English Spelling Rules for ESOL Learners

English Spelling Rules for ESOL Learners The Most Important Spelling Rules in English to Help You Progress Faster ChaptersThe Logic of English Spelling RulesThe 10 Most Common Spelling Mistakes in EnglishRules of English SpellingLearn English Spelling: UK vs the USChoosing the Right English Dictionary for YouWith its international status and easy conjugation, English is a brilliant language to learn, whether you learn english online or face to face.Gaining reading and writing skills with the possibility of achieving fluency in any language is highly beneficial for the future prospects of the learners, as acquiring valuable language skills is a small step in promoting healthy intercultural relations.However, there is one particularly tricky aspect of the English language, which causes all manner of problems for those learning English as a second language, as well as native English speakers.The offender is English spelling.With its silent letters making new words difficult to pronounce, and several different pronunciations for words ending in o-u-g-h, English spelling is anything but phonetic.The way that ‘tough’ rhymes with ‘rough’, but it doesn’t rhyme with ‘though’ is enough to make anyone dizzy.English also features silent letters, which appear in the spelling of a word but are not said aloud.Some examples of silent letters include the letter ‘K’ in ‘knife’ and ‘knead’, as well as the ‘G’ in ‘gnarl’ and ‘gnat’.Even the many English dictionaries on the market can’t seem to completely agree when it comes to the spelling of certain words, and whether compound words like ‘makeup’ should feature a hyphen to become ‘make-up’.From Westminster to Washington DC and beyond - English is an international language ¦ source: Pixabay - derwikiThe interestingness of English spelling is largely due to the early origins of the English language, as well as more recent variations that have surfaced with English being spoken in North America.English started life as, and still technically is, a part of the Germanic family of languages.But the N orman invasion of 1066 brought a Latin influence across the channel, which had a lasting impact on English language and how language was used within society at that time.When you learn to speak English as a foreign language, it is about more than your conversational English skills, listening comprehension and getting the hang of the latest slang to make an impression in your English lessons.Being able to speak English fluently isn't the be-all and end-all of acing your English course.As a non native English learner, knowing how to read and write in good English is an essential part of using English in every aspect of communication, and will stand you in good stead if you take any written exams in English.Its rich yet somewhat rocky history is what makes some aspects of English challenging, but it is nevertheless a truly unique language and a joy to learn!Shoe ? ShoesPhotograph ? PhotographsAngel ? AngelsHowever, this rule is only general, and there is a whole host of exceptions.Than kfully, since most of these exceptions follow the same pattern, you can easily learn how they work.Rules are made to be broken, and they definitely are in English spelling! ¦ source: Pixabay - MoneyforCoffeeLet’s start with words ending in ‘Y’.For words ending in a consonant followed by ‘Y’, you remove the Y and add ‘i-e-s’:Pony ? PoniesCompany ? CompaniesParties ? PartiesThe exception to this rule is the less common words which end with a vowel before the Y follow the usual rule or simply adding an ‘S’.Bay ? BaysKey ? KeysPlay ? PlaysSo, even though, as a speaker of another language, English spelling may seem to make people bend over backwards with its traps and inconsistencies, they’re not always too difficult to get the hang of.Another exception to standard pluralisation is words which already end in ‘S’, like ‘bus’, for example.The rule for pluralising these words is that you add ‘es’ instead of just ‘S’, and it applies to words ending in ‘ s-s’, ‘Z’, ‘c-h’, ‘s-h’ and ‘X’, too.Bus ? BusesKiss ? KissesWaltz ? WaltzesMatch ? MatchesBrush ? BrushesTax ? TaxesThis part of the pluralisation rule isn’t so difficult to remember since these words are nearly impossible to pronounce without the additional ‘E’ to facilitate a consonant.Learn English Spelling: UK vs the USAs English has become so widely spoken, there are areas where populations have adapted and added to the language to create their own version of English.This is particularly notable in the USA, where variant spellings have gained status as a standardised version of English.According to Oxford Dictionaries, these differences have arisen because British English has kept the original spellings of the words it has acquired from other languages, such as French in particular, whereas American English has adapted spellings to better reflect the way words are pronounced.One of the most noticeable of these variations is in words ending in ‘r-e’ in English, which American English spells ‘e-r’.The reason for this is exactly as Oxford Dictionaries explains: British English has stuck with the French spelling.FrenchBritish EnglishAmerican EnglishCentreCentreCenterThéâtreTheatreTheaterMètreMetreMeterOther examples of spellings that have been altered by US English are words which feature the vowels ‘O’ and ‘U’ side by side British English, but where the ‘U’ has been omitted in the American versions of these words.British EnglishAmerican EnglishColourColorHonourHonorNeighbourNeighborRegarding this phenomenon, BBC America explains that, just like the change in spelling of words ending in ‘r-e’, the omission of the letter ‘U’ was a deliberate change to make words better reflect their pronunciation.Removing the ‘U’ from words such as ‘color’ was to help differentiate them from words containing ‘o-u-r’ but which were pronounced differently, as ‘ower’.For example, ‘colour’ and ‘flour’ end with the same letters, but the ‘o-u-r’ in ‘flour’ is pronounced as ‘ower’.Other words which have been altered to make spelling more phonetic for the American English speaker include ‘plow’, which is spelt as ‘plough’ in British English, ‘catalog’, which was originally ‘catalogue’, and ‘ax’, which the Brits spell with an ‘E’, as ‘axe’.UK spelling vs. US spelling: the great debate ¦ source: Pixabay - ErikaWittliebThe variation in spelling between British and US English is always recognisable, however, it rarely gets in the way of reading comprehension.This is why to learn English is to open up a whole world of reading opportunity, as you can enjoy literature from both sides of the Atlantic!Choosing the Right English Dictionary for YouWhen you’re learning to speak English, you’ll undoubtedly need some kind of dictionary to help with practicing your literacy, vocab and spelling.But dictionaries come in all shapes and sizes: monolingual, b ilingual, rhyming, prescriptive, descriptive, electronic, comprehensive or pocket.However, being spoilt for choice can sometimes be overwhelming.So how do you choose the right English dictionary for you?Since each type of dictionary serves a different purpose, the one you choose will depend on your needs as a learner.Some dictionaries are simply for looking up the spellings of words, and may only have a simple definition, whereas others will have definitions accompanied by related words and their usage.It may surprise you that the dictionaries we know today started life as bilingual glossaries in medieval Europe, which were used by churchgoers to translate biblical texts between Latin and their native language.Similarly, the earliest English dictionaries in Great Britain were used to define Latin, French and Spanish words in English, and later developed to only contain English words with detailed definitions.The alphabetical dictionaries we know today came about in the year 1755, wi th the publication of ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ by Samuel Johnson.Dictionaries, glossaries and word lists offered a standardisation of English spelling at a time when there were few reference resources.This made the dictionary a powerful tool when it came to influencing the way in which the English language developed, as Noah Webster, as American compiler, realised.Webster began making subtle changes to the spellings used by the Brits to make words better reflect their pronunciation, and these changes subsequently became responsible for what we know today as ‘US English’.The world of dictionaries is far richer and more interesting than anyone ever imagines, and every publication is much more than a simple book of words.The pros and cons of learning English as a native speaker of a foreign language are mainly due to the expanse of the English speaking world, but rest assured that help is never far away and from day one, you can reap the rewards.

