English as an additional language

Categories: English language | Language education

English as an additional language is used to refer to the learning of English by speakers of other languages. The term is commonly abbreviated to EAL. In British usage, this is also simply called English language teaching or ELT. EAL covers both ESL - English as a second language, and EFL - English as a foreign language. In British usage, ESOL - English for Speakers of other languages - is now used instead of ESL in recognition of the fact that many learners already speak more than one language.

Contents

[edit]

Types of EAL

ESL refers to the learning of English within an English-speaking region, generally by refugees, immigrants and students. (The term has been criticised on the grounds that English might not in fact be the learner's second language, though the word "a" in the phrase "a second language" means that there is no presumption that English is the second acquired language.) TESL is the teaching of English as a second language. The term TESOL - teaching English to speakers of other languages - is also widely used. In Britain, the normal terms are ESOL and TESOL. In the United States, the term English Language Learner (ELL) is used.

EFL indicates the learning of English for eventual use in a non-English-speaking region. It can occur either in the student's home country or, for the more privileged minority, in an anglophone country which they visit as a sort of educational tourist, e.g. after graduating from university back home. TEFL is the teaching of English as a Foreign Language.

If the many acronyms are confusing, it may help to simplify. ESL tends to concentrate on English for daily needs and for living in an English-speaking community, particularly for those newcomers who are immigrants or refugees. EFL tends to concentrate on English for academic success (whether in the local school exam system or in post-graduate study abroad), or for professional success, i.e. within an office where English is sometimes needed.

Part of the confusion is created by the funding structure. Again, as a gross generalisation, in English-speaking countries such as Canada, Britain, and the United States, the government pays for ESL to integrate newcomers into the wider society, while the individual student or his sponsor (parents, boss) pays for EFL, often at an intensive English language institute.

It is worth noting that ESL/EAL/EFL programs also differ depending on the variant of English being spoken; "English" is a term that can refer to various dialects, including British English, North American English, and other dialects. For example, students studying ESL/EFL in Hong Kong are more likely to learn British English, especially British idioms, which may make travel to the United States marginally more complex for them, as North American English uses very different idioms and slang. For this reason, many teachers of English as a foreign language now emphasize teaching English as an international language (EIL), also known as English as a ­lingua franca (ELF).

[edit]

EAL-related associations

  • TESOL Inc. is Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, a professional organization based in the United States.
  • IATEFL is the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, a professional organization based in Britain.
  • Several other professional organisations for teachers of English exist at local and regional levels such as the 'Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers' (SPELT) in Pakistan, BELTA in Bangladesh, SLELTA in Sri Lanka, NELTA in Nepal, MELTA in Malaysia, and TESOL Arabia in the Gulf states, just to name a few.
  • NATECLA is the National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults, a British-based organisation which is focused on teaching ESOL in Britain
[edit]

Common European Framework for Languages

Between 1998 and 2000, the Council of Europe's language policy division developed its Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The aim of this framework was to have a common system for foreign language testing and certification, to cover all European languages and countries.

The Common European Framework divides language learners into three levels:
A. Basic User
B. Independent User
C. Proficient User

Each of these levels is divided into two sections, resulting in a total of six levels for testing (A1, A2, B1, etc).

This table compares EFL exams according to the CEF levels:

CEF levelALTE levelIELTS examBEC & CELS examsCambridge examPitman ESOLTOEICTOEFL
C2Level 57.5+-CPEAdvanced910+276+
C1Level 46.5 - 7HigherCAEHigher Intermediate701 - 910236 - 275
B2Level 35 - 6VantageFCEIntermediate541 - 700176 - 235
B1Level 23.5 - 4.5PreliminaryPET-381 - 540126 - 175
A2Level 13-KETElementary246 - 38096 - 125
A1Breakthrough1-2--Basic--
[edit]

Difficulties for Learners

Although English is not intrinsically any more or less difficult to learn than any other language, the degree and manner in which a student's native language differs from English strongly affects their ease in mastering it. Nonetheless, English does have some distinctive features that separate it from the native tongues of the bulk of its second language learners.

