Why learning English is so difficult?

Most students found it difficult to learn and study English, although it is the second most spoken language after the mother-tongue language that is Bahasa Melayu.But to be frank, we are now living in the 21st century and i strongly believe that most parents have become highly aware of the importance of mastering English language among their kids.After all most of the subjects in the curriculum are English medium especially now after the establishment of SPN 21 in the curriculum imposed by the Ministry of Education,Negara Brunei Darussalam.This year there is a new subject being introduced and implemented into the primary school that is Social Studies, starting from Year 4 - 6.So starting from this year onwards the PSR student will be sitting 6 subjects altogether in their PSR exam.

In my view, English is very important. To some people whom i would like to call conventionalists,they think that we must preserve our mother tongue(Malay language) because it is our sovereignty.So lame-o.Again to me personally, it is essential for every human being to learn and study not only English but also other languages lika French, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Urdu and so forth.This is to at least overcome the language barrier.Especially when we travel, we have trouble in communicating with the locals.For instance, in Thailand they don't really speak foreign languages due to the reason i have stated earlier.So it was quite hard to communicate with them.The same goes with the taxi driver.This is based on my real experience.This taxi driver really didn't know how to speak English and he struggled very hard to explain what he wanted to tell us.So all the way we just remained quiet.And the funny part was, we spoke to him in Malay and he spoke to us in Thai.So it's like 'ayam itik' hahaha..I was laughing so hard,enjoying myself i gotta say,all the way back to our hotel.God that guy was terribly funny.Aah..good times..

Back to the former subject,as an educator i always ask my students why studying English is difficult.They gave me different number of reasons but among all, the most similar reason they come up with was/is because of the tenses(present continous tense, past perfect tenst etc) and also vocabulary.I have this student who took private Cambridge English O Level Exam for 8 times.He always got D in his exam.But he never gave up easily.Alas, the ninth time he passed and he got credit.In the end, everything was paid off.

I always reckon my students to bring their dictionary everytime they come into my class(normally not only during English class but also other classes like Geography, History, Science and even Mathematics).

As a matter of fact,of course there are more several reasons why students found it difficult to study English.Below are some other obstacles encountered by students when studying English as a second language.

Phrasal Verbs

These would be perfectly clear to native speakers, but to a class of beginner and lower intermediate students these combinations would be confusing and illogical.

• Come forward with
• Come up with
• Come down with
• Go through with
• Drop in on
• Drop out of
• Check in on
• Check up on
• Look up to
• Look down on
• Look in on

Tenses Used in English

To communicate adequately students in an English class would have to grasp the following basic tenses.

• Present tense (I do)
• Present continuous tense (I am doing)
• Present perfect tense (I have done)
• Present perfect continuous tense (I have been doing)

• Past tense (I did)
• Past continuous tense (I was doing)
• Past perfect tense (I had done)
• Past perfect continuous tense (I had been doing)

• Future tense (I will do)
• Future continuous tense (I will be doing)
• Future perfect tense (I will have done)
• Future perfect continuous tense (I will have been doing)

Irregular Verbs

There seems to be lots of these used in the English language, and the rules can be hard to understand for lower level students.

For example, sometimes the verb changes completely.

• Base form - sing
• Past simple - sang
• Past participle - sung

Sometimes there is a partial change.

• Base form - buy
• Past simple - bought
• Past participle - bought

And in some cases, there is no change at all.

• Base form - cut
• Past simple - cut
• Past participle - cut

Bizarre Vocabulary

How would you illustrate the difference between fat chance and slim chance? How about a wise man and a wise guy? The plural form of goose is geese, tooth becomes teeth and foot becomes feet. But, two notable exceptions are moose and sheep. They stay the same in the singular and plural forms. Try explaining this to a class of ESL students.

Pronunciation and Reading

English is not a phonetic language. Many words look exactly the same but are pronounced differently. An example is, "I have read that book," and "I like to read." In other instances it's the other way around, such as "I have read the book," and "My favourite color is red."

The syntax of English is inflexible compared to other languages. Sentences always follow a subject-verb-object structure. This isn't the case with some European languages like German or Dutch, where in some circumstances verbs come at the end of a sentence.

So,these are the fundamental problems encountered by most of the native speakers.And trust me, sometimes it feels like giving up teaching them the same things over and over and over again.Nevertheless,i secretly enjoy teaching them and sharing the ala kadar knowledge that i have.