Language Learning (Language Acquisition)

Language learning or acquisition is one of the central topics in cognitive science. Every
theory of cognition has tried to explain it; probably no other topic has aroused such
controversy. Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all normal humans
speak, no non human animal does. Language is the main vehicle by which we know
about other people's thoughts, and the two must be intimately related. Every time we
speak we are revealing something about language, so the facts of language structure are
easy to come by; these data hint at a system of extraordinary complexity. Nonetheless,
learning a first language is something every child does successfully, in a matter of a few
years and without the need for formal lessons. With language so close to the core of what
it means to be human, it is not surprising that children's acquisition of language has
received so much attention. Anyone with strong views about the human mind would like
to show that children's first few steps are steps in the right direction.

A related question is whether language is unique to humans. At first glance the answer
seems obvious. Other animals communication with a fixed repertoire of symbols, or with
analogue variation like the mercury in a thermometer. But none appears to have the
combinatorial rule system of human language, in which symbols are permuted into an
unlimited set of combinations, each with a determinate meaning. On the other hand,
many other claims about human uniqueness, such as that humans were the only animals
to use tools or to fabricate them, have turned out to be false. Some researchers have
thought that apes have the capacity for language but never profited from a humanlike
cultural milieu in which language was taught, and they have thus tried to teach apes
language-like systems. Whether they have succeeded, and whether human children are
really "taught" language themselves, are questions we will soon come to.
But language acquisition has a unique contribution to make to this issue. As we shall see,
it is virtually impossible to show how children could learn a language unless you assume
they have a considerable amount of nonlinguistic cognitive machinery in place before
they start.

All humans talk but no house pets or house plants do, no matter how pampered, so
heredity must be involved in language. But a child growing up in Japan speaks Japanese
whereas the same child brought up in California would speak English, so the environment
is also crucial. Thus there is no question about whether heredity or environment is
involved in language, or even whether one or the other is "more important." Instead,
language acquisition might be our best hope of finding out how heredity and environment
interact. We know that adult language is intricately complex, and we know that children
become adults. Therefore something in the child's mind must be capable of attaining that
complexity. Any theory that posits too little innate structure, so that its hypothetical child
ends up speaking something less than a real language, must be false. The same is true for
any theory that posits too much innate structure, so that the hypothetical child can acquire
English but not, say, Bantu or Vietnamese.
And not only do we know about the output of language acquisition, we know a fair
amount about the input to it, namely, parent's speech to their children. So even if
language acquisition, like all cognitive processes, is essentially a "black box," we know
enough about its input and output to be able to make precise guesses about its contents.
The scientific study of language acquisition began around the same time as the birth of
cognitive science, in the late 1950's. We can see now why that is not a coincidence. The
historical catalyst was Noam Chomsky's review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior (Chomsky,
1959). At that time, Anglo-American natural science, social science, and philosophy had
come to a virtual consensus about the answers to the questions listed above. The mind
consisted of sensorimotor abilities plus a few simple laws of learning governing gradual
changes in an organism's behavioral repertoire. Therefore language must be learned, it
cannot be a module, and thinking must be a form of verbal behavior, since verbal
behavior is the prime manifestation of "thought" that can be observed externally.
Chomsky argued that language acquisition falsified these beliefs in a single stroke:
children learn languages that are governed by highly subtle and abstract principles, and
they do so without explicit instruction or any other environmental clues to the nature of
such principles. Hence language acquisition depends on an innate, species-specific
module that is distinct from general intelligence. Much of the debate in language
acquisition has attempted to test this once-revolutionary, and still controversial, collection
of ideas. The implications extend to the rest of human cognition.

Second Language Learning or Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

This is the process by which people of a language can learn a second language in addition
to their native language(s). "Second language acquisition" refers to what the student does;
it does not refer to what the teacher does (see "language education" for work on language
teaching). "Second language acquisition research" studies the psychology and sociology
of the learning process. Sometimes the terms "acquisition" and "learning" are not treated
as synonyms and are instead used to refer to the subconscious and conscious aspects of
this process respectively (see second language learning).
"Second language", "target language", or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned
after the native language, which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or
"source language". Second language acquisition also includes third language
acquisition/multilingualism and heritage language acquisition. Second language
acquisition may be abbreviated as "SLA", or "L2A", for "L2 acquisition".
Second language acquisition is the process of learning a new language after the
acquisition of a learner's native language. It can also incorporate the learning of third,
fourth or subsequent languages as well as heritage language learning. Bilingualism is not
usually seen to be within the field of second language acquisition. Most SLA researchers
see bilingualism as being the end result of learning a language, not the process itself, and
see the term as referring to native-like fluency, which second language learners rarely
achieve. Writers in fields such as education and psychology, however, often use
bilingualism loosely to refer to all forms of multilingualism.

Cenoz and Genesee (1998) terms multilingual acquisition and multilingualism as

complex phenomena and add that they implicate all the factors and processes associated
with second language acquisition and bilingualism as well as unique and potentially more
complex factors and effects associated with the interactions that are possible among the
multiple languages being learned and the processes of learning them. Valdés (2000)
defines heritage language as the language someone learns at home as a child which is a
minority language in society, but because of growing up using the dominant language,
the speaker seems to be more competent in the latter and feels more comfortable to
communicate in that language. However, since heritage speakers are commonly alienated
from their heritage language for a long time, and have limited or no exposure to that
language, they seem to be in a state of language acquisition that differs greatly from
monolinguals or second language speakers of that language.
Second Language Acquisition Strategies

Second language learning or second language acquisition refers to the process of learning
a second language besides the native language. Thus when people are in the quest of
learning a new language besides their native language, it is called second language
acquisition.

There are various second language acquisition strategies that have been developed by
language experts and the success of a language learning process depends on the effective
use of these strategies. The second language acquisition strategies have been divided into
the two categories; communicative strategies and learning strategies, however there are
various other ways to categorize the strategies.

Learning strategies: these strategies are techniques that are used to improve or enhance
the learning of a language by using mnemonics or a dictionary. Mnemonics is the way of
learning things by associating them with pictures or objects that can be remembered. A
dictionary can be used to find meaning and pronunciation of new words of the new
language.

Communicative strategies: communicative strategies are those strategies that are used by
native speakers or learners to communicate or get the meaning across when they are
unsure of the correct word usage. Non-linguistic means like Mimes is an example of the
communicative technique.

It has been observed that in the process of second language acquisition, learners coming
from diverse cultures use different strategies in different ways. This difference is also
seen in the approach of male and female learners. If we go by the study reports, females
are adept at using the learning strategies more intensively than males. Also, statistically
females enjoy better language learning skills than males.
Second language acquisition strategies are steps that are used by learners to improve their
acquisition, storage, retention, recall and using of the new gained information. Different
people have different ways of assessing strategies like maintaining diaries, thinking
aloud, doing surveys and by observations.
Second language acquisition strategies that are used by language learners are:
Meta-cognitive techniques that are effective in focusing, organizing and evaluating what
has been learnt

Affective strategies that can be used to handle attitudes and emotions

Social strategies which are helpful in cooperating with others in the process of learning
Cognitive strategies that are used to link the new information to the present scene of
things and for their analysis and classification
Memory strategies that are used to enter new information into the memory and later
retrieving it as and when required
Compensation strategies which are gesture or guessing strategies that are effective in
overcoming deficiencies or gaps in the language knowledge.

Thus these are the effective second language acquisition strategies and these
accompanied with the learning styles are the prerequisites of an influencing performance
while learning a second language. The role and the effectiveness of these styles and
strategies need more investigation, but one thing is very important at this stage and that is
the usage of these strategies by teachers through appropriate teacher training. Teachers
should be able to design instructions or preferences as per the requirements of individual
students as this can help the students in improving their second language acquisition.

Difficulties for learners

Language teaching practice often assumes that most of the difficulties that learners face
in the study of English are a consequence of the degree to which their native language
differs from English (a contrastive analysis approach). A native speaker of Chinese, for
example, may face many more difficulties than a native speaker of German, because
German is closely related to English, whereas Chinese is not. This may be true for
anyone of any mother tongue (also called first language, normally abbreviated L1) setting
out to learn any other language (called a target language, second language or L2). See
also second language acquisition (SLA) for mixed evidence from linguistic research.
Language learners often produce errors of syntax and pronunciation thought to result
from the influence of their L1, such as mapping its grammatical patterns inappropriately
onto the L2, pronouncing certain sounds incorrectly or with difficulty, and confusing
items of vocabulary known as false friends. This is known as L1 transfer or "language
interference". However, these transfer effects are typically stronger for beginners'
language production, and SLA research has highlighted many errors which cannot be
attributed to the L1, as they are attested in learners of many language backgrounds (for
example, failure to apply 3rd person present singular -s to verbs, as in 'he make').
Some students may have very different cultural perceptions in the classroom as far as
learning a second language is concerned. Also, cultural differences in communication
styles and preferences are significant. For example, a study looked at Chinese ESL
students and British teachers and found that the Chinese learners did not see classroom
discussion and interaction as important but placed a heavy emphasis on teacher-directed
lectures.
Pronunciation

Consonant phonemes
English does not have more individual consonant sounds than most languages. However,
the interdentals, /θ/ and /ð/ (the sounds written with th), which are common in English
(thin, thing, etc.; and the, this, that, etc.) are relatively rare in other languages, even
others in the Germanic family (e.g., English thousand = German tausend), and these
sounds are missing even in some English dialects. Some learners substitute a [t] or [d]
sound, while others shift to [s] or [z], [f] or [v] and even [ts] or [dz].
Speakers of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai may have difficulty distinguishing [r]
and [l]. Speakers of Xiang Chinese may have a similar difficulty distinguishing [n] and
[l]. The distinction between [b] and [v] can cause difficulty for native speakers of
Spanish, Japanese and Korean.
Vowel phonemes
The precise number of distinct vowel sounds depends on the variety of English: for
example, Received Pronunciation has twelve monophthongs (single or "pure" vowels),
eight diphthongs (double vowels) and two triphthongs (triple vowels); whereas General
American has thirteen monophthongs and three diphthongs. Many learners, such as
speakers of Spanish, Japanese or Arabic, have fewer vowels, or only pure ones, in their
mother tongue and so may have problems both with hearing and with pronouncing these
distinctions.
Syllable structure
In its syllable structure, English allows for a cluster of up to three consonants before the
vowel and four after it (e.g., straw, desks, glimpsed). The syllable structure causes
problems for speakers of many other languages. Japanese, for example, broadly alternates
consonant and vowel sounds so learners from Japan often try to force vowels in between
the consonants (e.g., desks /desks/ becomes "desukusu" or milk shake /mɪlk ʃeɪk/
becomes "mirukushēku").Learners from languages where all words end in vowels
sometimes tend to make all English words end in vowels, thus make /meɪk/ can come out
as [meɪkə]. The learner's task is further complicated by the fact that native speakers may
drop consonants in the more complex blends (e.g., [mʌns] instead of [mʌnθs] for
months).

Unstressed vowels
Native English speakers frequently replace almost any vowel in an unstressed syllable
with an unstressed vowel, often schwa. For example, from has a distinctly pronounced
short 'o' sound when it is stressed (e.g., Where are you from?), but when it is unstressed,
the short 'o' reduces to a schwa (e.g., I'm from London.). In some cases, unstressed vowels
may disappear altogether, in words such as chocolate (which has four syllables in
Spanish, but only two as pronounced by Americans: "choc-lit".)

Stress
Stress in English more strongly determines vowel quality than it does in most other world
languages (although there are notable exceptions such as Russian). For example, in some
varieties the syllables an, en, in, on and un are pronounced as homophones, that is,
exactly alike. Native speakers can usually distinguish an able, enable, and unable
because of their position in a sentence, but this is more difficult for inexperienced English
speakers. Moreover, learners tend to overpronounce these unstressed vowels, giving their
speech an unnatural rhythm.

