ha…..this is one of very first competition that I’ve ever joint. It’s the essay competition of an English improvement program on the radio PM 97.5. The “5 steps 2 English” had launched an essay competition for students to share their ideas under topic “Problems faced by Cambodian learners of English and suggestion to solve the problems.”
A few days ago was the announcement of the result. At that time, they announced the result back from the number 16 to number 1, and I was praying “not me now, not me now…..it should be later”….Then, when it came to number 4, they called my name already……oh la la….it’s would have been better if they just wait a little bit longer to call my name. lolz….. because the 1st to 3rd price is more exciting than the 4th upward!! 😛
Anyway, here, as a learner who also faces a lot of trouble, I’d like to share my essay with you guys. Oh! And please apologize for the mistakes in writing of a 15-year-old kid like me!
Hope you enjoy reading it!!!
Major problems faced by Cambodian learners of English
World is becoming smaller, due to the wide communication of people. In this case, English, which is the international language, is now very necessary for people in all most all regions, including Cambodia. For this reason, more and more Cambodian are learning English, but is it difficult for such second language learners to learn a completely different language like English? According to huge proportion of learners, learning English is considered as a difficult task, and they are now facing numerous problems.
Start with general problem of learning English; the majority of learners claim that they are not able to use the things they have learnt to communicate in English effectively although they have been trying to learn English for a long period and this problem often make them lose confidence of using English.
Secondly, to be more specific, learners usually have a lot of difficulties with certain skills. To begin, listening and speaking skills is often suggested to be the hardest skills. This is because there are many different accents, also the strict uses of stresses or intonations. Occasionally, native speakers prefer to use slang words and phrasal verb, which are not understandable by second language learners. Consequently, these problems make it is difficult to comprehend each other.
Thirdly, for the reading skill, students mostly claim that the main problems are reading speed and difficult words that they are not familiar. All these difficulties make readers find it is hard to understand the meaning of the context or to make matter worse, it even makes reading seem boring.
The next problem, which seems to annoy many learners, is writing skill. Students often suggest that grammar is the biggest enemy for them and then, it also hard to find an appropriate structure. Apart from these, not having ideas related to topic is also a big deal when getting across difficult topics.
Although learning English has many disadvantages, there are still great amounts of available solutions that can lead to solve the problems. Begin with the general problem of not able to communicate successfully in English. The first and the most important thing are to remain positive and optimistic, despite not being successful. As an author say,” It is not whether you get knocked down, it is whether you get up.” Therefore, if learners have not won over it yet, it is advisable to try harder in order to achieve it.
Another suggestion is to enjoy learning English, since the more pressure they are having for themselves, the more stress they have and the more troubles they will meet. For example, some learners believe that the right ways to learn are to read books and participate in English classes. However, to my personal experience, I believe that using media such as radio, television, and the Internet are the easiest, cheapest, the most enjoyable and helpful ways of learning.
The other way to improve the communication in English is to communicate in English. According to some successful learners, having foreign friends in Cambodia or overseas is a fast way to improve all skills because the only way to communicate with each other is to use English. In addition to the benefit, this is also a chance of exchanging culture and experiences. For instance, if they are in living in different places, they will contact with one another by letter or email, which provide them the good writing skill and when they are together, they will speak English face to face. As a consequent, they realize the huge improvement of their English in speaking, listening, and writing skill as well.
To be more specific, for certain skills, like listening and speaking, there are several possible solutions apart from the strategies above. Firstly, it is to model any accents, such as British or American, or any accent that is thought to be advantageous at the places they want to use their English. Secondly, daily practice is also effective. For example, forming a speaking club with friends and set the point of using English to describe any activities in life, this means it is not necessary to discuss only about studying. Thirdly, I would suggest to others students to put the habit of listening to English programs on televisions or radios as often as they can. As first step is always the hardest, the best start can be television because we can see the actions and hear English at the same time, while for radio, we can only hear the sound, which is thought to be difficult for some learners. I personally find many practical programs on radio Love FM(The 5steps2english), and some channels like channel V, star movie, star world, animal planet, which come in handy for improving English.
For reading skill, there are 2 main steps. In the first place, it is said that the more you read the faster can read. In order to improve, learners should try to read a lot of books and newspapers. Then, they have to have good strategies to remember words, as long as it is not always depend on having good memories. Therefore, the best way is to put new words in sentences, and it will be unforgettable if they can make examples of their own experiences, or stories.
Finally yet importantly, so as to help with problems of writing skill, there are several stages. Primarily, knowing a lot of structures and having ideas related to topics are very vital. Moreover, the correct use of grammar is also important and it can be improved by practice doing grammar exercises frequently. Even though everyone usually makes many mistakes on grammar, it is still a good idea to learn from mistakes. For my own strategy, I can remember both, the form and the use of tenses, simply by remembering examples that my teacher told me. For example, while I was sleeping, the phone rang. From this example, I can know the form of past continuous and simple, and also conclude that past continuous is used with long action, while simple is for short action.
On the whole, learning English or any different language has huge amount of difficulties, due to the fact that learners have to face with problems in communication, as well as the 4 mains skills. However, the most important thing to worry is how to overcome them in any situation. As an author says, “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably does not lead you anywhere.” and another author says,” If you want a place in the sun, you’ve to put up with a few blisters.”
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