What Are Good SAT Scores Online SAT Prep Online Tutoring Tutorpace

What Are Good SAT Scores Online SAT Prep Online Tutoring Tutorpace For 2013 SAT test, the national average score is 1500. However, some colleges have set 1800 a good score to get in to a top college.The higher your SAT score, the more options you have available. SAT test is the standardized test taken by high school students to continue further education in their desired colleges and universities in the United States. SAT is a very popular test and many colleges expect these scores along with the students admission application. The main purpose of the SAT test is to showcase the academic knowledge gained by the students until high school so that they are ready to continue their academics at college level. SAT exam consists of questions ranging from easy level to medium to difficult level and often students are worried about the test preparation so that they score well. Since SAT examines the logical and conceptual knowledge, therefore students must first learn and improve their basic knowledge on the respective subject so that they can handle the tricky questions as well. To increase SAT scores, students should keep track of the time as time is a big constraint during the exam. Students are given very limited time to answer questions from each section. Hence it is recommended for students to practice at home so that they have an idea about managing time while answering questions. It is better to answer easy questions first and then difficult questions so that they have enough time to try the difficult ones. Multiple choice questions in SAT have negative penalty for wrong answers and hence to get a good score, students should not take the risk of guessing unknown answers. This simply deducts points from the already existing score.

Online Simplifying Ratios Tutors

Online Simplifying Ratios Tutors Ratio is the quantitative comparison between quantitates or numbers. Ratio is a very commonly used operation in mathematics. Ratio helps in solving questions related to comparisons, proportions and many more. The symbol of ratio is :. For example, a / b can be written as a : b. Here a / b is fraction form and a:b is the ratio form. The simplification of ratio is writing the given ratio in the most simplified from possible. Example 1: Are the ratios equivalent? 25 students taking Science class and 75 students taking English class. 15 students taking Science class and 45 students taking English class. Solution: Here for the given question the ratio is between the number of students taking Science class and the number of students taking English class. The first ratio given is, number of students Science : English = 25 : 75. Simplifying the ratio gives 1 : 3. The second ratio given is, number of students Science : English = 15 : 45 Simplifying the ratio gives 1 : 3. Therefore the two ratios are equivalent. Example 2: Simplify the given ratio 28 : 56 Solution: Here the given ratio is 48 : 96. The fraction form can be written as 48/96. The number 48 can be written as; 28 = 2 * 2 *7. The number 56 can be written as 56 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 7. Canceling the common factors simplifies the fraction to 1/2. Hence the simplified ratio is 1 : 2.