Stress timing
English tends to be a stress-timed language - this means that stressed syllables are
roughly equidistant in time, no matter how many syllables come in between. Although
some other languages, e.g., German and Russian, are also stress-timed, most of the
world's other major languages are syllable-timed, with each syllable coming at an equal
time after the previous one. Learners from these languages often have a staccato rhythm
when speaking English that is disconcerting to a native speaker.
"Stress for emphasis" - students' own languages may not use stress for emphasis as
English does.
"Stress for contrast" - stressing the right word or expression. This may not come easily
to some non-native speakers.
"Emphatic apologies" - the normally unstressed auxiliary is stressed (I really am very
sorry)
In English there are quite a number of words - about fifty - that have two different
pronunciations, depending on whether they are stressed. They are "grammatical words":
pronouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs and conjunctions. Most students tend to overuse
the strong form, which is pronounced with the written vowel.

Connected speech
Phonological processes such as assimilation, elision and epenthesis together with
indistinct word boundaries can confuse learners when listening to natural spoken English,
as well as making their speech sound too formal if they do not use them.

Grammar

Tense, aspect, and mood - English has a relatively large number of tense-aspect-mood
forms with some quite subtle differences, such as the difference between the simple past
"I ate" and the present perfect "I have eaten." Progressive and perfect progressive forms
add complexity.

Functions of auxiliaries - Learners of English tend to find it difficult to manipulate the

various ways in which English uses auxiliary verbs. These include negation (e.g. He
hasn't been drinking.), inversion with the subject to form a question (e.g. Has he been
drinking?), short answers (e.g. Yes, he has.) and tag questions (has he?). A further
complication is that the dummy auxiliary verb do /does /did is added to fulfil these
functions in the simple present and simple past, but not for the verb to be.
Modal verbs - English also has a significant number of modal auxiliary verbs which each
have a number of uses. For example, the opposite of "You must be here at 8" (obligation)
is usually "You don't have to be here at 8" (lack of obligation, choice), while "must" in
"You must not drink the water" (prohibition) has a different meaning from "must" in
"You must not be a native speaker" (deduction). This complexity takes considerable work
for most English language learners to master.
Idiomatic usage - English is reputed to have a relatively high degree of idiomatic usage.
For example, the use of different main verb forms in such apparently parallel
constructions as "try to learn", "help learn", and "avoid learning" pose difficulty for
learners. Another example is the idiomatic distinction between "make" and "do": "make a
mistake", not "do a mistake"; and "do a favor", not "make a favor".
Articles - English has an appreciable number of articles, including the "the" definite
article and the "a, an" indefinite article. At times English nouns can or indeed must be
used without an article; this is called the zero article. Some of the differences between
definite, indefinite and zero article are fairly easy to learn, but others are not, particularly
since a learner's native language may lack articles or use them in different ways than
English does. Although the information conveyed by articles is rarely essential for
communication, English uses them frequently (several times in the average sentence), so
that they require some effort from the learner.

Vocabulary
Phrasal verbs - Phrasal verbs in English can cause difficulties for many learners because
they have several meanings and different syntactic patterns. There are also a number of
phrasal verb differences between American and British English.

Word derivation - Word derivation in English requires a lot of rote learning. For
example, an adjective can be negated by using the prefix un- (e.g. unable), in- (e.g.
inappropriate), dis- (e.g. dishonest), or a- (e.g. amoral), or through the use of one of a
myriad related but rarer prefixes, all modified versions of the first four.
Size of lexicon - The history of English has resulted in a very large vocabulary,
essentially one stream from Old English and one from the Norman infusion of Latin-
derived terms. (Schmitt & Marsden claim that English has one of the largest vocabularies
of any known language.) This inevitably requires more work for a learner to master the
language.

Collocations - Collocations in English refer to the tendency for words to occur regularly
with others. For example, nouns and verbs that go together (ride a bike/ drive a car).
Native speakers tend to use chunks of collocations and the ESL learners make mistakes
with collocations in their writing/speaking which sometimes results in awkwardness.

