English as an additional language (EAL) refers to the use or study of English by speakers of other languages. EAL covers both ESL (English as a second language), and EFL (English as a foreign language). In British usage, ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) is now used instead of ESL for reasons described in the following section. Particularly in Canada and Australia, the term ESD (English as a second dialect) is used alongside ESL. ESD usually refers to English programs for First Nations people.

These terms are most commonly used in relation to teaching and learning English, but they may also be used in relation to demographic information.

In the United States, the term English language learner (ELL) is used by governments and the schools system. It differs from the other terms listed above because it refers to learners rather than the language.

Contents 1 Types of EAL 2 Difficulties for learners 2.1 Pronunciation 2.2 Grammar 2.3 Vocabulary 2.4 Differences between spoken and written English 2.5 Varieties of English 3 EAL exams and the Common European Framework 4 EAL professional associations 5 Acronyms and abbreviations 6 See also 6.1 Language teaching and learning 6.2 EAL exams 6.3 Other 6.4 Contemporary English 7 External links

[edit] Types of EAL

EFL indicates the use of English in a non-English-speaking region. Study can occur either in the student's home country or, for the more privileged minority, in an anglophone country which they visit as a sort of educational tourist, e.g. after graduating from university. TEFL is the teaching of English as a foreign language.

ESL refers to the use of English within an English-speaking region, generally by refugees, immigrants and students. The term has been criticised on the grounds that many learners already speak more than one language, though it has been argued that the word "a" in the phrase "a second language" means there is no presumption that English is the second acquired language (see also Second language). TESL is the teaching of English as a second language. In Britain, the normal terms are ESOL (instead of ESL) and TESOL (instead of TESL).

ESD refers to the use of standard English by speakers of a creole or non-standard variety. It is often grouped with ESL as ESL/ESD.

The term TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) is widely used to include both TEFL and TESL. In British usage, this is also called ELT (English language teaching).

It is worth noting that EAL programs also differ in the variety of English which is taught; "English" is a term that can refer to various dialects, including British English, North American English, and others. Students studying EFL in Hong Kong, for example, are more likely to learn British English. This may make travel to the United States marginally more difficult for them, as North American English uses very different idioms and slang. For this reason, many teachers of English as a foreign language now emphasize teaching English as an international language (EIL), also known as English as a ­lingua franca (ELF).

[edit] Difficulties for learners

Most of the difficulties which learners face in learning English are a consequence of the degree to which their native language differs from English. A native speaker of Chinese, for example, faces many more difficulties than a native speaker of German.

Learners with a specific first language usually produce many similar mistakes resulting from the influence of their mother tongue. This is known as L1 interference.

Although in many ways English is not particularly difficult to learn, there are a few features of English which are relatively complex and therefore create difficulties for the majority of additional language learners.

[edit] Pronunciation

• Consonants - English does not have more individual consonant sounds than most languages. However, /θ/ and /ð/ (the sounds written with th), which are common in English (thin, thing, etc.; and the, this, that, etc.) are relatively rare in other languages, even others in the Germanic family (eg, English thousand = German tausend). Many learners substitute a [t] or [d] sound that is more natural for them. Even practised second language speakers, like many francophone Canadian politicians, carry on this habit long after mastering vocabulary and grammar. Another sound that is relatively uncommon in other languages is /ŋ/ (as in singing).
• Vowels - English has a relatively large number of distinct vowel sounds. The precise number depends on the variety of English, but, for example, RP has twelve monophthongs compared to five in Spanish. It also has eight diphthongs (double vowel combinations) and two triphthongs. Many learners have problems both with hearing and with pronouncing these distinctions.
• Syllable structure - In its syllable structure, English allows for a cluster of up to three consonants before the vowel and four consonants after the vowel (eg straw, desks, glimpsed). The syllable structure causes problems for speakers of many other languages. Japanese, for example, alternates consonant and vowel sounds so learners from Japan often try to force vowels in between the consonants (eg desks /desks/ becomes "desukusu" or milk shake /mɪlk ʃeɪk/ becomes "mirukusheku"). Learners from languages where all words end in vowels (eg, Italian) tend to make all English words end in vowels - make /meɪk/ comes out as [meɪkə]. Speakers of Germanic and Slavic languages have fewer difficulties in this area.
• Unstressed vowels - Native English speakers frequently replace a long or short vowel with an unstressed vowel, often schwa, in an unstressed syllable. For example, from has a distinctly pronounced short 'o' sound when it is stressed (eg Where is your dog?), but when it is unstressed, the short 'o' reduces to a schwa (eg I'm from London.). In English stress more strongly determines vowel quality than it does in most other world languages (although there are notable exceptions like Russian). To a learner, this means that the syllables an, en, in, on and un may sound exactly alike. A native speaker can usually distinguish an able, enable, and unable because of their position in a sentence, but this is more difficult for inexperienced English speakers. Moreover, learners tend to overpronounce these unstressed vowels, making their speech sound strained and out of rhythm.
• Stress timing - English tends to be a stress-timed language - this means that stressed syllables are roughly equidistant in time, no matter how many syllables come in between. Although some other languages, eg. German and Russian, are also stress-timed, most of the world's other major languages are syllable-timed, with each syllable coming at an equal time after the previous one. These learners can develop a staccato rhythm when speaking English that is disconcerting to a native speaker.
• Connected speech - Phonological processes such as assimilation, elision and epenthesis together with indistinct word boundaries can confuse learners when listening to natural spoken English, as well as making their speech sound too formal if they do not use them. For example, in RP eight beetles and three ants /eɪt biːtəlz ənd θriː ænts/ becomes [eɪdbiːtl̩zənθriːjæns].

[edit] Grammar

• Tenses - English has a relatively large number of tenses with some quite subtle differences in their usage. Most learners of English find this difficult to master.
• Functions of auxiliaries - Learners of English tend to find it difficult to manipulate the various ways in which English uses the first auxiliary verb of a tense. These include negation (eg He hasn't been drinking.), inversion with the subject to form a question (eg Has he been drinking?, short answers (eg Yes, he has.) and tag questions (has he?). A further complication is that the dummy auxiliary verb do /did is added to fulfil these functions in the simple present and simple past, but not for the verb to be.
• Modal verbs - English also has a significant number of modal auxiliary verbs which each have a number of uses. This complexity takes considerable work for most learners to master.

[edit] Vocabulary

• Phrasal verbs - Phrasal verbs in English cause a lot of problems for most learners. This is because many phrasal verbs have several meanings and because of the different syntactic patterns.
• Word derivation - Word derivation in English requires a lot of rote learning. For example, an adjective can be negated by using the prefix un- (eg unable), or in- (eg inappropriate) or dis- (eg dishonest).
• Size of lexicon - The history of English has resulted in a relatively large vocabulary. This inevitably requires more work for a learner to really master the language.

[edit] Differences between spoken and written English

• Spelling - Because of the many changes in pronunciation which have occurred since a written standard developed, English spelling is relatively difficult even for native speakers to master. This difficulty is shown in such activities as Spelling Bees that generally require the memorization of words. English speakers may also rely on utilities like Spell checkers more than speakers of other languages, as the users of the spell checker may have forgotten, or never learned, the correct spelling of a word. The generalisations which exist are quite complex and there are many exceptions leading to a considerable amount of rote learning. The spelling system causes problems in both directions - a learner may know a word orally but not be able to write it correctly, or they may see a word written but not know how to pronounce it or mislearn the pronunciation.

[edit] Varieties of English

• English is spoken natively by a large and diverse population on every continent, and consequently has some noticeable differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar across different regions and across different social strata. Most languages are spoken in geographically more compact areas, usually just in a small number of countries or even a single state, and are often to some degree managed by a specific organisation that determines the most prestigious form of the language. Since many students of English study it to enable them to communicate internationally, the lack of a uniform international standard for the language poses some barriers to meeting that goal.
• For learning English as an international language Basic Global English has been developed for the beginner's level (see also the linguistic theory behind Basic Global English).

