Why English Is So Difficult To Learn

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Difficulty with pronunciation is likely something that every EFL teacher will face at one point or another in their career. Every language in the world has different ways of pronouncing different words/ letters. In addition to this, most speakers of other languages have heavy accents that can make pronouncing English words very difficult. This can be a challenge when teaching English as a foreign language. It can be especially challenging because not all learners around the world will face the same problems. Students in Vietnam will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Kenya and students in Brazil will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Morocco. For this essay, I will...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A global language is a language spoken internationally, the most popular one being English. It is learned by many people as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Damian B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A big part of the lexical units in the English language was taken from German, Latin, French, and other European countries. People think that languages have a strong relation between dominance and cultural power. Also read: What to Watch Out for Before Signing Your TEFL Contract in China To have a common language is important because it's one of the main ways to communicate and interact with other people...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas English is not the native language of those who begin to learn English. For children in Vietnam as a country using English as a second language, learning English grammar is difficult for children to learn. So how to teach children grammar effectively and children remember and use it most naturally. Young children have a habit of imitating and following quickly and not selectively, so if we understand this point, we should teach them how to develop naturally. There are many ways to teach grammar to children. Here are some ways I recommend when teaching grammar to children. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Le N. Please...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Although many ESL teachers do have foreign language experience, many are not aware of how much this experience benefits them. Sure, if they are teaching English in Japan, having Japanese language experience is helpful for daily life situations, but how could it bleed into the classroom as well? And the language experience doesn’t necessarily have to involve the first language of the students, either. Having foreign language experiences allows the teacher to understand just how hard learning a language is, can understand where certain errors may come from, see English from a different perspective, and gives them a stronger grasp on English grammar. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This blog post is devoted to the problem of teaching qualities and skills. Our TEFL graduate shares their thoughts on how to be the best teacher for your students. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Sometimes it is very difficult to explain to students how beneficial it is to learn a foreign language. In this blog post, our TEFL graduate shares their motivational techniques. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This blog post is devoted to lesson planning. Our TEFL graduate shares their thoughts and experience. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This...  [Read more]

Kavinna Batra Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas English is a fun language to learn; however, it can even throw off the most professional learner with complex spelling rules and difficult grammar. Learning English quickly could seem difficult, even though it is considered to be accessible and reasonably easy for many to learn. I'm here to tell you that as long as you have the right plan, you can learn English quickly and easily. If you start to feel like you're not making ground, which at some stage happens to all learners, don't say, "I don't speak English," or "I'm never going to get this." Honestly, ban those words from your vocabulary! They just blur your comprehension of the progress you are making and remind you that it is...  [Read more]