Differences between spoken and written English

As with most languages, written language tends to use a more formal register than spoken
language. The acquisition of literacy takes significant effort in English.
spelling - Because of the many changes in pronunciation which have occurred since a
written standard developed, the retention of many historical idiosyncrasies in spelling,
and the large influx of foreign words (mainly from Danish, Norman French, Classical
Latin and Greek) with different and overlapping spelling patterns,English spelling is
difficult even for native speakers to master. This difficulty is shown in such activities as
spelling bees that generally require the memorization of words. English speakers may
also rely on computer tools such as spell checkers more than speakers of other languages,
as the users of these utilities may have forgotten, or never learned, the correct spelling of
a word. The generalizations that exist are quite complex and there are many exceptions
leading to a considerable amount of rote learning. The spelling system causes problems in
both directions - a learner may know a word by sound but not be able to write it correctly
(or indeed find it in a dictionary), or they may see a word written but not know how to
pronounce it or mislearn the pronunciation. However, despite the variety of spelling
patterns in English, there are dozens of rules that are 75% or more reliable.
Importance of Reading Comprehension in Second Language Learning
Importance of Reading Comprehension In Second Language Learning

Fry (1965, p. 24) writes the following words about comprehension:

It is very difficult to define comprehension. Reduced to its simplest elements we might
say that comprehension is a part of the communication process of getting the thoughts
that were in the author’s mind into the reader’s mind. This is a difficult process because it
involves the transmission of an idea through several imperfect media. For example, the
author must have a clear idea in his mind, then reduce this idea to written language; this
will be printed; and finally the reader looks at the printed word and forms an idea.
Reading can be thought of as being on two levels at once. First of all the reader should
get the objective information i.e. facts. According to Fry (1965, p. 26) these facts require
little interpretation or judgment. Then on a higher level, the reader should be able to get
subjective information, i.e. the tone and the mood of the story, unstated ideas or the
overall information. “It might only hint at other situations with which the reader is
supposed to be familiar. Or the reader might be expected to generalize from the specific
facts given, in order to get a main idea …” (p. 27).

Authors may not state the main purpose of a piece of writing. It is for the reader to bring
his background knowledge and thinking ability to get the main idea. “Readers who can
only read facts and nothing more can never be called good readers.” On the other hand,
readers who can get the facts seldom get the subjective points (ibid.). While teaching
reading comprehension, the teacher must always keep in mind that the goal is to
understand what the author meant (p. 26).

Davis (2008) writes that undoubtedly students of any language need to be able to read in
that language. However, it is not very clear what is exactly meant by reading. Native
speakers read a big deal of material each day depending largely on their motivation for
reading. Reading in a foreign language is a very useful and relatively painless way to
improve the command over the target language. When students already have a thorough
understanding of the basic structure and vocabulary of the language, they are able to
tackle and enjoy authentic texts on subjects of their interest.

The benefits of reading widely and relatively long texts are enormous for students with a
relatively high level of proficiency in the language. They have different needs and
different problems from those which they faced at lower educational levels. As they have
already studied the vast majority of structures and ways of expressing meaning in
English, these students need to be well familiar with the intricacies of these structures,
rather than learning ever more. Through reading they can have better understanding of
“the subtleties and shades of meaning carried by the use of a particular choice of words in
a particular context.” Grammatical Structures and vocabulary can be learned easily
through reading a lot. While students are about to complete their formal study of the
“structural elements of English”, vocabulary will continue growing (ibid.).
Hussain (2005, p.110) writes that a person who comprehends English language has the
following capabilities:
• He can read at normal speed.
• He is able to understand “the lexical and the structural meanings of the words,
phrases and sentences.”
• He can “take in complete phrases or groups of words at once and when reading aloud,
use appropriate sounds, juncture, stress and intonation pattern.”
• He can guess the meaning of unfamiliar words while reading a text.
• If he is unable to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word, he can find out it in a
dictionary.
• He can skip unnecessary information while skimming.
• He is able to read silently without moving his lips.
• He is able to differentiate between opinion and facts.
• He can locate the topic sentence in a paragraph.
• He can make a summary of important points.
• He can distinguish between various moods of the writer.
• He can recognize the meanings of various graphic signals such as punctuation marks,
etc.
Aebersold and Field (1997, p. 15) write that reading is what happens when people look at
a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text. The text and the reader are
two physical entities necessary for the reading process to begin. It is, however, the
interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual reading.
The “attainment of simple reading” is not the quest. An insight, compassion, open –
mindedness and tolerance must be developed. So many of young readers are interested
only in fast – paced thrillers, which leave little room for reflection. Such readers when
asked to read a classic agitate with loud groans (Pervez, 2008, p. 21).

