Difficulties in Learning English as a Foreign Language
Learning is a journey which cannot be completed in a short period of time; it is a lifelong process i.e. the more people learn the better they achieve personal, intellectual and professional growth, and gain social respect. When learning a language, most people wonder to guess the period that they need to become proficient, but the answer is unknown because it depends on different factors which should be investigated in order to improve the quality of learning. As any other branch of study, learning languages requires efforts and concentration, especially foreign languages, because in that case the learner is exposed to other elements in addition to grammar and vocabulary, the exposure is also in terms of culture. For that reason, learners face problems and difficulties, and it is the responsibility of instructors to help their learners find ways to solve learning problems or at least minimize them. Research findings indicate that learning a foreign language is not an easy task for learners who find themselves exposed to other components not only linguistic ones. Being exposed to a foreign language with its cultural aspects will certainly lead to learning difficulties which are considered as normal because they are part of the learning process. Learners differ in their potential and abilities that is why they differ when it comes to difficulties; some of them reach fluency as well as literacy and seem to learn with a certain ease within a few years, while others encounter problems; so the degree of difficulty differs from one learner to another depending on different variations. Research also shows that learning a foreign language entails a number of difficulties, all of which can be reduced through teachers' attempts. For example grammar can be difficult for learners in the sense that it is different from that of the native language. In addition to difficulties in the spelling system, some may find difficulty in memorizing vocabulary words whereas others who may be influenced by their native accents experience problems in pronunciation; an example of that is the distinction between the English R and L for the Japanese learners. In the process of learning, errors are seen as a process of normal behaviour and they lead to progress. However, some learners feel embarrassed or negatively judged and their affective state can inhibit their ability to grasp knowledge and participate i.e. this represent an obstacle for them. Those are some examples; mentioning the difficulties that learners of English as a foreign language face will never come to an end, because learners are individuals with different personalities and they differ also in their level; so what can be difficult for one may not be for another. Therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to discover those features which affect the learning process. Regardless of the degree of difficulty, any learner can benefit from solutions which are created by teachers through developing their classroom practices. Being aware of those difficulties is the first step which drives the teacher to find solutions and ways to reduce them so that their learners achieve their educational tasks, reach their goals and improve their future learning performances. It can be very difficult for some learners to master the language they are learning. However, knowing how to cope with those difficulties provides many benefits, not only to fulfill their educational tasks but they also need the language to build a better professional career and have an opportunity to deal with people from other cultures with ease. In that dissertation, the researcher sheds light on one of the difficulties that some pupils witness. In the next part of the chapter the researcher presents a problematic which concerns a specific population.
Conclusion
Teaching English especially to non-native speakers is not an easy task to do. It is a long process which may be influenced by different issues. However, the effective teacher is the one who knows what to teach, how to teach and how to react to any educational situation. To teach English as a foreign language, one needs first to consider his/her learners as social beings because each learner is an individual, who is characterized by a personality and by social traits which may influence the process of learning