Misconceptions about English language learning

[10theMCee]

What do you think is the most common misconception of second language learners regarding the study of the English language?

[Czarownica]

Well, I can think of one misconception native English speakers sometimes have  :angel: That English is the most difficult language in the world. I don't know where they're getting that from, but I've heard it many times.

[asiong123]

Another misconception, in addition to post above me, is that English is an easy language to learn. I've seen my former students fall into this trap and struggling later in the subject. English, though popularly and commonly heard, is a very complex language to learn. Homonyms for example, is one of the concepts that is quite difficult to understand as an ESL student.

[Yrimvar]

I can't agree that english is a hard language to learn. I fluently speak english after no courses at all, just talking with people over the internet through forums and multiplayer games. When i encountered a word i didn't know, i looked it up on a dictionary.

It did cause some problems for me now, tho. I use english MORE than my home language, Polish which leads to the fact that i often loose words and end up saying something stupid. Or actually knowing what a word means and being able to explain it in english, but not knowing the polish translation.

[DiesIrae]

I can't agree that english is a hard language to learn. I fluently speak english after no courses at all, just talking with people over the internet through forums and multiplayer games. When i encountered a word i didn't know, i looked it up on a dictionary.

It did cause some problems for me now, tho. I use english MORE than my home language, Polish which leads to the fact that i often loose words and end up saying something stupid. Or actually knowing what a word means and being able to explain it in english, but not knowing the polish translation.

Don't feel so bad. In my country, the Philippines, we have mostly become dependent on English that any Tagalog equivalent of science or mathematic terms are virtually unknown to the populace. Even words that might have been commonly used a few generations back would be replaced by English words, if the person haven't really talked much in what we call "hardcore" Tagalog.

[limon]

I think the ease or difficulty can also depend a lot on what your native language is. If you're coming from a language that has very different rules than English, that's gotta make it harder.

[karmel]

Some of my non-Filipino ESL students thought that they could master the English language within 3-6 months of being enrolled in a language program :confused: They would get frustrated if they couldn't use the language fluently. I kept telling them that they shouldn't fret too much because learning a new language really takes time and involvement in a community that uses that language. In our country, people have been exposed to English from birth up to the time they finish their education, so understanding English is fairly easy even to people who have not mastered using it. I believe that a 3 to 6-month program will just teach the student the rudiments of the language. Being able to use the language in an unrestrained and effective manner is a different thing.

[JetLiposting]

I think the misconceptions about English apply to languages in general. People usually tend to say a language is hard to learn if they have problems grasping it's basics, but in reality you can learn any language you want if you stick with it.Also, any language is easy to learn but hard to master .

[La Maison de la Mine]

I agree with the comments regarding the misconception that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. There are many similarities between languages if you just look for them and think logically and sometimes laterally at the language. All languages are difficult to begin with when they are not our native language but it can be fun learning too! The second misconception is that you have to be perfectly grammatically correct when speaking as a non native English speaker. I disagree. Yes of course grammar is very important in any language BUT when you are learning to speak a language the MOST important is to speak, be understood and understand. In the initial conversations we have during English lessons I only correct speakers if I can't understand what they are saying or if it totally changes the context. Otherwise, let them speak, they are nervous and embarrassed enough as it is and the last thing you want to do is block them from wishing to speak.  Later during the sessions grammar comes more into play and anyhow are any of us natives totally 100% grammatically correct 100% of the time?

[Baburra]

One of the misconceptions I've personally observed is that people feel the need to copy the American accent or the word usage of the British because majority of their exposure to the language is through movies and TV shows. I think English lends itself well to each country's individual accents, in that it's still perfectly understandable with thick foreign accents, and a regular way of speaking is good enough without needing to stylize it ala British speak.

[rodserd]

I think that the biggest misconception is that an English class is just about writing the language.  Reading the language, and its associated rich history of literature, is just as important, if not more-so.  People who read a lot are much more interesting to talk to, because they have a deeper experience brought in by books.

[kilat]

I think the misconceptions about English apply to languages in general. People usually tend to say a language is hard to learn if they have problems grasping it's basics, but in reality you can learn any language you want if you stick with it.Also, any language is easy to learn but hard to master .

I agree with you that 'any language is easy to learn but hard to master' - that's a very good way to put it!

I think one reason some people say that English is a difficult language to learn is that in order to speak good English, you really have to practice a lot as in so many instance the language simply doesn't follow a logical set of rules. Because English has been influenced and altered by so many other languages over thousands of years, there is not much uniformity in terms of practical usage of words and phrases that might otherwise be expected to adhere to a basic set of rules. The sense that it's not enough to know the words, but that you really need to know how to use them and that there are so many opportunities to get a word or phrase just slightly wrong - that's what makes people say that English is a difficult language, in my experience.