Buzen (1997, pp. 33 – 34), on the other hand, defines reading as a process involving
following seven steps:
• Recognition i.e. the knowledge of the alphabetical symbols. This step takes place the
instant before the physical reading begins.
• Assimilation – by which light is reflected from the word received by the eye and
transmitted, via the optic nerve, to the brain.
• Intra – integration – a process equivalent to the basic comprehension, referring to the
linking of all parts of the information being read with all other appropriate parts.
• Extra – integration i.e. bringing of previous knowledge to the material being read and
making appropriate connections, analyzing, appreciating, selecting and reading.
• Retention i.e. the basic storage of information.
• Recall i.e. being able to get back from the storage whenever and whatever is needed.
• Communication i.e. the use to which the information is immediately or eventually
put.
Reading is indeed very important in learning a foreign language. To give reading its due
importance in Pakistani system of language learning, it is a dire need of time to
understand the importance of reading in second language learning with particular to
learning English as a second language. Language skills are usually grouped as receptive
skills i.e. reading and listening, and productive skills i.e. speaking and writing. “People
who use a language have a number of sub – skills within each of the four main skills.”
(Lucantoni, 2001, p. 4)

The basic purpose of reading in first language learning is somehow different from that of
second language learning. “In FL [Foreign Language] learning, reading is often used for
purposes which are different from those found in mother – tongue. The most typical use
of reading in a foreign language class is to teach the language itself.” In this way,
vocabulary, structures and other things can be learnt through reading in a foreign
language and to extend command over that particular language (Nuttall, 1982, p. 19).
Elley & Manghubai (1983) write that the effect of differences between learning of mother
language and second language, in formal education, can be eliminated by means of a
reading program based on the use of an abundance of high – interest illustrated story
books and that high – interest story reading has an important role to play in second
language learning. The pupils which, in their study, were exposed to wider reading
progressed in reading and listening comprehension at twice the normal rate.

Impact of Reading on Other Language Skills

“Everything we do with language improves our comprehension of what we read” (Fry,

1965, p. 127). Practice in writing improves reading comprehension as the accuracy and
power of expression are important. Likewise language is learnt through talking and
listening to others. Any improvement in spoken language helps with the written language
as well. Everyday life experiences enhance vocabulary development. All this in a way or
the other, contribute towards understanding of written language (ibid.).
The natural sequence of learning a language is that first it is listened and spoken, and then
it is read and written. In case of English in Pakistan, it is first read and written, and then
some attention is paid towards the speaking of it. The global need of communication
however emphasizes that one should be fluent in speaking and to listen to it with full
comprehension. However, the importance of reading skill nevertheless is minimized with
this change in global perspective. Rather, it has increased the importance to develop
reading skill manifold. Nobody denies the importance of a properly learnt reading skill
for learning of other language skill.

Hudelson (1984) writes that classroom practices in literacy for ESL children are not kept
up with research. Even children who speak virtually no English read English print in the
environment and ESL learners are able to read English with only limited control over the
oral system of the language. Moreover, the experiential and cultural background of the
ESL reader has a strong effect on reading comprehension and ESL learners, early in their
development of English, can write English and can do so for various purposes.
Pigada & Schmitt (2006) write that the studies that claim that second language learners
acquire vocabulary in small amount through reading used only short texts and measured
only the acquisition of meaning. Such studies did not credit partial learning of words.
They explored whether an extensive reading program can enhance lexical knowledge or
not and assessed 133 words. They examined whether one month of extensive reading
enhanced knowledge of these target words' spelling, meaning, and grammatical
characteristics. The results showed that knowledge of 65% of the target words was
enhanced in some way. Spelling was strongly enhanced, even from a small number of
exposures. Meaning and grammatical knowledge were also enhanced, but not to the same
extent. Overall, the study indicated that much vocabulary acquisition is possible from
extensive reading than previous studies have suggested.

A research, on the teaching of foreign language, by American Council shows that

learning a new language enhances and enriches a child’s mental development and has
positive effect on his intellectual growth. “Linguistic skills require completing of four
steps – speaking, listening, reading and writing. Ignoring any of these four skills cannot
give the child an accurate know – how of the language.” A useful way to promote
linguistic skills is to read a story in the classroom to make students familiar with the flow,
pronunciation and rhythm of the language. When each student is invited to read the story
or a few lines of it in the same way as the teacher did, they develop verbal fluency and
volubility while learning to speak with the confidence. The teacher, after a reading
session, can write difficult words of a story to give students an assignment of making
sentences or just finding out the meanings of those words (Patel, 2008, p. 23).

