The Effects of Prior Knowledge on ESL Learners

Introduction

Language is a means of communication and every individual learns language or two languages to communicate from early childhood. Language is very important because it serves as a means for people to exchange their ideas, thoughts and feelings with each other. English Language enjoys a very significant status in the world being the international language of communication, the importance of another language can never be undermined or underestimated as every language hold a great value within itself and speakers of every language have a profound love for their native languages which renders a greater significance to any given language. Since the English language is an international language, learning it has become a need for everyone in the world. This is especially important for this age of rapid globalization and information and technology wherein people have a completely altered interaction pattern and a growing need for communication with people from other parts of the world (Crystal 2003, 25).

The new media have made it utterly essential for people to understand and communicate in English Language in order to stay updated with the rest of the world. When pupils whose native language is not English, it becomes a challenge for them to acquire a command over the second language. Over the years, much interference has crept into English language when non-English speakers learn ESL (English as a second language). In order to make the learning of ESL a worthy experience for non-English speakers, it is necessary for educationists and language instructors to develop effectual supplementary material which can enable children and adolescents to achieve a holistic experience of learning ESL.

English as Secondary Language

A Second language, also called L2 is a language learned besides the mother tongue. This second language is acquired for purposes of convenience, necessity (in the case of immigrants) or, more commonly, to use as a lingua franca. The most widely acquired second language across the globe is the English Language because it enjoys the status of being the international language. There is a distinguished concept of bilingual second language, since the same individual may have more than one language as a native or mother and in this case, it might not apply the name of a second language. Second language acquisition is a process of learning a language by an individual who has mastered a language or native language. It is recognized as a part of applied linguistics and the process of second language acquisition differs in its early stages as compared to the process of acquiring the first language, partly because it requires different cognitive skills. In part this is the reason why the second language acquisition is more difficult and requires more time learning the language. This especially happens when the second language is structurally very different from the first language (Grabe 1991, 102).

When a study was carried out on ESL students, it was revealed that probably 60 percent of non-English speaking population learning English as a second language is somewhere on ...