Chitravelu, Teh (2005) also mentioned that writing is the skill that most of Malaysians students feel difficult and they do not know how to accomplish the written tasks in proper methods .Usually this problem occurs when teachers often use teacher-centered method (traditional approaches) rather than student-centered with the students. It is commonly known that using traditional approaches able to develop writing skills whereby it focuses mainly on accuracy and ignores to a great extent the process of writing itself. On the other hand, students also feel difficult to write an essay because they feel that the ideas that they want to express during writing are limited due to lacking of proficiency in the language and it will not perform a positive result in their examination (Firmansyah 2015). Furthermore, the English language had played a dominant role as a compulsory subject and medium of instruction in English medium schools which formed the backbone of the education system of pre-independence Malaysia” (Ambigapathy, 2001, cited in Voon Foo, 2007, p. 1). “Writing is such an important learning tool because it helps students to understand ideas that they will express during writing process and will be having a good concepts about writing” said by Voon Foo, 2007, p. 4.
According to Reading Rockets, all of these components of oral language are essential to communicate, connect and learn through conversation, discussion and spoken interaction, but there are significant distinctions among them that have consequences for literacy instruction (Readingrocketsorg, 2013). The development of oral language in the literacy program is very important to children. It is the language that introduces children to the
The linguistic David Wilkins ( ) summed up the importance of vocabulary learning as follows: “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” Most learners acknowledge the importance of vocabulary acquisition. They understand the need of useful vocabulary to express themselves. Nevertheless students show little interest in learning vocabulary. Hence there is the need to create a learning environment leading to actively engage students and keep them motivated. Students usually comment about some challenges they have on learning vocabulary, they said that their oral skill is affected by not knowing enough vocabulary words to use, and also forgetting them vocabularies very soon is another problem.
In his book “The Oral Method of Teaching Languages”, he emphasizes that ‘going among the natives’ and ‘mixing with them’ is one of the most important fact to get improved your skills. It is true that a pupil who learns a foreign language outside that country finds it harder than someone who lives surrounded by the native speakers. Therefore Palmer thought that anybody who starts learning a foreign language, should start as like a baby does in its critical period (starts from around 2 years up to teenager). Same as the Direct method, Palmer also claimed that all the instructions, work should be done by the target language but, he refused to teach grammar in the early ages of learning. What he thought was, first the pupil should get used to the language by listening and communicating.
Preparing learners to communicate successfully in language classes is one of the most important issues. Teachers face a lot of difficulties in teaching English in EFL contexts. One of the major problems is students' unwillingness to take part in reading classes. Reading is one of the four skills which is difficult for students. It’s not a productive skill which makes the students to produce language in words but it’s the skill which gives the students for good input so they can get the information from what they read (Ediger 1999).
I. Introduction In this age of technology and globalization, English has been an essential key for everyone in order to learn, work, communicate and succeed. It’s not an exception in Viet Nam. However, it seems that the educational system and students in Viet Nam are not fully aware of its importance, especially speaking and listening in general and pronunciation in particular. Due to the fact that vocabulary and grammar focus is so popular in teaching and learning English in Vietnam, many Vietnamese learners of English fail to use English in communicating even after years of studying English in secondary school, high school and even university due to shyness and fear of speaking.
Listening, as we always heard of, is one of the most important part in learning languages. Since we listen to native speakers of the language, podcasts, or audiobooks, we start to imitate and make sense of the tones, words, and the sentences in that language. Furthermore, by doing this regularly, we become used to hear and talk more smoothly and use the desired language in a more organized way. Reading comes next after listening. Reading children books and short stories by a method called language shadowing is one of the best ways to create the same tone and accent as the native speakers.
Brown and Yule, (1999: 25) state ability to speak is very important and the goal of language learning English is to enable learners to interact freely to each other. In the other statement Harmer (2003:269) states that speaking is ability to speak fluently presupposes not only a knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process informartion and language on the spot. In addition Harmer (2001:39) explained speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and succcess. Richard (2008:19) state that speaking skills in English is a priority for many second language or foreign language learning. As describe above, speaking is one of the skills that should be mastered when we learn English.
Perhaps the greatest tools we can give students for succeeding, not only in their education but more generally in life, is a large, rich vocabulary and the skills for using those words. Our ability to function in today’s complex social and economic world is mightily affected by our language skills and word knowledge. In the domain of foreign language learning, vocabulary is seen as important for all four skills. Vocabulary connects the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. There are various interesting views from many educators concerned with vocabulary learning/acquisition stating how vocabulary is important to language learning in the four skills Mostaan(2012).
Consequences of second language Many research works have been done in this respect globally as well as locally. In most of the researches, the results show that students are having problems with respect to the medium of instruction. More recently findings show the ineffectiveness of using English as the medium of instruction and the drawbacks encountered by the students. Use of second language had significance negative effects on academic self-concept, academic vocabulary and academic achievement. The recent research will indicate the effects, difficulties with respect of language and its impact on grades of students.