  The next idea we're going to consider is the use of visual aids and visual aids can include some examples such as real, objects, which we call realia, the use of pictures and photographs and also the use of models. So let's consider some of the ideas surrounding the use of visual aids. Well, why are they useful? Well, first of all the use of a visual aid can reduce teacher talk time. It's very much more simple just to show a real object than to try to describe it so that we could just ask the students ?what is this,? and they would say ?this is a pen,? rather than trying to actually describe it. Again if we were trying to show examples of fruit and vegetables rather than to try and describe them why not use an actual model and this is going to be much more visually stimulating...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If you're a native language speaker, you've likely heard the phrase, “You can't teach an old dog new tricks”. There has been little evidence found to support this claim, but the belief persists. Many adult learners believe that it is too late for them to learn a new language. If you are teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language you may find yourself teaching a class of adult learners. Adult learners differ in many ways from young learners, and one such issue you may encounter is a doubt from the learners that they are capable of picking up a new language now that they are no longer children. Though the style of learning and the issues encountered will inevitably differ from those of young learners,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the past two years, as part of an international community, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people from all over the world. We share the common experience of learning an L2. I’ve spoken to nearly 100 people now, and what I’ve learned about learning L2 is, well, it’s hard. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Janis U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Most people I’ve “interviewed” have either learned an L2 over many years or are still in the process of learning it. Of those that have learned an L2, they tend to be more fluent than accurate and most have learned L2 out of necessity within 1-3 years. I consider...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences In this blog post, I plan to examine why English may be such a challenging language for Chinese speakers to master, namely in comparison to their European peers. For the purpose of this examination, I will focus on four main aspects, from quite glaring differences to other aspects that some may not initially consider: written language, grammar, vocabulary, and language exposure. These points are drawn from my own experience of living and teaching English in China, from learning Chinese myself and from conversations with my students. I will be focusing on those who have not had experience in learning other languages before English, as I feel this constitutes the largest proportion of Chinese learners. This by no...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japanese students may have difficulties while learning English due to several reasons. Learn about those reasons and ways to solve the problems in this article. Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This blog post is devoted to the topic of career benefits for students learning English. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Our TEFL graduate shares their thoughts on taking a TEFL course. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Why learn teaching skills? Our TEFL graduate shares their thoughts in this blog post. Elizaveta Pachina ...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas It is well-known that when we learn any language, listening, speaking, reading and writing are all important during language learning. Why do we learn a language the final goal is to communicate with others. Today I’d like to talk about the importance of learning reading and listening. The reasons for reading and listening can be contributed to the following parts. Firstly, we may read or listen for a particular aim or goal. Secondly, we may for entertainment, such as listening to their favorite songs and so on. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yajun D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When it comes to the way of learning...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If someone asks me what I think about teaching kindergarten children as a native English teacher (NET), I would say that it is one of the happiest and most rewarding experiences that I have ever received. But, if someone asked me what I thought about teaching kindergarten children when I first started, I would have responded differently. I would say, “I can’t seem to get my students’ attention,” or “Some of my students still have trouble learning new words.” It was after a few weeks into teaching and some wonderful advice from my coworkers I realized that I had overlooked the fact that the students’ age, perception, and interests play an important part in teaching. When I took those factors into...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The following blog post is about an ITTT graduate who shares his story on how learning Chinese helped him to become a better English teacher in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph S. A common saying imparted to me by one of my professors goes like this: "What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American." I have found this to be extremely true for the majority of cases, and, as a young student, it spurred me to want to learn as much of other languages as I possibly could. I grew up in a monolingual home, however, as a child, I spent much of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What is phonology? Most students have not even heard about it. Whenever I ask my students whether they know or have ever learned about phonetics, the same answers come out, “No, we don’t know about it at all”. It is no wonder they reply like this because there is no phonetic teaching lesson in English classes from KG to high school here in my country. As for me, I got to study about this only when I attended college. Even then, it wasn’t taught comprehensively and I only learned very little. So I couldn’t read nor write phonetic symbols very well. Thus I thought it was the most difficult part of studying English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thein G. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In the last years, English has become more and more popular worldwide. In most countries, children start learning a second language at an early age. Also in Turkey, the number of schools, universities and language centers where it is possible to learn English has increased significantly. Nevertheless, despite all the efforts and a considerable presence of foreign teachers, it seems that Turkish students find the English language extremely difficult to learn. Turkish students consider the education system the major cause of their school failure because it is too obsolete. I had the opportunity to work as a language teacher in Turkey for several years. This experience helped me to understand why in Turkey...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas I am a lifelong ESL student myself. Every day I am learning something new from the books, from the things around me, and my students. For the last few years, I've been teaching the English language here in China, which is why I chose this topic. China is a great country with beautiful sceneries and very hard-working, enthusiastic, and friendly people. Learning any language is not an easy job. It requires patience, practice, and of course, a desire. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Buned S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese students are swift at...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Prior to engaging in this online TESOL course, my only experience with regards to any teaching or instructing was acting in the capacity of a flight instructor/teacher. Having been employed at a school located in the United States, many of the students traveled from around the world to train at our academy because it was very safe and relatively inexpensive. With this, came some difficulty with regards to the language barriers between student and teacher as well as difficulties in certain translations. The students were required to pass an English proficiency test prior to commencing the training, however some students still had difficulty with the language rhythms and cadence as well as certain vocabulary words,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For this assignment, I decided to research problems experienced by Colombian students learning English. I will be teaching English in Colombia and thought this subject would benefit me. My findings more generally reflect the difficulties of Spanish-speaking learners. The paper outlines the top ten difficulties for Spanish-speakers learning English (vocabulary, spelling/pronunciation, subject-verb-agreement, verb tense, dialects, subject omission, pronunciation, stress, slang, and literal translations) based on CCJK (2019). Where possible I relate this information to my experiences/examples and units in the TEFL course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate David B. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