A Higher EQ Can Turn Your Life Around Heres How

Introvert Whisperer / A Higher EQ Can Turn Your Life Around Here’s How Why Having a Higher EQ Ensures a More Successful Life “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”   George Bernard Shaw (playwright and political activist) The better you know yourself, the more perceptive you will be to the world outside. Emotional intelligence may seem like a fancy time psychologists throw around, but it is more influential in your life than you thought. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Beckham, and Princess Diana have all achieved the heights of success, both personally and professionally. While you could have attributed their successes to various other traits such as wit, charm, personality aspects, intelligence, grit or hard work, it was actually emotional intelligence that blew the winds in their favor. Read on to know more about how higher emotional intelligence translates directly to not only monetary but also personal success. IQ and EQ: Ending The War Once and For All It all begins with the tests. IQ and EQ are measured differently, and with varying levels of significance as well. The number that you get after some random standardized test usually sums up your IQ or intelligence quotient. Let us leave the validity and credibility issue of the IQ tests for some other day. For now, let us focus on the primary differences that set the intelligence and emotional quotients apart. Having a good IQ score thus means that you have the following. Knowledge of the world around you Visual and spatial processing abilities Short-term memory and working memory Smooth flow of reasoning Ability to perform quantitative reasoning EQ, on the other hand, denotes your abilities to perceive, evaluate, control, and express emotions. Thanks to researchers like Peter Salovey and John Mayer, along with authors like Daniel Goleman, helped us get to the bottom of the matter of EQ or emotional quotient. From business management to education, EQ is making the rounds as the newest kid on the block. Having a high EQ means you have the following. Ability to identify emotions Knowing how others are feeling Being able to control their own emotions Using emotions to communicate socially Being able to relate to others It has been quite a journey for the term emotional intelligence. When it first came into the picture in the 1990s, it was still considered an obscure term. Today, however, along with being recognized as a well-constructed concept, it also features in academic journals the world over. Schools in the USA now have social and emotional learning (SEL) as a required part of their curriculum. These lessons are sometimes known to conduct group experiments with tools that help gauge their classmates reactions to particular objects, occurrences or pictures.

Back For Good Learning English Phrases with Help from Take That

Back For Good Learning English Phrases with Help from Take That How Do You Use The English Phrase For Good?These are words or phrases whose meaning might seem obvious but this is misleading and incorrect. Their meaning is something else other than what we might think. Let’s look at one: For goodFor example: She missed John and wanted him back for good.At a first glance, this might look like it means simply that John is wanted back for some good or  for some benefit. However, this is not the case. Here, for good is being used as an adverb in the same way as forever or permanently.Other ways of saying the same thing are:She missed John and wanted him back forever.She missed John and wanted him back permanently.English Phrase Advice:For can be used with good  to signify purpose. For example: She wore a red hat for good luck.   However, this is not always the case. It is important to pay attention to the context of what is being said.   Lets listen to the classic English pop song that uses for good as an adverb. Take Thats Back for Good.Did you fin d this helpful? Feel free to share it on Facebook and Twitter.

