Difficulties in Learning English As a Second Or Foreign Language

advanced
and insisted on staying with the basic or beginner group in order to build 
confidence and accuracy in pronunciation. This turned out to be very disappointing 
as the lower, basic level class dissolved into a very low level review of simple forms 
and pronunciation and failed to work toward the GED objective. Ching had been 
waylaid by her own lack of confidence and, also, by a misunderstanding of her own 
classroom needs. In reaching for a sense of classroom comfort, she set herself up in a 
class that could not take her to her goal. However, continuing with the upper level 
group might have been a failure as well. Even if she had been able to manage the 
material and skill level challenges with that group, she left halfway through the 
semester for a 2 month trip to Taiwan to take care of personal and family business. 
Researcher: I see you had only four different classes for about 2 months each 
time. How long have you been in your current English class? 
Learner: About 3 months. 
Researcher: With four classes, it looks like a total of about less than 1 year, 
but you’ve been in the country for almost 8 years. Can you tell me why you 
don’t have more classroom opportunity in that time? 
Learner: Sometime I have work, I don’t have time. 

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59 
Researcher: Are there any other reasons why not to go to English class? 
Learner: I think very important. . . I know how writing and reading, I very 
like English. That’s very important. But now I’m not good for writing and 
reading. I don’t know. 
Researcher: What other reasons are there? 
Learner: I’m lazy. 
Researcher: Are you also busy taking care of other commitments or 
activities? 
Learner: In the summer. . . I like to going to Taiwan, go back to Taiwan. 
Researcher: How often do you go back to Taiwan? 
Learner: Yes. 
Researcher: How often? 
Learner: Every year. 
Researcher: How long? 
Learner: Two months. 
Researcher: Everything is 2 months. . . 2 months English class, 2 months 
travel? 
Learner: That’s my life. 
Researcher: Do you have a special English name? 
Learner: No. 
Researcher: Do you study outside of the classroom? 
Learner: No. 
Researcher: Do you do English homework outside of the classroom? 
Learner: No. 
Researcher: Do you have many English language practice opportunities? 
Learner: No, not really. 
Researcher: At home do you speak English or Chinese? 
Learner: Chinese. So, I speak Chinese more than English. 
Researcher: What helps you learn English best? What really helps you? 
Learner: For me, I don’t know, I need the patient people or something. . . if I 
say, “right-light” and you can’t understand, and you angry. I say twice, third 
time and you angry. 

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60 
Researcher: What’s your feeling about learning English? 
Learner: For me, English not push. . . we need interesting for us, for me, story 
or love story, story some interesting story that’s very good for me, because I 
forgot very easy. Or interesting story, I remember forever, maybe. Writing 
maybe not, but story I remember. 
Researcher: Are you able to study English on your own or do you need a 
teacher? 
Learner: No, I need a teacher. I think. . . own, I study English is boring. I 
just stuck here. Or you go in the class is more interesting. Everybody story 
different, everybody level is different and you get in the class, I think, is good 
for your learning. 
Researcher: What else can you tell me about your English learning 
experience? 
Learner: Now, ok, I’m very like if I’m spelling wrong or prononce is wrong, 
somebody told me, “hey that’s wrong,” and I like it. 
Researcher: You like to be corrected? 
Learner: Yeah. Because houseband=husband. Somebody told me, not 
houseband, husband. 
Researcher: How do you feel when you get it wrong? 
Learner: I don’t know, nobody tell me. 
Researcher: How did you feel when you learn the correct way? 
Learner: I’m happy. 
Researcher: How do you feel when you make a mistake in English? 
Learner: I don’t know. 
Researcher: How do you feel when you make a mistake in the classroom? 
Learner: Everybody laughing. 
Researcher: Is that good or bad? 
Learner: Baaaad. 
Researcher: What’s more difficult for you, reading or writing English? 
Learner: I don’t know, maybe my membory’s not good and I, reading, I very 
easy forgot. 
Researcher: What about writing English? 
Learner: Same, very easy forgot. 

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61 
Researcher: What’s the problem with reading English? After memory, 
what’s another problem with reading English? 
Learner: OK I think for me, maybe I’m not very practice the letters, and 
that’s why I can’t very good for remember. 
Researcher: Are you comfortable writing English? 
Learner: I want, but just forgot easy. So, you writing, like writing sorry. . . s­
o-r. . . okay, and I forgot, I just quit. 
Researcher: So you have some spelling problems? 
Learner: Maybe remember problem. And maybe from the start, the letter, 
what, maybe like that, I don’t know. 
Researcher: Would you like to write in English?
Learner: Yeah.
Researcher: Would you like to read in English?
Learner: Yeah.
Researcher: Have you had any similar problems in Chinese? 
Learner: Yeah. Same. Because start Taiwanese, turn the Chinese. We just 
different, so that time, I not practice the Chinese the beginning. 
Researcher: How do you feel about learning English? Does it seem possible 
to learn English for you? 
Learner: Maybe. If I don’t speak Chinese, maybe getting better for the 
English, I think, that’s help. But I usually use the Chinese. 
Researcher: So what’s the next thing you can do to get better?
Learner: Good teacher?
Researcher: Get a good teacher? Is there anything else you can do? 
Learner: Yeah. Good teacher, I can learning more. . . and teacher patient and 
speak more. 
While this might appear, on the surface, to reveal an instinct for overdependence on 
an instructor, the learner described a craving for a consistently high quality of 
instruction, even as she took responsibility for her own learning. With her own 
suggestion that she not speak Chinese, as much, in order to strengthen her English 
skills, she is participating in finding a solution to her problem. 