Reading and Listening

Teaching children listening skills by reading to them improves their listening skills and
trains them in the art of active listening as teaching of listening skills is one of the most
important traits that should be developed for many good reasons like being successful in
academic and in real world also. “The passive nature of hearing is very different from the
active nature of listening” (“Teaching children listening through reading”, June 3, 2008).
In a nutshell, teaching children listening skills by reading aloud improves their listening
skills, and more importantly, their active listening skills. Each time we read to our
children we are not only teaching children listening skills, but we are conditioning them
about the mechanics of reading (ibid.).

Reading and Speaking

“In great many classrooms the reading lesson is used as an opportunity to deal
pronunciation, encourage fluent and expressive speaking and so on.” (Nuttall, 1982, p. 2).
For the purpose of learning how to speak up a language reading aloud is thus very
important especially at early stages of language learning which may, according to Nuttall,
last for two to three years. Good reading texts introduce interesting topics, stimulate
discussions, excite imaginative responses and are the springboard for well rounded,
fascinating lessons (Harmer, 1998, p. 68).

Sometimes the teacher gives a chance to students to speak on a certain topic. Each
student for the said topic has to study a lot. It improves his listening, thinking as well as
speaking abilities. “Students find it interesting to see other students sharing the news they
have gleaned. It makes them better listeners and in turn better speakers as well” (Sewjee,
2001, p. 23).
Reading and Writing

“It is also true that students who read avidly usually write more complex and develop
stories than those who don’t…” (Senior, 2007, p. 119). Reading texts provide good
models for writing and provide opportunities to study language vocabulary, grammar,
punctuation and the way sentences, paragraphs and texts are constructed (Harmer, 1998,
p. 68).

Sewjee (2008, p. 23) writes that may be reading has more important part to play than
speaking and listening for a learner as without reading he cannot achieve his goals. While
reading a book he can travel to all around the world while sitting in his place and can
make contact with all kinds of people and comes across all sorts of dialects. He learns to
distinguish between good and bad and acquires all kinds of information, which helps to
be a better speaker and a better writer.

Hafiz & Tudor (1989) investigated whether extensive reading for pleasure could affect an
improvement in ESL students’ linguistic skills, with particular reference to reading and
writing. The results showed a marked improvement in the performance of the
experimental subjects, especially in terms of their writing skills.

According to Addison (n.d.), reading and writing are very closely related. If someone
does not understand the material which he is supposed to write about, chances are there
that he will not write about it very well. Improving reading skills may very well have a
positive effect on writing.

English as a Second Language in Pakistan

The English may be a foreign language, but it is international in its significance. It is
rightly taken as the lingua franca, the common language in all parts of the world today.
There is need to learn and use it in our country even though we also need to develop and
adopt our own national language in all fields of life.Importance of English language
cannot be disregarded. It is spoken, read or understood in most parts of the world.
Wherever you may go, in Europe, Asia, Africa or in the Americas, in Australia or the
North or South Poles you will find some one or the other communicating with you in
English.

Pakistan is a multilingual country with six major and over fifty-nine small languages.
However, the languages of the domains of power-government, corporate sector, media,
education, etc are English and Urdu. The state’s policies have favored these two
languages at the expense of others. This has resulted in the expression of ethnic identity
through languages other than Urdu.It has also resulted in English having become a
symbol of the upper class, sophistication and power. The less powerful indigenous
languages of Pakistan are becoming markers of lower status and culture shame. Some
small languages are also on the verge of extinction. It is only by promoting additive
multilingualism that Pakistani languages will gain vitality and survive as cultural capital
rather than cultural stigma.
The real policy regarding English

The British colonial government and its successor Pakistani government rationed out
English. The stated policy was to support Urdu but that was only to create a subordinate
bureaucracy at low cost (vernacular-medium education costs less than English medium
education). It was also to keep an anti-ethnic, centrist, ideological symbol potent and
vibrant in the country.

