Search results for 'tag:Essays tag:English as a second language' matching tags 'Essays' and 'English as a second language'

Re: Can someone check my grammar ( especially fragment and commasplice )

paco2004 — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:17:45 GMT

Hello Hoang

I too am a learner of English (I'm Japanese). I know your essay is to be corrected by native speakers. But if you donât mind, please take a look of my version. It is not a correction of your essay. Please take it rather as a kind of worse alternative a mere English learner wrote. I believe some of our kind teachers will come and correct your essay.

Life seems to be full of obstacles that God created to challenge our toughness. Success does not come without obstacles on the way. I have experienced a lot of trouble in studying the new language. For those who speak English as a second language, English is not such a simple language that can be learned in a couple of days.

In the first year, I barely understood the conversation of people around me. Their conversations were so fast for me to catch up with, yet I pretended that I understood them clearly. I laughed at jokes that I did not even find the humor of them. I felt a fear, which obsessed me during my first year. The fear is that I could not belong to the group and I might be laughed at for not speaking English, and it made me hesitant to speak. I could not even pick up the phone because I knew that on the person on the line should speak to me in English. I did not do well at school either. I failed most of subjects that required reading skills such as history, government, etc. This essay probably is not written without the kindness of my host mom. She helped me go through each single step in the process of writing an essay, helped me see every mistake I usually make. She took me through the tough time. I am sure I could not get where I am right now without her help.

The biggest obstacle comes from inside, not from outside. The fear to face my weakness made English my biggest obstacle. I would have never learned anything if I had not conquered that fear. Everyone has his or her own obstacles, but I believe every obstacle could be overcome with a little effort.

paco

Re: Merely exchanging information

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 04:45:14 GMT

(Once again I forgot to log in -- MM)

And, reading through the thread again, I think you do a good job of supporting each other. (Julie is indeed supporting your core ideas, Dmitrij, by detailing the point on 'sprawl' that was connotatively warned against in your own advice to writers.)

As I am hoping to keep this fine thread linked to the head of our Writing Forum menu as authoritative views on essay writing from experienced speakers of English as a second language, it would be good to confine future posts to clearly supplemental material based on Dmitrij's groundwork.

Re: Please read and review

anon1 — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 06:31:11 GMT

Hi JessyK,

Welcome to English Forums.

Can you tell us a little about this brief essay? Is it for school and what grade? Are you learning English as a second language?

I will help you with the first paragraph and perhaps we can do the rest together.

Learning to Love Math and Science

Math and cience are probably the toughest [subjects] for most[] students. Science has too many [technical terms] and it seem very complicate. Math on the other [hand] [is] very easy at the beginning but it gets complicate [at] [higher] levels. But with power of learning [it] is never impossible to learn [these topics] and [overcome] these [obstacles].

I am making a wild guess that you are Spanish. I say that because of your use of "mayor". Let's see if I am correct.

MountainHiker

Re: Autobiographical Incident

julielai — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 20:31:34 GMT

I have no desire to play typo tag with you either. I was simply making a point -- it's hard to catch our own errors. It's not a native speaker/ESL student thing, and writing is more than just catching errors.

I've studied English as a second language. Back when I was growing up, correctness was overemphasized, and often at the expense of other aspects of writing. Now I see the end result of it: I go back to my hometown and I read essays that are incoherent, illogical, or poor in content. And those essays get A's.

And worse still, wealthy parents, who are fed up with the current English teaching methods, send their Chinese kids to international schools to learn English as a first language, leaving poorer kids behind in public schools.

Having witnessed all these changes in my hometown the past year, I've come to believe more in communicative effectiveness, and not standard/correct English per se. From what I've seen this past year, most ESL learners already care too much about correctness.

See? Just a different point of view.

I'll be glad to share more ESL stories, but I think I've said enough for now.