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Ed TESL Cohort 4
Question 1:
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TSL 426 B.Ed TESL Cohort 4
Nowadays, everybody does not only need to be expert in their mother tongue but
they also need to master a second language. For us, Malaysian, we need to
learn English Language. However, learning second language is not really easy.
There are few difficulties that we face when we learn a second language.
Cultural meaning
meanings of the words and it is difficult for us to recognize and utilize the grammar of
the language. Basically, language varies in every culture and this variety poses
users of a language mostly utilize the knowledge they gain from their first language to
knowledge of the world and the topic to constrain the possibilities, and a
difficulty of learning the language emerges as languages do not share exactly the
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TSL 426 B.Ed TESL Cohort 4
same meanings in terms of structure, content and context as they function differently
in each respectively culture. For instance, Some Malaysian inclines to use our first
Language aptitude
There are times when we speak the second language; we sometimes make
Everybody has the natural cognitive ability to acquire second language which is
First, it is phonemic coding ability which is the ability to identify the sounds of the
meaning. Lastly, it is rote learning ability which is the ability to form and
remember associations between stimuli. The last one is important for vocabulary
knowledge about the language but some students grasp the language faster than
second language but it does not differ a lot in people and efforts still play a
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TSL 426 B.Ed TESL Cohort 4
crucial role in the learning process. In fact, language aptitude is impotent without
effort.
Lack of motivation
not have any drive to put much efforts in learning it. In learning second language,
motivation has a vital role in determining our inclination towards the mastery of
the language. It involves the attitude and affective states that influence the
degree of effort that we make to learn second language. However, if we lack the
motivation, we will not embark on any effort to learn the language. There are four
types of motivation that we might not have in learning the language. First,
to learn a second language because we are not interested to the target of the
language which is the people and culture. As Malaysian, we do not want to learn
English language because we are not interested in the native speakers of the
language as well as the culture it prevails on. The third type of motivation is
language has become a common language which everybody masters really well.
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TSL 426 B.Ed TESL Cohort 4
We might reduce our efforts to learn the language due to our good command of it
because we feel our national language, Bahasa Malaysia, is threatened. The last
Individual Preference
personality can actually influence the degree of anxiety and our preparedness to
take risks in learning and using a second language. The fact that the language is
not really practiced in the context we are in always prompts us not to learn or use
the language. When we are in our workplace, we do not want to speak the
second language because everybody speaks the first language. Apart from that,
our preferred style may influence our overall orientation to the learning of the
language and the kind of input we find easiest to work with. For instance, our
Conclusion
There are always reasons why we face difficulty in learning a second language.
The four main affective factors which lead to the barriers are: cultural meaning,
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TSL 426 B.Ed TESL Cohort 4
matter what difficulty we face, it still depends on our efforts to learn a second
Reference