5 Easy Blog Posts for Your ESL Writing Class

5 Easy Blog Posts for Your ESL Writing Class Five Easy Blog Posts for New Bloggers There is a new way to market products to consumers and get the attention of potential employers. It is called content marketing. The way it works is this: you publish articles (content) on a blog, and people looking for information using a search engine will find you and learn to like, trust and respect you (marketing) through your writing. Specifically, you’ll need to publish articles that show off your expertise on a particular niche topic or in a particular field of study. By drawing people to you who find your content useful and interesting, you demonstrate that you are both a knowledgeable and effective communicator. In the process, you will develop a relationship of trust and respect, which becomes the foundation for a sale or job offer. Some companies and small businesses buy content from professional writers, but you are better off writing content for yourself. Not only will you improve your understanding of the topics you write about, you will improve your digital literacy skills and your ability to communicate ideas in your field clearly and coherently. But what should you write about? Here are 5 easy blog post ideas to get you started. Any ESL student can learn these 5 blog post models fast Five Easy Blog Posts for New Bloggers 1. Write a listicle. Make a list of the top 3, top 5 or top 10 products or reasons for action in your field. Put the list in order from best to worst or worst to best. Make each item a numbered heading, and write one or more paragraphs that explains why the item is on your list. Give your listicle (list + article = listicle) a title along the lines of 10 things every person needs, or 5 reasons to do X, and publish it on your blog. Google will find you and then anybody looking for information on that topic will as well. Examples of listicles abound. This article is a listicle.  Another listicle related to blog writing is here. Googling the search terms 5 best + your keyword or field of interest will generate a list of articles to model your listicle on. 2. Create a walkthrough of a useful website. The second most popular search engine on the internet today is the YouTube video search engine. Apart from music videos and funny home movies, people also search YouTube for information about websites and software. For example, before creating an account on a particular website or laying down money for software, many people search Youtube for a walkthrough. Video-walkthroughs are short videos in which experienced users explain how to do a particular task with a website or program by speaking while doing the task. Video capture software like CamStudio or Camtasia Studio records the action on the screen and the expert’s voice. Since viewers are primarily after information, they do not expect perfect video production or superb voiceover talent. For bloggers, this suggests an easy way to create popular content that people will watch and share. Simply visit a website of interest, record yourself talking about how to do something specific with the website, upload it to YouTube and use the embed code on the “share” tab to embed your video walkthrough into a blog post. To make sure Google finds your blog post, write a well-structured summary of what you said above the video. Search engines will use the keywords in your blog post URL, title, headings, text, and image alt-tags text to determine what your webpage is about and send people to your website. 3. Summarize and paraphrase an article or podcast. Here is a common journalism trick that young reporters learn early on. Find an article that will interest your customers, summarize and rewrite it in your own words. Paraphrase all quotes in the article and then add a new angle or development in the field that was not in the original article. Do not copy and paste. Your article must be completely reworded. Use the Virtual Writing Tutors Paraphrase Checker to help you reword your article. If you plagiarize, you will be caught and you will earn the reputation of being a cheater and a fake. Not good. If your source writes, “Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the legal sector and threatening to replace paralegals with data-mining algorithms,” you can write, “Robots are beginning to compete with paralegals for jobs at law firms.” Remember, blogs are conversational and informative. If you reword and summarize the original text with a more conversational tone, your readers will prefer it to the original. Be sure to link to the original article and give credit where credit is due. 4. Create a glossary. Make a list of the 10-20 technical terms or semi-technical terms that people in your industry use. Use the name of your field of study or English program name in the title of your glossary blog post like, “Police Technology Glossary” or “Glossary of Terms for Medical Imaging.” Do a Google search using the word “define” + the word you want to be defined. Then switch to the HTML mode of your blogging platform and define your vocabulary list using the web standard. Google and other search engines will put your glossary high up in the search results if your posts are standard compliant. Use dl and /dl to contain your definition list. Use dt and /dt to contain each term. Use dd and /dd to contain the definition of the preceding term. Alternatively, use this HTML glossary template. 5. Create a hypertext narrative. Set yourself apart from other blog writers by including a short hypertext narrative among your blog posts. Most blogs are non-fiction, so a hypertext narrative will bring fiction readers to your blog and give non-fiction readers an unexpected treat. Use hypertext narrative authoring tools like the Virtual Writing Tutor’s HyperText Narrative Creator or use an HTML Hypertext narrative template. Whichever you choose, make it specific to your niche market. The novelty of hypertext fiction will get the attention of readers. The length and keyword density of your text will get the attention of the Google search engine. These five types of blog posts are highly effective ways to market yourself as an expert in your field or niche market, but writing them is only half the battle. To ensure search engines find you and put you high up on the first page of their search results, you will have to do three things. The first is to use and reuse keywords specific to your field. If your goal is to market yourself as a paramedic, make sure to use the words “Pre-hospital Emergency Care” and “paramedic” in your text, headings, image captions, tags, and titles. This will improve your visibility to search engines. But just because you are visible does not mean you are valuable. The second thing to do is to link to high-quality websites and ask fellow bloggers to link to you. The quality and number of outbound and inbound links will help to push your content to the top of the list when people google you. The third thing you must do is to eliminate your grammar errors with a grammar checker like the Virtual Writing Tutor.   Nobody likes to read articles that are filled with spelling mistakes and grammar errors. Its a turn-off. Error-free blog posts that are full of useful information related to your field of interest will immediately create a relationship of trust and appreciation between you and your readers. And thats good marketing. Please follow and like us:

What to Consider Before Taking a Summer Internship

What to Consider Before Taking a Summer Internship San Diego College Tutor Tips: 5 things to think about before taking a summer internship Completing an internship over the summer is one of the best things a college student can do to secure a full-time position in their field upon graduation. Internships offer students the opportunity to business network and learn what a typical day on the job would be like. There are lots of internships available to students in every field, but one size does not fit all. Completing an internship can last anywhere from two weeks to three months for a summer session, some are paid while others provide only college credit, some are very useful, and others may not lead to much more than a line on the resume. There are some things college students should think about before lining up an internship, so they make sure they find the right fit. 1.     How long do you want your internship to be? Some students want to get just a little bit of experience or want to dabble in a few different fields before declaring a major. If this is the case, a two or three-week internship might be the best opportunity. Students wont have to commit an entire summer to one company, and they’ll still have time to take a summer course or maintain a part-time paid job. On the other hand, some internships pay students for their time and provide a more in-depth look at one specific field or career. These internships could be two or three months long and end up being the student’s sole commitment over the summer. Students should think about what their priorities are before making up their mind (READ: 7 Tips for Studying While Traveling). 2.     Can you get credit towards graduation? Its essential for college students to receive credit towards graduation; in fact, most internships require students to arrange for credit instead of being paid. However, earning elective credits is not the same as receiving credit in one field that helps the student get closer to graduation. Students should talk with an academic or career advisor on campus to make sure the internship is right for them based on their academic and career goals. 3.     How useful are the business networking opportunities? One of the primary benefits of a summer internship is the opportunity to business network with professionals in the field. Some internships provide tons of networking opportunities while others dont get students much closer to a job contract. Internships aren’t going to advertise their pitfalls, so its important for students to do a lot of research ahead of time including talking to upperclassmen in their major field of study to get some personalized advice. 4.     Are there any expenses or travel required? Most companies offering internships understand that students are working on a strict budget and that they may not even have their transportation over the summer. However, other positions require interns to incur a certain number of expenses or even pay for their travel. Students should think about the feasibility of any particular position to see if they can afford it and if their commitment will pay off in the end. 5.     What specifically do you want to get out of your internship? The most important thing for students to ask themselves is what, in particular, they want to get out of the internship at the end of the summer. Do they want to determine if a career field is right for them? Do they need to earn extra money? Do they want an introduction to a company theyve always dreamed of working for? Students are encouraged to make a list of questions they can discuss with their academic advisor or even ask during an interview. Planning ahead is the best way to make sure students can find the right fit when it comes to looking for an internship. Our private San Diego college tutors are full of great internship tips . Contact us today to book your tutor. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

Language Learning 101 What Is Language Acquisition

Language Learning 101 What Is Language Acquisition Language Learning 101: What Is Language Acquisition? Can a dog tell another dog a joke?Or can a cat (other than Garfield) describe an experience so vividly that it makes the other cats feel like they just ate the same lasagna?Language. It’s an exclusively human condition. Other species definitely do communicate through movements and sounds, but theyre definitely not in the same class as humans.A poet can write lines that can make any woman swoon. A 140-character tweet can spark a revolution. Even  children can tease an acquaintance to tears.But how did we acquire all these skills and abilities?We’ll look into that in this post. Well examine the differences between first language and second language acquisition, as well as some of the leading theories presented on the topic.And have you always wondered what terms like syntax, semantics and phonology are really about? They wont be so mysterious after this post. Well peak behind the curtain and talk about the five characteristics of languages.Finally, to finish things up, well touch o n the four language skills you need to speak a language.So, ready to go? Lets begin. Language Learning 101: What Is Language Acquisition?Have you had the wonderful experience of gazing at a newborn baby through a hospital nursery window? You know full well that those babies can’t appreciate your soulful admiration, right? They cant understand a word you say, much less talk to you.But what kind of awesomeness happens in so short a time, that turns this ball of pure cuteness into a determined fellow pointing at everything in the grocery store, having a fit when you don’t get him what he wants?Language acquisition is that process of building the ability to understand a language, using it to communicate with others. It’s the process of going from a wordless wonder into somebody who can’t stop talking during class.That’s language acquisition or, more specifically, first language or native language acquisition. If you were born in Korea to parents who speak Korean with you, yo u’ll naturally end up talking Korean. The same goes for whatever native language youre taught.Another type of language acquisition is the one that happens after you’ve acquired your native tongueâ€"aptly named “second language acquisition.”Maybe you’re an English speaker who wants to learn Mandarin or Spanish. Maybe you’re taking a German class. Most readers of this blog are probably in this same boat, tremendously enriching their lives by learning a second (or third) language.There’s a lot of difference between native language and second language acquisition. When you learned your native tongue, you weren’t given a long list of vocabulary words to memorize or a thick grammar textbook to sink your teeth into. You were just with mom and dad, who always told you what to eat and when to sleep.Your experience was highly immersive, and it was largely unconscious. You probably can’t even remember how you picked up your native tongue. Yet, while waiting for your first for mal English lessons to begin, before Mrs. Johnson even set foot in that class, you were already chatting away with your seatmate Steve, asking him if he saw the new Mentos commercial.Second language acquisition, on the other hand, happens at a very different time and place. Usually, it happens when you’re older, maybe inside a school or university classroom, or nowadays even a virtual one.Maybe youre learning a new language because your new job requires you to do it to speak with customers. Or maybe you just want to learn how to flirt in a new language. Whatever the reason, the methods used are quite different from what happens in childhood. You consciously study grammar. You have your word lists with their corresponding pictures and translations. You have apps, podcasts and YouTube videos.Many people successfully learn a second language, but not everybody gets there. On the other hand, we know first language acquisition is amazingly effective. The proof? The 7.5 billion native sp eakers today who speak their respective languages with finesse and flair that take our breaths away, making us wish we were born in a different country. Its led many to believe that learning a language is the sole province of the youngâ€"people in the “critical period,” whose highly elastic brains absorb language like a sponge.But while its true that our brains rapidly develop in our early years, it doesnt lose plasticity over our lifetimes. We can create novel neural connections and learn something new at any age. That means you can embark on a language learning journey at any stage in life, your stabilized brain notwithstanding.Studies have pointed out that there are indeed other factors that exert a stronger influence than age on an individual’s language performance. For example, one study found that a person’s motivation is a better predictor of linguistic success than age. Just because you’re young, doesn’t mean you’ll pick up the language no problem.What is it th at drives you to learn the second language? What gets you over the speedbumps? Why do you do it when you could’ve done something else? These are more important than what you write on the blank after “Age.”Another factor that does better than age to predict language acquisition is the quality of inputs. That is, even if you start learning a language later in life, you can still be better off than those who started early, as long as you spend considerable time interacting with native speakers or use authentic materials in your study. The quality of inputs determine your linguistic success.So really, it’s not that second language acquisition is unnatural or that it’s only for the gifted. It’s just that we need better tools and methods to do it.The good news is that in addition to people looking into the mechanisms of first language acquisition, taking a page or two and applying it to second language acquisition, were developing better tools and methods on a daily basisâ€"an d well talk about some of them out in this post.But whether it’s first or second language acquisition, how do these processes actually take place in the mind of a language learner? Psychologists and linguists have put forth several theories over the decades to explain the phenomenon, and we’re going to look into three of the most influential ones in the next section.3 Competing Schools of Thought About Language AcquisitionPhilosophers have always been fascinated by the human linguistic ability, particularly its initial acquisition.Ever since Socrates intoned “Know thyself,” we have tried to peek behind the curtain and find out how we are actually able to learn language and use it for a myriad of communicative purposes.Here are some theories on the matter:1) Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner)Whether you learned about it in your Psych 101 class or from the lyrics to any number of songs, you’ve probably heard of Pavlov’s work with canines. He’s the guy who was studying salivation in dogs as a response to being fed.Pavlov noticed that the dogs started salivating as soon as he (or his associate) entered the room, even when no visible food was presented. Somehow the dogs learned to associate food with his presence. They were conditioned to salivate upon seeing him!Thats all part of behaviorism, which had its heyday from the 1900s to the 1950s and held its sway in how we think about language acquisition.  