  • Sounds – English does not have more individual consonant sounds than most languages, but the "th" sounds, common in English (the, this, that, etc.; and thin, thing, etc.) are not sounds in most other languages, even others in the Germanic family (eg, English "thousand" = German "tausend"). Although natural for native speakers, many learners substitute a "d" or "t" sound that is more natural for them. Even practised second language speakers, like many francophone Canadian politicians, carry this habit long after mastering vocabulary and grammar. Another sound that is uncommon in some other languages - particularly Spanish - is the "ng" sound (as in "singing") – even some native speakers of English substitute an "n" sound instead. English also has a relatively large number of distinct vowel sounds and diphthongs (double vowel combinations) - twelve compared to five in most Romance languages, for example.
  • Consonant clusters – Most languages alternate consonant and vowel sounds. Many have some double consonant clusters. However, English commonly has double and often triple consonant clusters (eg, "desks") that pose a great problem for many learners, particularly when they occur over two words (eg, "milk shake"). Learners, especially those from Japan, often try to force vowels in between the consonants (for the two examples above "desekas" or "milakashak"). Learners from languages that always end words in vowels (eg, Italian) try to end all English words in vowels – "make" comes out as "make-a". But, these difficulties are not so problematic for Germanic and Slavic language speakers.
  • Unstressed vowels – English speakers frequently replace a long or short vowel with a schwa in a word's unstressed syllables. For example, inform has a distinctly pronounced short 'o' sound in its stressed syllable, but when the stress shifts in the derived word informa'tion, the short 'o' reduces to a schwa or a syllabic 'r' (depending on the dialect spoken). Stress in English more strongly determines vowel quality than it does in most other world languages (although, here too, there are notable exceptions like Russian). To a learner, this means that the syllables "an", "en-", "in", "on" and "un" often sound exactly alike. A native speaker can usually distinguish "an able", "enable", and "unable" because of their position in a sentence, but this is more difficult for inexperienced English speakers. Moreover, learners tend to overpronounce English vowels in the same situation, which makes the speech sound strained and out of rhythm – "An AbEl", "EnAbEl" and "UnAbEl", where most native speakers would say "nAbl" in all three cases.
  • Stress timing – In English, stressed syllables are roughly equi-distant in time, no matter how many syllables come in between. Although it is not the only stressed timed language (German and Russian are stress-timed as well), most of the world's other major languages are syllable-timed, with each syllable coming at an equal time after the previous one. Commonly, Romance language learners develop a staccato rhythm when speaking English that is disconcerting to a native speaker.
  • Dialectal variation – English is spoken natively by a large and diverse population on every continent, and consequently has some acutely differing pronunciations, vocabulary and syntax from country to country and across different social strata. Most languages are spoken in geographically more compact areas, usually included in a small number of countries or even a single state, and are often to some degree symbolically managed by a specific organisation that determines the most prestigious form of the language. This means that most languages have a single form that is perceived as more correct than others, while English does not have a particularly favoured dialect in modern times. Because many students of English study it because they perceive it to enable them to communicate internationally, this lack of a uniform international standard poses serious barriers to meeting that goal.
  • Shortening and informal speech – When an ESL teacher stresses enunciation, they are often doing their students a disservice, as English speakers commonly combine consonant and vowel sounds. For example, a teacher may consistently use "going to" and stress that their students do the same. However, most native English speakers would not pronounce it that way – native speakers say "gonna", as well as "shoulda", "coulda" and "woulda". As such, learner's speech sounds too formal, tends not to have a natural rhythm, and the learner has difficulty listening to natural English. For example, no native speaker of English would have difficulty understanding what a native of Manchester, England meant by "yallright?" although this may totally confound a non-native speaker.
  • Spelling – Although as a spoken language, English is not objectively any more complicated than other languages, its spelling scheme is difficult for even native speakers to master, and involves a larger amount of rote learning than most languages do. For adult learners, to whom literacy is often as important or more important a goal than fluent speech, this poses a considerable barrier to acquiring English.
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links