just knowing the language as it's generally taught may not be enough, in every single region or even neighborhood that's traveled to, different slang terms make an almost entirely different language that must be learned.

At times it's not just words used with a slightly varied use of meaning, in some areas there are frequently used terms that wouldn't even be found in Webster's Dictionary, words and terms created by locals, which only locals understand. This can make it exceedingly difficult for someone not familiar with the language to get accustomed to, especially if they don't remain in one area for very a very long period.

English may be the most difficult language for a native of a non-English speaking country to learn, but for the potential benefits that could come along with it, it's most certainly worth the added effort to learn.

Article source: http://eslarticle.com/pub/english-language-learning-ell/851-the-biggest-challenges-a-foreign-person-faces-when-moving-to-an-englis.html

  • General Information
Author Info

Author Name: A. Nutt

About Author: Online English school provides English lessons that will help you write an English resume cover letter and provides sample cover letter examples for you to see. Learn English at your own pace in your own environment.\\r\\nhttp://www.englishlink.com/

Most Recent Articles

  • Jan 5, 2019 Mass Media Literacy Reflections for Language Instructions by A. Nutt
  • Nov 15, 2018 Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Hom by A. Nutt
  • Oct 22, 2018 5 Significant Reasons to Learn English Language by A. Nutt
  • Jun 16, 2018 Benefits of Using Poetry in Language Learning by A. Nutt
  • Dec 9, 2017 How to Scaffold ELLs in Their Pre-Production Phase of Language Acquisi by A. Nutt

Actions

  • Print Page

Articles Archive

  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018

Random Articles

English Language Learning (ELL)

CONTRASTIVE RHETORICAL STUDY OF DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS OF ENGLISH AND PER

In the present study, the way of deploying one of the most important kinds of references -deixis, and its major types and subtypes and also the...

Classroom Management

The Positive Aspects of Consequences Verses Punishments for Teachers

Most people feel that consequences and punishments are the same thing. However, there is a key difference between the two. Punishments are a way...

Other

The Problem With The Education System

My Issues With The Education System. Schooling is an important part of any developed nation. Without education, we, as human beings, can never...

Career Development

7 Little-Known Factors That Could Affect Your Teaching Career

Teaching is a tough profession. Most teachers put invest themselves heavily into their students, spending time, money and other resources that far...

About ESL Article

ESL Article is a private ESL/TEFL site designed and maintained by educators and educational administrators. It was launched in August 2008 with the aim of bringing ESL/TEFL students, parents, teachers and schools information and articles about the teaching profession and learning community.

Icon Group Member

ESL Article is a member of Icon Group Thailand (IGT), a group of ESL TEFL TESOL websites providing educational resources and information to teachers, schools and students around the world. The group was founded in 2003 and now includes 15+ websites covering educational information services, teaching resources and e-learning.

What is ESL?

English as a second language (ESL) is the use or study of English by speakers of different native languages. It is also known as English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL).

  • Home
  • Registration
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Help
  • Partner
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
​

© 2019 ESLarticle.com.
Member of Icon Group Thailand - Educating the Future:
TESall All TESOL  Total ESL  ESL Job Feed
TEFL World  TEFL Jobs Overseas  Teach Overseas
Asia TEFL  ESL Powerpoint  Teacher Training