B.F. Skinner, an eminent behaviorist, proposed that language acquisition is really one big and complex case of conditioning. At its core, it’s all pattern recognitionâ€"associating words with meaning.For example, if a baby hears the word “milk” often enough right before being fed from the bottle, hell soon learn what that word means. If he always hears the word “ball” right before being handed a spherical object, he’ll begin to associate “ball” with its referent.Through a process of trial and error, a child (or a second language learner) will b e able to learn correct grammar. Language acquisition, in this view, is a stimulus-response mechanism. A child will get to the correct form of the language when he observes reinforcing behavior from those around himâ€"a smile, a nod or being handed a spherical object when he says “ball.” These all tell him that hes thinking in the right direction.And one of the fastest ways of getting to the right form or use of the language, instead of going at it through personal trial and error, is imitation. A child can simply imitate what an adult says or how she says it. That’s why accents can be contagious. If you live in a southern state like Texas or Arkansas, your English will likely have that sexy southern drawl.In the behaviorist view, language is simply reinforced input.2) Universal Grammar (Noam Chomsky)In the 1960s, the field of behaviorism came under serious attack from the likes of Noam Chomsky, a man recognized as the father of modern linguistics, and about as decorated a sch olar as any.He pointed out that if you really look closer, parents give only very little linguistic input for tots to run with. Chomsky argued that parent-child interactions are limited to repeated utterances of things like “Put that back” and “Open your mouth”â€"not very likely to make significant dents towards the cause of language learning. And besides, when a child says, “I swimmed today,” he didn’t really get that from any adult figure in his life. That’s not imitation.So how does one account for the fact that children learn to speak their native tongues in spite of the “poverty of the stimulus”? One is left with the conclusion, Chomsky argues, that if not from the outside, external input, then the ability must have been there all along.Chomsky asserts that human beings are biologically wired for languageâ€"that we have a “language acquisition device” that allows us to learn any language in the world. Linguistic ability is innate to us.Proof of this are the emergent abilities that have no external source. For example, we know that writing comes later in the language learning process, perhaps in the classroom. But how then do children make out the individual words in the string of sounds that they hear, when they haven’t seen a single written form of those words?Chomsky would argue that children use this “language acquisition device” to figure out the rules specific to their native language. He even goes on to assert that there is such a thing as a “Universal Grammar.” For how else did the different languages end up with the same categorization of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) when there’s an infinite number of ways words can be categorized? We always have nouns, verbs and adjectives.Chomsky’s work represented the “nature” side of the nature-nurture debate, while the Behaviorists account for language as part of “nurturing.”Of course, because of its sweeping and seemingly simplistic assertions, Chomskys theory has its own set of strong dissenters. Let’s talk about them next.3) Cognitive Theory (Jean Piaget)Your churning brain might already be asking any number of questions:“So what proof do we have for this ‘language acquisition device’? Where in the brain is it located? Can we see it in action?”“Have we studied all the languages of the world to conclude that there is indeed ‘Universal Grammar’?”These and other queries prompted a different approach to the whole question of language acquisition. And as is often the case, subsequent theories, like new kids on the block, often point out the weaknesses of those that came before them.Chomsky’s theory did that to Behaviorism, and in turn, those that follow will try to fill in the gaps. And instead of taking a side on the nature-nurture debate, the cognitive theory of language acquisition recognizes that both processes have their roles to play.The psychologist Jean Piaget is a major proponent of this cognitive model, which sees language acquisition in light of the developing mental capacities. The idea here is that were able to learn language because of our ability to learn. It’s because of our cognitive development. Our brains become more complex, and we learn so many things so fast.Babies initially don’t talk because their brains and mental capacities still lack the experience and scaffolding necessary for language. But as babies grow, as they interact with adults, as they gain more experience, as they observe more things and as they learn more concepts, language becomes the inevitable result.Piaget believed that the understanding of concepts must first come before language. When a child says, “Ball is red,” he must first understand what a ball and the color red are before he can comment.So if you notice how language develops, it follows the complexity of our thinking. The more nuanced and layered our thinking, the more textured the language that comes out. That’s why children talk o ne way, and adults talk a different way.In this model, language is seen as part of our advancing mental capacitiesâ€"alongside our ability to reason or to think in the abstract. We are rational beings, information processors that interact and learn from experience.Those are three of the most influential theories on language acquisition. Each has its merits and each gives a certain view of how we learn language. Needless to say, more research and study is needed on the topic. There’s still so much to discover, and so much to learn in this area of