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The most difficult skill for foreign language learners

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:11 pm
by Arale
You all know there are four main skills when we study a foreign language, which are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. So what's the most difficult one for you? I read a survey and it says, listening & reading are the steps for learners to 'collect' information, and speaking & writing are the steps to 'produce' the information that you've collected from listening & reading. Thus, speaking & writing are more difficult than listening & reading. And according to that survey, writing is the most difficult one among the four skills.

Certainly each learner will find out which skills they are good at or bad at because the ability of each learner in each skill is different. For example, some learners can listen very well while most others think that's the hardest skill.

And I think each language has its own most difficult skill too. For most Chinese learners, say, writing is always hard because its alphabet is pictographic. And for most English leaners, listening seems to be the hardest one.

As for me, reading is the most difficult one. It's so hard to understand everything written by a native writer.

_Arale_

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:23 pm
by shokin
I am more performant in written language than in spoken language.

So my most difficult way is the oral expressing, the speaking.

Shokin

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:28 pm
by MissLT
shokin wrote:I am more performant in written language than in spoken language.

So my most difficult way is the oral expressing, the speaking.

Shokin
Me, too. It's hard for me to tell the differences in sound and repeat them correctly. There are words I just can't pronounce even having years of practice :cry: .

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:08 pm
by Hardi
At moment:
In english is it speaking.
In germans is it writing (I learned German in school, but that was long time ago)
Chinese I don't know... :lol: :lol: more chinese friends I don't have.
In Japanese it's reading, because they don't but spaces between words.

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:38 am
by Rui
well, i guess for me the most difficult feature in a foreign language is to speak, although i think write it's in fact the most difficult, but it's much more easy for me to write alone and then show what i've written to the others than speaking.. because with this feature the words are going from your mouth directly to the ears of the listener

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:07 pm
by Arale
I think a skill will become difficult if we don't have time to practice it frequently. Speaking is hard because we don't often speak it. I think the best way to learn these skill is living in a native country. Lennye, I think you must speak English so well :!: :?

_Arale_

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:12 pm
by Dixie
Arale wrote:I think a skill will become difficult if we don't have time to practice it frequently.
Exactly! All skills are hard to master, but we always practise some more than others. I practise a lot of writing, and I know I do it well (forget about my typos, hehe) but when it comes to speaking, I know I need more practise. And living in a non-English speaking country won't help me at all :roll:

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:17 pm
by Arale
Dixie wrote:
Arale wrote:I think a skill will become difficult if we don't have time to practice it frequently.
Exactly! All skills are hard to master, but we always practise some more than others. I practise a lot of writing, and I know I do it well (forget about my typos, hehe) but when it comes to speaking, I know I need more practise. And living in a non-English speaking country won't help me at all :roll:
Dixie, me too. Actually my skill of writing has much improved since I found the forums. :mrgreen: I'm not living in an English speaking country too but I still often speak English. You can speak English with your students, can't you? :roll:

_Arale_

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:34 pm
by Dixie
Yes I do, but when their level of English is so elementary I just can't, or sometimes I can but I have to speak very slowly so they can keep track of what I am saying :roll: It's different to speak in class than to speak in other environments, you know :roll:

By the way, why don't we all try to talk together on Skype? That would be fun, some EC members have already tried and it's real fun :D And we can practise our speaking skill.

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:47 pm
by Arale
Dixie wrote:Yes I do, but when their level of English is so elementary I just can't, or sometimes I can but I have to speak very slowly so they can keep track of what I am saying :roll: It's different to speak in class than to speak in other environments, you know :roll:

By the way, why don't we all try to talk together on Skype? That would be fun, some EC members have already tried and it's real fun :D And we can practise our speaking skill.
I see. In fact, our speaking only can improve when we talk to the people who speak English better than us, right? :roll:
Anyway, I haven't known about the Skype yet. Can you give me the link? :D Thanks in advance!

_Arale_

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:18 pm
by MissLT
Arale wrote:I think a skill will become difficult if we don't have time to practice it frequently. Speaking is hard because we don't often speak it. I think the best way to learn these skill is living in a native country. Lennye, I think you must speak English so well :!: :?

_Arale_
Nah, still speak it with a bad accent. I came to the States during my teenage years, that's why :cry: :cry: . And it's not necessary to live in an English speaking country to speak English. Believe me, there are some people who live in the States for more than 15 years and still can't speak a single word of English. For example, some old Chinese people I've seen. It's because they live in Chinatown; therefore, they never need to communicate in English. In my opinion, if one comes to an English speaking country at an early age, it's more likely he could speak like the native. Otherwise, he still carries the accent.

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:09 pm
by Dixie
Arale wrote: Anyway, I haven't known about the Skype yet. Can you give me the link? :D Thanks in advance!

http://www.skype.com

All you need is a mic and your will to talk to your contacts!! If you download it, just let me know your username and I'll add you.

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:17 pm
by ahmads
I face a difficulty in listening ,,
for Example:
1- when my teacher speak ,I understand him/her
2- when I listen to tv I understand only 50%
I don't now why!!!!

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:45 am
by natsu0713
ahmads,

I had the same experience too.

I think that is because our teachers would adjust their speaking speed and using simple words. However, on TV, especially CNN news, the speakers' speed is far faster than our teachers. Besides, if our vocabulary is limited, then it is difficult for us to understand what the speakers have said. Furthermore, when people speak, they have various accents, such as British Enlish accent, American English accent, Indo accent...etc.

So, the best way to practice listening, memorize vocabularies, and get used to people's accents.

None

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:36 am
by DocAndy
HI all,

speaking and writing is harder for me than reading. But sometimes it is difficult too. If there are too much unkown vocabularies and expressions (Phrases).

If I write some lines, I think a lot of these.
Is the grammar right
when have I to use an adverb or an adjective
is the word order right
Did I use the right time
and so on.

That makes me crazy.

If I read a book. I can relax. And I can look what I understand. And I can see in which context I can use vocabularies.

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:37 am
by quicksilver
I think this question has prb. :?
What is the most difficult? We cant answer this Q .Why? Cos it depends on what language you are speaking and what foreign language you are studying.
If your mother tongue is like foreign language you are learning in some aspects , It is easily for you to learn.
For example:With Chinese and Vietnames : Their pronunciation is nearly the same .So it is very easy for Chinese to speaking Vietnamese, and Vietnames are easily speak Chinese. But about writing , it is very difficult .Cos Vietnamese writing includes Latin characters while Chinese writing is pictographic.Maybe with Indian , Japanese ppl, Chinese writing iis easier?
With Vietnamese and English , the prb is completely different!
it is reading!English hasn't tone , but Vietnamese has.So Vietnames is ponderous.

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:38 am
by quicksilver
Dixie wrote
but when their level of English is so elementary I just can't, or sometimes I can but I have to speak very slowly so they can keep track of what I am saying It's different to speak in class than to speak in other environments, you know
You are really like my old teacher :lol: :lol: :lol:
But she read so slowly and clearly that all of us repeated her words as a parrot :lol: It sounded so funny. :lol:

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:46 am
by quicksilver
Ahmads wrote
1- when my teacher speak ,I understand him/her
2- when I listen to tv I understand only 50%
I don't now why!!!!
One reason is that when your teacher says, you looks at her mouth, but when you listen to the radio , you cant :lol:
And you should remember that your teacher always talk as long as all of you can understand easily, so part of her speech is slow and clear.

Re: The most difficult skill for foreign language learners

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:22 am
by Annaa
Sometimes writing I found more difficult but somtimes speaking too :oops: :cry: :cry: :cry: :evil: