Age problems difficulties in learning English as a foreign language

Age problems and difficulties in leaning English as a foreign language
Since 19th century foreign language learning has been a practice for many people. That was mostly due do colonization and industrialization or economic purposes. People from different cultures came into contact to one another. They needed to talk and exchange ideas. For the colonizers, they needed to learn the language of those countries which they were invading, to understand the mentality and the culture of its inhabitants. At the present, thanks to globalization, foreign language learning has become a compulsory process for most people. As its known widely, when a phenomenon occurs, it brings with itself problems and difficulties. One of the problems if this phenomenon is, age problems and difficulties in learning a foreign language, and that’s the main concern of this article.

John Watson, the late American psychologist believed that Children born with a brain having nothing printed on it, ' 'translation of the original copy ' ' (Development Psychology, Dr Kareem Karachatany) However, some scientists argue that children start saving and learning while still in the womb, but it hasn 't been confirmed scientifically. Then when they are around eight months, they started to acquire or learn. Specifically they pay a close attention to language. That’s because it’s the tool which is employed by the people around them to communicate. They start from basic sounds and words, and in a short span of time, they have it. What? A full capability to speak in a language. They do this mainly because rules and restriction hasn 't been lied down before, in their brain. However, this ability decreases for the second and foreign languages. Problems and difficulties start increasing with the age of the child. As a child grows up the chance of learning a foreign language fluently decreases substantially. The main problem, as we know it linguistically, is phonetics. This point will be dealt with later in this report. English Syntactic patterns or parameters also have a great effect on children 's ability to learn. Another problem is limited exposure to the target language. The child wouldn 't have enough exposure, therefore will face difficulties in picking the foreign language up. Cultural awareness of the target language is an issue which will also limit the target language competency or fluency. Let 's look into these problems or difficulties one by one and the solutions for these matters. The language which is in focus, in this report, is English as the title suggests. Phonetically children face obstacles in acquiring English as their foreign language. That’s (English) has some sounds which can not be found in (Kurdish) for example. Therefore when children, as they grow up, try to learn English fluently, they fail. ' 'by the time we are grown up the habits of our own language are so strong that they are very difficult to break ' ' J.D O Connor, Better English Pronunciation, page 2. And ' 'the main problem of English pronunciation is to built new set of boxes corresponding to the sounds of English ' ' same source, page 3.
The above evidences show that phonetics is one of the obstacles, specifically in pronunciation, in the way of a child in learning English fluently as their foreign language. This problem can be solved by first disestablishing or breaking down our own sound system and then rebuilding it by keeping the old sounds which we already have and by learning new sounds which occur in English. ' 'to break down the arrangement of boxes which the habits of our native language have so strongly built up. We do this by establishing new ways of hearing, new ways of using our speech organs, new speech habits. ' ' J.D O Connor, Better English Pronunciation, page 3. English has around nine basic patterns, which are employed for sentences construction. ' 'in English we use nine basic sentence patterns and a multitude of sub patterns. ' ' An introductory English Grammar, Norman C.Stageberg, page 197. When a Kurdish child tries to speak English, unconsciously he employs Kurdish patterns, which is an obstacle the learner faces. To solve this problem, the learner has to gain knowledge of those basic nine patterns that are used by the native speakers in order to be understood.

Exposure to English language is another problem. Children can 't simply go to school, and by studying English for few hours a week, learn English. Rules alone are not enough, practicing those rules is more important. Researches have showed that when children are brought up in isolation can 't speak or communicate verbally. That’s because of having no contacts with people. ' 'A human being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire language, as is shown by rare studies children brought up by animals without human contact ' ' Jean Aitchison, linguistics, page 15. Technological advances have reduced the gravity of this issue. In today 's world children can be exposed to English easily. Children can now watch their special programs and movies in English, while at home. At the same time, they can use social sides to speak to native English people. That’s one of the solutions to this problem. Cultural awareness of the target language is necessary. In what contexts or situations the native uses special vocabulary, proverb or even an idiom? But it is difficult for a child, born in Kurdistan for example, knowing the culture of another country, therefore limits his/her understating of English, the target language. Solution has been presented by some linguists for this problem. Some linguistics believe cultural awareness of a people can be achieved trough studying their literature, i.e novels, short stories and now movie series, or simply by moving to an English speaking country.

Language continues to play a great rule in our lives and specially for the next generation in Kurdistan. Today English is the language of science, economy, medicine, politics and so on. If our pupils want to succeed in their life then they need to think about learning English as their foreign or even their second language in today 's world. In doing so, they will face the problems and difficulties that have been discussed above with their solutions.

References:
O Connor, J.D( 2003). Better English Pronunciation. The Pitt building, Cambridge: UK
Developmental Psychology, Dr Kareem Karachatany.
Roach, R. (year). English Phonetics and Phonology.Place of Publication: country. An Introductory English Grammar. Library of congress: USA C.Stageberg, N. (1981)

References: O Connor, J.D( 2003). Better English Pronunciation. The Pitt building, Cambridge: UK Developmental Psychology, Dr Kareem Karachatany. Roach, R. (year). English Phonetics and Phonology.Place of Publication: country. An Introductory English Grammar. Library of congress: USA C.Stageberg, N. (1981)