linguistics.When we say “language acquisition,” what is it exactly that we acquire? Well, we now go to the next section to find out.The 5 Characteristics of a LanguageHere we get into the nitty-gritty of languages, and look under the hood to see their basic components.We need to meet the things that animate languages, behind the scenes, in order to have a proper appreciation of them. I’m talking here about the five characteristics of a language: syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology and pragmatics. Whatever language you’re considering, it has them. And they work awesomely with each other, as youll see.1. SyntaxSyntax is really just another word for grammar. Languages are governed by rules. Without them, language would be a jumbled mess of words, phrases and concepts that would be very difficult to understand and therefore barely useful.Each language has a specified arrangement of words and phrases. Because of the specific ways the elements are arranged, we can decipher meaning and understand each other. Syntax doesn’t exist so that Grammar Nazis can oppress those who don’t know the codified rules. Grammar is there to facilitate meaning and help us communicate the correct information or message to each other.Without syntax, we’d have sentences like: Robert Susan killed dog the pet of.Whoa, what happened in this sentence? Who killed whom?Without a consistent arrangement of words, we can never figure it out.2. SemanticsSemantics is all about meaning in a languageâ€"what words, phrases and sentences actually mean. Semantics works hand in hand with syntax because different arrangement of words can create different meanings. For example, we have a sentence:“She tapped him on the shoulder.”Let’s say we’ll insert the word “only” somewhere in the statement. Notice how this changes the whole meaning and complexion of the statement, depending on where exactly we place a single word.Only  she tapped him on the shoulder. (Nobody else did.)She only tapped him on the shoulder. (She didn’t punch him.)She tapped only  him on the shoulder. (Nobody else got a similar treatment.)She tapped him only  on the shoulder. (Not on his head or anywhere else.)She tapped him on the only  shoulder. (What sort of a man is this?!)Meaning can change depending on how you arrange specific words. And not only that, meaning can also change depending on the form of individual words. Let’s talk about that next.3. MorphologyMorphology is about the form of words. Its best observed in the written form of a language. Change in form often brings with it a change in meaning.Root wordsâ€"the most basic word formsâ€"can be decorated with a bunch of prefixes and suffixes to form new words, each with a different meaning. A single root word can give birth to many new words, and that’s where the linguistic fun begins.Take the root word “drive.”Add “r” at the end and you have “driver.” From a verb, your word has become a noun, a person.Next, add s to your newly formed word and you have “drivers.” Youve just performed magic and cloned a lone person by using the plural form of the word.Change “i” to “o” and you have “drove.” From a verb in the present tense, you introduced a time change and turned it into a past tense.You can do many things with the root word “drive” and come up with new words like:drivendrivingdriveabledriveabilityoverdrivemicrodriveAnd so on .That’s what morphology is all about. Different meanings come from different word forms. Speaking of forms, when spoken, each of these new words will inevitably sound different. That’s what the next language characteristic is all about.4. PhonologyPhonology is the study of linguistic sounds. And if ever you want to be considered fluent in your target language, you have to be very familiar with the intonations, stresses, pauses, dips and tones of the language.To sound like a native speaker, you have to pronounce words, phrases and sentences like they do. There are specific sounds and sound patterns that exist in a language. For example, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese have rolling “R’s” that give some English speakers a heck of a time.In languages like Italian, you oftentimes only need to look at how a word is spelled (morphology) in order to know how it should be pronounced. In other words, in those languages there’s a close correspondence between the language’s writte n form and its spoken form. In the case of French, though, you’d practically have to be dead drunk with French wine to figure out how to correctly pronounce “houx.”  You can stare at it all day long, but those silent letters won’t speak to you.5. PragmaticsSpeaking of silence, the next linguistic characteristic deals with that part of the language that isnt spoken. This is sort of the wink-wink, nudge-nudge aspect of a language.Because language happens in a specific context, we can actually be ambiguous and still deliver perfectly clear communication. We can go beyond the literal and structural forms of the language. We can say one thing and actually mean another.Pragmatics is concerned with how meaning is negotiated between speaker and listener. When your boss, after reading your submitted proposal, tells you, “This won’t work. Go back to square one,” you begrudgingly know what he means. You don’t take his words literally and look for “square one.” You start aga in.Or when you’re hours late for a date with your wife and she asks you, “Do you know what time it is?” you know better than to give her the exact time. You know a rhetorical question when you hear one.Pragmatics lends languages levity, so we don’t get stuck with being so literal all the time. You know you’re fluent in a language when you understand idiomatic expressions, sarcasm and the like.Now that we know about the five characteristics of languages, we get to the four modalities in which language acquisition can be judged: listening, speaking, reading and writing.The Four Language SkillsHow do you know if or when you’ve acquired a language?That’s a very difficult question to answer. It’s not an either-or kind of thing. When you get down to it, language acquisition isnt a dichotomy but rather a continuum, and language learners stand at various stages of acquisition.And to make things a little bit more complicated, there are four basic language modalities or skills involved: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Theyre closely related, but still clearly different. You may have thought of “language acquisition” in terms of speaking ability, but it’s just one of four competencies considered.Lets look at them.ListeningWe know that listening is the first language skill to be developed. Before babies can even talk, read or write, theyve already logged in serious hours