Getting better through learning is not easy – something which applies to learning English too. If you choose to learn it and have enrolled into an education institution, you will of course encounter barriers along the way. This is normal; people will always face some sort of challenge when they do things new to them.

As for learning English at a particular university, if one happened to join for their language enhancement, they will then encounter something related with study (homework, exams…) which would somehow interfere your daily activities. In other words, ‘disturbances’. How about you? What disturbs you whilst trying to study?
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With regards to the video, there are basic barriers which hinder people in learning English language. One great barrier is TIME. How is time a barrier? It’s because it times everything which happens under the sun. In offices, school, homes and in any corner of the world, we do things which take time. Thus, managing it wisely is very much necessary. Steve, the speaker, and an English teacher too, lays down some of the facts about hindrances of learning and stresses that time is usually severely lacking for those students he teaches. Most of his students are living far away from home. Thus, he concludes, that it’s very difficult to teach those people and resultantly difficult for those people to learn the language. Many factors are taken into account - for example that getting to the site of the class is very time consuming for the students. Thus, when they arrive, their time left for studying is less than ideal. Also, what is discussed is the students’ behavior. So even though his input is the maximum, giving them lots of words and a great education, the student won’t even utter the foreign vocabulary due of shyness. Thus, the teacher must be the one to adopt that behavior, making it so it is the students who speak, and adjust his teaching strategy to heighten the learners’ comprehension and interest.

Steve is right, the time and characters of learners are very effective aspects to learning success. As for me, as a teacher too, I could say it’s very hard to teach with such time pressure and with the way the learners often have a discouraging temperament in the class.

I’m currently teaching Korean students. I have only two to three hours to teach them every evening. And obviously, it’s not enough for them to learn the language immediately. I’m’ teaching them basic English and the four communication skills (writing, reading, listening and speaking). Do you think they could learn those in two or three hours perfectly? How about the boredom and the laziness of the students? I’ve said laziness because it’s normal for those learners to feel so, especially every class and if they have further commitments - a class after a day’s work can be tough! Unfortunately, my students are good examples of that temperament. They would have countless alibis to go out of class for this and that. As a teacher, it’s a challenge for me to win their attention and have them interested in the lesson. But, they hate reading and writing English! In listening, I don’t have much trouble with that – this is because I’m using the TOEFL materials to enhance their listening skills. And they too like the activity. Before, I thought why each time we had our class, they couldn’t participate with the things was because of a lack of interest, and that they would rather have a break. Now, I know that it’s not that simple. It’s because they long time studying every day. They split their day hours for three classes in different educational institutions. Thus, during our time (evening), they have lost their momentum. That’s why they’d rather rest during our class and talk amongst each other and with me. But as a teacher, I never let them speak with each other in Korean, instead, they use English. It’s a practice for them to develop their speaking skill.

So, what are you’re own challenges for language learning?

Let’s just bear in mind that, in order to solve or rather to just help ourselves to learn more about the English language, we should have determination, dedication and interest. Let’s manage our time every day either for work, house chores, outdoor activities and most, for school.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Learn Languages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.