[edit] EAL exams and the Common European Framework

Between 1998 and 2000, the Council of Europe's language policy division developed its Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The aim of this framework was to have a common system for foreign language testing and certification, to cover all European languages and countries.

The Common European Framework divides language learners into three levels:
A. Basic User
B. Independent User
C. Proficient User

Each of these levels is divided into two sections, resulting in a total of six levels for testing (A1, A2, B1, etc).

This table compares EFL exams according to the CEF levels:

CEF level	ALTE level	IELTS exam	BEC & CELS exams	Cambridge exam	Pitman ESOL	TOEIC	TOEFL
C2	Level 5	7.5+	-	CPE	Advanced	910+	276+
C1	Level 4	6.5 - 7	Higher	CAE	Higher Intermediate	701 - 910	236 - 275
B2	Level 3	5 - 6	Vantage	FCE	Intermediate	541 - 700	176 - 235
B1	Level 2	3.5 - 4.5	Preliminary	PET	-	381 - 540	126 - 175
A2	Level 1	3	-	KET	Elementary	246 - 380	96 - 125
A1	Breakthrough	1-2	-	-	Basic	-	-

[edit] EAL professional associations

• TESOL Inc. is Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, a professional organization based in the United States.
• IATEFL is the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, a professional organization based in Britain.
• Several other professional organisations for teachers of English exist at local and regional levels such as the 'Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers' (SPELT) in Pakistan, BELTA in Bangladesh, SLELTA in Sri Lanka, NELTA in Nepal, MELTA in Malaysia, and TESOL Arabia in the Gulf states, just to name a few.
• NATECLA is the National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults, a British-based organisation which is focused on teaching ESOL in Britain
• HLS Hounslow Language Service

[edit] Acronyms and abbreviations

See also: Language education for information on general language teaching acronyms and abbreviations.

• CELTA - Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
• DELTA - Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults
• EAL - English as an additional language
• EAP - English for academic purposes
• EFL - English as a foreign language

The study or learning of English in an environment where English is not the predominant language, such as in a non-English-speaking region, by someone whose first language is not English.

• EIL - English as an international language
• ELF - English as a lingua franca
• ELL - English Language Learner
• ELT - English language teaching
• ESD - English as a second dialect
• ESL - English as a second language

The study or learning of English in an environment where English is the predominant language, such as in an English-speaking region, by someone whose first language is not English.

• ESOL - English for speakers of other languages
• ESP - English for Special Purposes or English for Specific Purposes or English for Specific Professions (e.g. technical English, scientific English, English for medical professionals).
• IELTS - International English Language Testing System
• TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language

The teaching of English in an environment where English is not already the predominant language, such as in a non-English-speaking country, to someone whose first language is not English.

• TESL - Teaching English as a Second Language

The teaching of English in an environment where English is the predominant language, to someone whose first language is not English.

• TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (or) Teaching English as a Second or Other Language

This acronym might be a substitute for TESL more than for TEFL. It is sometimes preferred over TESL because English can be a third, fourth or fifth, etc. language to a student.

• TOEFL - Test of English as a Foreign Language
• TOEIC - Test of English for International Communication
• UCLES - University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate

[edit] See also

[edit] Language teaching and learning

• Language education
• Second language acquisition
• Applied linguistics
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
• Blended learning This is a method of combining face-to-face and electronic (online) learning techniques in ESL and EFL.

[edit] EAL exams

• IELTS (International English Language Testing System), the IELTS tests are accepted by most tertiary academic institutions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and by many in the USA.
• TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), an Educational Testing Service test of English language proficiency for academic purposes, accepted primarily in the USA.
• TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), an Educational Testing Service test of English language proficiency for business purposes.
• University of Cambridge ESOL examinations

• IGCSE

[edit] Other

• Ruth Hayman ESL pioneer
• Writing with constraints
• Non-native pronunciations of English

[edit] Contemporary English

• American and British English differences
• Idiom dictionary
• Initial-stress-derived noun This page could be very useful to those learning English as an additional language.

[edit] External links

• Internet ESL Journal
• English Language Learning Directory

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_an_additional_language. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License..