Sruggles of learning english -

Struggles of Learning English

All English learners want to know the struggles of learning english. Some of them are to pronounce English, to learn English grammar, to memorize the meanings of English words, or to use the right metaphors or idioms. For the following reasons, most english learners often struggle to master in english.

1. English verb tenses need to practice

Verb Tenses are one of Struggles of Learning English. There are 12 tenses in English language. Learning when to use different English verb tenses is difficult for English language students. The reason English verb tenses are so tricky is that they carry a lot of information about when and how something happened. It’s more complicated than just past, present, and future!

Look at the following examples:

David had cried when Charles walked into the room.

David was crying when Charles walked into the room.

David had been crying when Charles walked into the room.

David had cried when Charles walked into the room.

In all four sentences above, David cried at some point in the past, so the verb to cry appears in the “past tense” in all four sentences. However, did you notice that in each verb looks a little different and in each sentence, there is a slightly different relationship between the timing of the two different past events?

In the first three sentences, David started crying before Charles entered, while in the final sentence, the two things happened at the same time.

In sentences 2 and 3, David was finished crying by the time Charles walked in, but there’s a difference between these two as well!

In the second sentence, we’re focusing more on the fact David cried for a period of time.

In the third sentence, we’re more focused on the simple fact that she cried.

Can you see how it might be tricky to learn all the nuances of these differences? To use the correct English verb tense, you need to keep in mind both the tense of the verb (when it happened compared to now: past/present/future) and the “aspect” of the verb (which describes how that event overlapped with other events or times under discussion).

It’s no wonder that picking the right tense can be very confusing for students who are just starting out!

In the early stages of learning English, do not focus on English teses. you just need to learn basic tenses.

2. Phrasal verbs take time and practice a lot

The second kind of Struggles of Learning English is phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are verbs made up of more than one word, usually a classic verb (ex: put, kick, move) and a preposition (ex: out, over, up). English is packed with phrasal verbs, and learning how to use them correctly requires a lot of practice. There are two main reasons why learning phrasal verbs can be tricky.

Reason 1: Most phrasal verbs are idioms, meaning you cannot reliably guess the meaning of a phrasal verb just from the meaning of its parts. Let’s look at some of the phrasal verbs based on the verb “to pick.” Notice that while you might be able to predict a few of these meanings based on the meaning of the preposition (ex: pick up, pick apart), most of them have meanings that need to be memorized.

Reason 2: Different phrasal verbs follow different grammar rules. Some phrasal verbs can be split apart while others cannot. Learners simply have to memorize which phrasal verbs belong to each group.

Because phrasal verbs require a lot of memorization, both in terms of what they mean and how they’re used, these types of verbs are often a hurdle for language learners.

3. English idioms
The third and the hardest Struggles of Learning English is english idioms. Idioms are set phrases whose meaning you cannot usually predict, even if you know the meanings of each word in the phrase. Because the meanings of idiomatic phrases must be memorized separately from the meanings of words, idioms can be a fly in the ointment for people trying to learn English!
Learning how to use and understand English idioms is crucial if you want to use English in the real world.

Did you see that? I used an idiom! The English phrase “a fly in the ointment” can be used to describe any annoying circumstance that causes problems in an otherwise good plan (just like idioms can cause problems for your plan to learn English!) It is an idiom because it doesn’t refer to actual flies getting stuck in actual ointment!

English learners need to learn idioms because idioms are everywhere in English. Have a look at the sort of “pep talk” a coach might give his losing basketball team:

“Here’s the deal, team. I know you all expected winning this game to be a piece of cake, but now, here we are, 30 points down in the second half. So I’m going to need you all to step up and chip in so we can win this game! We haven’t missed the boat on winning this tournament yet! Come on, guys, let’s blow them out of the water!”

English courses often focus on teaching students how to assemble literal sentences (sentences that mean what you’d expect them to mean). As a result, many English language learners are left to learn to use non-literal language, like idioms, outside the classroom, through conversations with native speakers, watching movies, or reading books. This can mean that even learners who do very well in a classroom setting will struggle with things like idioms when they start using English in the real world.

One of the best ways to learn to use any language naturally is to consume media in the language you’re trying to learn. So if you’re trying to learn English idioms, try reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching TV shows or movies, or even just spending time on English-language social media!

4. Large and diverse English vocabulary

The fourth kind of Struggles of Learning English is diverse vocabulary in english. Most linguists would tell you that English has a larger and more diverse vocabulary than most other grammatically similar languages. The size and diversity of the vocabulary of English presents several different challenges to English language learners.

The 1989 full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 250,000 individual entries. This means that there are at least a quarter-million words in English. That’s a lot of words!

Now, most English learners don’t need to learn anywhere close to 250,000 words in order to function on a day-to-day basis. Researchers estimate that most native English speakers can only actively use somewhere between 15,000 and 60,000 words. But even that is a lot to learn. Because English has so many words, memorizing enough vocabulary to sound fluent takes a long time.

English is spoken all over the world, and it has long been spoken by people from a wide variety of language backgrounds. Before English started spreading all over the world, it already had its own complete vocabulary. But as English has acquired new speakers, it has also acquired new words from all of those new speakers’ native languages. The result is that, today, words of English origin make up less than 25% of our modern vocabulary!

The diversity of English’s vocabulary not only means that English language students have more words to learn; students must also learn a lot of grammar and spelling exceptions that are associated with borrowed words. Words that come from non-English languages often follow slightly different rules from words that are native to English.

For example, if a noun is borrowed from Latin or Greek, we usually don’t follow the normal English pluralization rule (add an -s).
The size and diversity of the English vocabulary therefore not only presents challenges to learners’ ability to memorize words, but also to their ability to remember grammatical and spelling exceptions.

This subject of Struggles of Learning English will continue in the future posts.