listening. They listen to how their parents talk, to the intonations and pauses, and take their cues as to the speaker’s emotions.Babies have this “silent phase” when they simply give you those cute bright eyes. No words are spoken. But you know something is happening inside those brains because one day, they just start babblingâ€"something unintelligible at first, then gradually moving into their first words, like wooden sculptures slowly arising from individual blocks of wood.Listening has often been mistaken for a passive activity, where you just sit there and orie nt your ears to the audio. You can even sleep if you want to. But nothing is farther from the truth.To listen effectively, you actually have to lend your focus and be actively into it because you should be listening for specific things. What things? You’re going to be listening for intonations, motivations, emotions, accents and the natural flow of sound.A language has a specific musicality unique to it. It’s not just about vocabulary. To be fluent, you need to be aware not only of the words but also of the sounds of those words. And the only way you can hone this skill is by investing the time by listening to both authentic sources and study materials.You can for example use an audio-based study program like Pimsleur. Listen to it on your commute. For authentic material, you can get podcasts produced by your target language’s native speakers. Even YouTube offers a lot of native speaker content. (Just because you’re listening doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to audi o.)At first, you don’t really need to go for complete comprehension of what you’re listening to. Heck, you don’t even need to work out the individual words. Close your eyes and consciously notice the dips and rises of the tone. Notice for example how the tone evolves from the beginning of a sentence to how it ends.You have to invest time in this. That is, you do if you want to sound like a native speaker.SpeakingSpeaking is probably what you think of when we mention “language acquisition.” It is, after all, the most vivid proof of your linguistic chops. There’s nothing like speaking fluent Mandarin to impress a dateâ€"never mind that what you actually said was the equivalent of “Wheres the bathroom?”Ironically, although speaking may be the end goal for many language learners, many devote very little study time to it. Many learners instead dive deep into vocabulary and grammar. Hey, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. This is what I’m saying: Vocabulary helps on all frontsâ€"listening, speaking, reading and writingâ€"but it doesn’t score a frontal hit on the main goal of speaking.You know what directly hits this target? Actually speaking the language, all tongue-twisting be damned!To learn how to speak a language, you practice speaking it. Perhaps unintelligibly at first, like a novice swimmer awkwardly flailing appendages in the water, but gradually getting there.Speaking is a physical phenomenon, so you need to actually practice getting your vocal ensembleâ€"your tongue, mouth, teeth and palateâ€"to move the way native speakers move theirs. You need to feel what it’s like saying those words. You need to hear yourself speak. You need to open your mouth. And often. All the time. There’s just no way around it.The thing that stops language learners is that there’s always something else to learn before the talking. You don’t want to mess it up, so you think you need to perfectly know the requisite grammar and techniques before you e ver open your mouth. But that’s really an excuse not to be embarrassed. Even when we’re totally alone, we’re embarrassed that somebody from far away might hear us butcher the pronunciation of a single word.Babies don’t have those hangups. They babble away, butchering their mother tongues all day long, while their egos remain intact. Is it even a wonder why they acquire the language?ReadingBeing able to read in a second language  opens up a whole world of literature to you.Imagine being able to read and understand the classics in their original languages. Imagine being able to read “The Three Musketeers” in the original French or Dante’s Divine Comedy in the original Italian. There’s just nothing like a helping of those works in the language in which they were written because there are some things that just can’t be adequately translated.Thankfully, all your time studying vocabulary and grammar rules all works in favor of reading comprehension.In addition, you can g radually build your comprehension prowess by starting off with dual-language books. These are books that give you a line-by-line translation of the story. You can compare and contrast the languages as you go along.Next in this build-up would be the children’s books in the target language only. Children’s books would be easy enough for you to read. Choose stories you’re familiar with so you can do away with the plot guessing and focus on learning.And remember, just to practice moving your mouth in the target language, try reading aloud the text in front of you. That way, you’re hitting two birds with one stone.WritingMany consider the ability to write in another language the apex of language acquisition. Maybe they’re thinking about writing in terms of epic volumes, academic in nature, read and revered by one generation and the next.Here we’re talking about writing in more prosaic terms.Writing, in many respects, can actually be easier than speaking the target language. W ith the written form, language learners actually have a visible record in front of them. Written texts are more malleable than spoken words. You can scratch written texts, reorder them and correct their tenses and conjugations.Again, vocabulary and grammar training help a lot to build this skill.In addition, you can practice write by doing short paragraphs on things like:My Perfect DayMy Secret HobbyWhy I love “Terminator 3”Your work may not become a fixture in the language classes of the future, but the cool thing about writing is that the more you write, the better you become at expressing yourself in the target language. This inevitably helps in honing the other communication skills, like speaking on the fly, understanding content written by others and listening to native material.Now you know a lot about language acquisitionâ€"from the theories about it, to the differences between native language and second language acquisition, to the five characteristics of languages and t he four linguistic skills to hone. I’m hoping that, if anything, this piece has sparked more interest and desire in you to learn the languages of the world.We at FluentU are ever ready to extend a helping hand in that journey of discovery.Happy learning!