  ITTT's 370-hour online Diploma in TESOL course, which includes tutor support, is a research based course that utilizes the internet and other resources to develop a deeper understanding of areas such as, the historical development of English language teaching, syllabus design, assessment procedures, classroom management and so on. The course will provide you with an in-depth understanding of teaching English, it will give you the skills to enhance your own pedagogy and it will be a valuable addition to your CV. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is one of the most widely spoken languages and it is taught in a lot of countries. Globalization, fast economic development makes many people study English. People learn English for different reasons: business, education, life abroad, traveling, personal interest. Chinese students are not an exception. With the growing economies of China, the need for learning English increased dramatically. What challenges do Chinese students face when learning English? What challenges does the teacher meet teaching Chinese students? What teaching approach can be found? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Darya M. Let’s talk about the most typical challenges when teaching Chinese learners and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning languages is for most of us, not an easy undertaking, mostly because it requires building new frameworks in our brains and lots of practice. Learning English as a second language is not an exception. By now, it’s already well-known the importance of speaking English in a globalized world, and so even governments are making an effort to include it in their education plans. As an example, English is taught in both private and public schools throughout Turkey, but despite all these efforts and adjustments, not a lot of Turkish people can speak English beyond basic sentences and isolated words... so, what’s happening? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sergio S. Please note that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Many students of English as a Second Language (ESL) find that, of the many struggles they have with the language, pronunciation is the most difficult to master. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sophie M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Pronunciation is an extremely important ability to have to sound more fluent in English. By gaining the knowledge and skill of proper pronunciation, an ESL student can come across at a much higher level of English ability and intelligence. However, this is easier said than done. In South Korea, for example, certain sounds aren’t used in their language but are used in English. Because these...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There are many good things I have learned from the TEFL course I have been taking this past month. Things I had never considered before as a skill is to be a good teacher. I had mentioned it before in my tests that I did not realize how important it is to have those skills until I started taking the course and had read about it. So I guess I am saying that the best thing I have learned from my TEFL course is how to be a good teacher and it reminded me of my previous teachers and how well they taught me and my fellow classmates. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hildur E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Every unit I have...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many potential problems when teaching is considered. With the teaching of a foreign language, especially in a culturally reserved country such as Turkey, the possible issues become bigger or more. I do not believe it would be very useful or beneficial neither for the teacher nor the students to put people with big age differences in the same class, trying to learn the same subject from the same teacher. There are many disadvantages as opposed to weak advantages in doing so. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nalan F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To begin with, the level of motivation in students differ depending on...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Although it is important that a teacher maintains the students' motivation throughout the course, the initial stages are particularly important because they lay the foundation for the course. For example, if a strong motivational atmosphere is not initially established then he/she will have more difficulty motivating them when correction is needed in the later stages. If a strong motivational foundation is laid then the students' will understand that the teacher has their best interests at heart and is trying to help them as best as he/she can. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ann R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A teacher's...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As we all know that the process of learning how to speak our first and second or third languages are different, we acquire the first language and learn second and third languages. When we speak our mother language, we can just say it automatically, we acquire our mother language from our environment, before we learn words and sentences, but when we learn a second language, we inevitably need to learn the vocabularies, clauses, sentences, grammar, etc first, then try to translate the second language to our mother language, which is complex. As far as common linguistic problems are concerned, I think there are a lot of problems to consider. Here are some of the most commoner linguistic problems. This post was...  [Read more]

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Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Unlike learning a first language, learning a second language is a task that can sometimes seem frustrating and at times even impossible. There are many reasons for this as learning a second language is very different than learning your mother tongue. Firstly, there are biological factors involved and the fact that normally children tend to assimilate things more easily than adults. Secondly, it is often harder to get the same level of exposure to the language than it is when learning a native language where repetition from parents etc. is constant. That is why when you sign up for an English class, or any other language for that matter, teachers will try to replicate that scenario with endless repetitions and fun...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Growing up in a minority family, the language barrier was always a boundary that I had every intention to overcome. With this in mind I am in a unique position to relate to other students whose mother tongue is not English. Learning a new language is not an easy task, so is teaching English to students of different backgrounds. The combination of cultural differences and assimilation to a new environment snowballs into a dilemma that a teacher faces when teaching students of different nationalities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Blia Y. In my experience working with autistic children, there are times I carry out specific actions with the intention a child will grasp the full meaning of how or...  [Read more]