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62 
Chapter Summary 
Until the last few questions, all the previous questions and answers were 
focused on the past, and on weaknesses and failures, whether explicitly or implicitly.
However, the few questions that focused on the future brought out genuine optimism 
on the part of the participant and the belief in possibility. Given the first opportunity, 
the learner provided suggestions for solving, or at least addressing, her problem. By 
defining her path to future English learning, the learner identified what she believed 
to be her own primary weaknesses. First, she suggested that she stop speaking 
Chinese at every opportunity and speak more English as a habit. Second, she 
suggested that she should study English with a good teacher and she added one, 
apparently crucial quality this teacher should possess, patience. 
The learner pointed first to her own behavior and then suggested that she 
would like to participate in an English class with a good instructor. For her, it came 
down to learning with a patient instructor and disciplined speech practice on her own 
part.
This researcher could make the very same recommendations and hardly be 
criticized. However, there is much more that contributes to effective language 
learning, just as surely as there are other difficulties than lack of practice and poor 
quality teaching that contribute to unsuccessful or ineffective language learning. 
While this author applauds the learner for taking responsibility for her own learning, 
as adults are inclined to do, this learner’s language learning deficits or differences are 
not weaknesses that she can overcome by simply trying harder and attending a low 
pressure English class. 

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63 
It is this author’s opinion that the increased attention given to her learning 
situation, as a result of this study, caused the learner to reflect more carefully on her 
learning situation. In a brief number of contacts with the participant after the 
interview and follow-up, it seemed to this researcher that she had come to the 
realization that the learning equation included internal, as well as external forces, and 
that she found renewed motivation as a result of reflection on her language study. 
As a researcher one is not invisible. For this participant, the specific attention 
to her English learning experience, from an objective approach, seemed to generate 
renewed optimism and motivation. For this researcher, this confirms not only that 
this learner is basically optimistic, but also that the road to foreign or second language 
fluency and literacy is a long one, and that adult ESL learners require encouragement 
to keep plodding that road. In Chapter 5, Discussion, conclusions are drawn from the 
results of the study and its basic research questions will be answered. 

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Chapter 5 
DISCUSSION 
The objective of this case study was to answer five research questions with 
data gleaned from the experience of the sole participant by way of researcher 
observation and formal and informal interviews with the participant. As observer and 
interviewer, this researcher sought to explore and describe this participant’s lifelong 
learning, especially language learning, and ESL learning experiences in order to 
understand why she failed to make expected progress in English, even after living in 
the United States for nearly 8 years. The study was guided by and attempted to 
answer these basic research questions: 
1.
Why has the participant failed to make expected progress in learning 
English? 
2.
What role did her first language learning experience play in her 
lifelong learning experience? 
3.
What role did her early education experience play in her English 
lifelong learning experience? 
4.
Has this EFL/ESL learner ever been taught the sound-letter 
(phonological-orthographic) rule system of English? 
5.
Does this learner have an English language learning disability, such as 
dyslexia or other? 

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65 
In addition to attempting to answer these questions, this author hoped to provide 
insight and useful recommendations to ESL program directors and instructors, so that 
learners with similar learning experiences might gain from this learner’s experience. 
Learning a second language can be influenced by a variety of individual 
differences including: (a) personality, attitudes, and motivation (Ellis, 1997; Lalonde 
& Gardner, 1984, as cited in Downey & Snyder, 2000); (b) language aptitude (Ellis, 
1997; Carroll, 1985, as cited in Downey & Snyder); (c) anxiety (von Worde, 1998; 
Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986, as cited in Downey & Snyder); and (d) social and 
psychological issues (Burling, 1981, as cited in Downey & Snyder). While there is 
no generally acclaimed hierarchy of priorities or pitfalls, there are a combination of 
weaknesses that created learning difficulty for this learner. 
Hindrances 
Clearly, as Schwarz and Terrill (2000) pointed out, there can be many reasons 
for the lack of expected English language progress. Specifically, the findings 
demonstrated that this learner had limited learning skills based on her limited early 
education experience, both in primary and secondary school, and on her not 
completing high school, whatever its qualities or failures. Also, it appears that the 
learner failed to develop effective study skills, both in her choice of self-study 
materials and in regard to irregular study habits. This is possibly a symptom of the 
learner simply not knowing how to study in general, other than to read on a topic, a 
strategy not effective in the learning of a second language.

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66 
The most basic and glaring behavioral factors contributing to this learner’s 
lack of progress were sporadic classroom attendance and the lack of practice outside 
the classroom. It is a given that any learner of any skill or subject should actually 
study and learn that skill or subject in order to be considered a student of that skill or 
subject, and her inattention to the study of English was undeniable, regardless of 
cause. Still, it is important to balance this reality with the possibility that this learner 
experienced at least a self-perceived inability or possibly even a language learning 
disability and that the motivation to participate was deadened by what must have 
seemed, at times, to be an insurmountable barrier to acquisition. While a discussion 
of the effects of learner’s first language learning experience follows, the foreignness 
of alphabetic English was, for this learner, never addressed in any classroom or by 
any instructor.