ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE

English as a Second Language

English as a Second Language

What Is Language?

Language is a way of communicating, but it is more than that. There are many ways of communicating other than using language. We can communicate with one another through art, music, and nonverbal behaviors such as facial expressions. What makes language different from these other communication systems? Hadaway Vardell & Young (2002) pointed out that language is the only communication system that is also a representational system. In other words, language allows us both to represent the world in our minds and to talk about those representations of the world with one another.

English as a Second Language (ESL)

English as a Second Language (ESL) is a program in which nonnative speakers of English who live in a country where English is the native language work toward the acquisition of English as a second language. It is referred to as ESL even though English may be the student's third or fourth language (Abedi, Hofstetter & Lord, 2004). When English is taught as a second language in a country where the predominate language is not English, the program is referred to as English as a Foreign Language, or EFL.

Research Problems

There is a variety of subjective factors that can control the acquisition of a second language, for example the environment, age, and the learners' self-esteem. Also, objective issues/problems like the teaching ESL and assessment approach adopted by diverse teachers can control the persons' English skills. My ability to produce and perceive language is remarkable when I consider the problems related to my research work. Research problems vary from one area to another. Research problems that may encounter this research could be:

Environment

Age

Gender

The research problem addresses what researchers perceive is wrong, missing, or puzzling, or what requires changing, in the world. Presentations of the research problem typically set the stage for the study that will be, or that was, conducted by offering evidence that the problem exists and for whom and by establishing the significance of the problem and why it requires formal inquiry. The research problem, the details of which are fleshed out in a literature review that critically addresses what is known and yet to be known about the problem and how it has been conceptualized and studied to date, leads directly to the research purpose(s) and research question(s).

The research problem may be a clinical/practice, theoretical/disciplinary, or methodological problem. An example of ...