The armed forces, better organized than any other section of society, created cadet
colleges from the nineteen fifties onwards. These schools, run on the lines of the elitist
British public schools, were subsidized by the state. In the 1960s when students from
ordinary colleges, who came by and large from vernacular-medium schools, protested
against these bastions of privilege, the government appointed a commission to investigate
their grievances. The report of this commission agreed that such schools violated the
constitutional assurance that ‘all citizens are equal before law’ (Paragraph 15 under Right
No. Vl of the 1962 Constitution). However, the Commission was also convinced that
these schools would produce suitable candidates for filling elitist positions in the military
and the civilian sectors of the country’s services (GOP 1966: 18). This meant that the
concern for equality was merely a legal nicety. And this, indeed, was what happened.
Today the public schools are as well-entrenched in the educational system of the country
as ever before. The total spending is as follows:

The total expenditure is not covered by tuition fees. The cadet colleges report subsidies
from the provincial government, grants by visiting dignitaries and free gifts of various
kinds from “old boys”and officials of the state.
Spending on other educational institutions is as follows:

In short, by supporting English through a parallel system of elitist schooling, Pakistan’s

ruling elite acts as an ally of the forces of globalization, at least as far as the hegemony of
English, which globalization promotes, is concerned. The major effect of this policy is to
weaken the local languages and lower their status even in their home country. This, in
turns, militates against linguistic and cultural diversity; weakens the ‘have-nots’ even
further and increases poverty by concentrating the best-paid job in the hands of the
international elite and the English-using elite of the peripheries.

English, after all, is the language of the greatest power in the world. It spread as the
language of the colonies of Britain in African and Asian countries (Brutt-Griffler 2002).
Then, when Britain withdrew from its ex-colonies, English spread because of American
economic power, American control of world media and international commerce. This has
been condemned as linguistic imperialism by Phillipson (1992: 38-65) and Tove
Skutnabb-Kangas calls English a ‘Killer language’ (2000: 46).

Globalization will increase the power of English because it will open up more jobs for
those who know it. These jobs will be controlled by multinationals, which are dominated
by the U.S.A. They are also controlled by the international bureaucracy—United Nations,
World Bank, IMF, donor agencies etc.—which have started operating increasingly in
‘English’. This will increase the demand for English schooling, which will make parents
invest in English at the cost of their own languages.
We have seen that the language policies of Pakistan, declared and undeclared, have
increased both ethnic and class conflict in the country. Moreover, our Westernized elites,
in their own interests, are helping the forces of globalization and threatening cultural and
linguistic diversity. In this process they are impoverishing the already poor and creating
much resentment against the oppression and injustice of the system.

Both globalization and the continuation of colonial language policies by the governments
of Pakistan have increased the pressure of English on all other languages. While this has
also created an increased awareness of language rights and movements to preserve
languages, it has generally resulted in more people learning English. In Pakistan this
means that the poor are under more pressure than before because they cannot afford
expensive schools that ‘sell’ English at exorbitant rates. As such, linguistic globalization
is anti-poor, pro-elitist and exploitative.

While it may not be possible to reverse the trend of globalization, it is possible to

promote the concept of additive bilingualism rather than subtractive bilingualism. This
means that we should add to our repertoire of languages to gain power while retaining
skills and pride in our own languages. In order to do this the state and our education
system should promote the concept of linguistic rights.

There are tolerance-related and promotion-oriented rights. In Pakistan we have the former
but not the latter. This means that, while we keep paying lip service to our indigenous
languages, we create such market conditions that it becomes impossible to gain power,
wealth or prestige in any language except English and, to a lesser extent, Urdu. This must
be changed and the change must come by changing the market conditions. This is what
was done in the case of Catalan, a language while had been banned by General Franco of
Spain, and which has been revived. Making Catalan the language of jobs and the
government of Catalonia (Hall 2001) has changed the power equation
and people started learning Catalan.

What we need in Pakistan are such promotion-oriented rights for our languages. What is
needed along with such rights is a good but fair system of schooling which will teach
English and Urdu but equally to all children and not as it is done now-very well to the
elite and very badly to all others. Such steps might save us from the more harmful
linguistic effects of unjust and anti-poor language policies.