Acquiring language confidence

This article introduces the 4S Accelerated English Programme, which seeks to teach the English language to people in a short time span. Keith Wright developed this program, and now people with backgrounds in many different languages are using it to become proficient in English. There are two categories of skills to learn English: Receptive and Productive. For this program, Receptive includes reading, listening, and viewing, and Productive includes speaking, writing, and interpretation. The program recognizes the fact that people gain information by looking, not just reading or listening. After people look at something, they interpret it in writing or speech, so this program takes that into account.

There are three things that a person needs to be competent in English: pronunciation and spelling, understanding words and sentence structure, and grammar. People must know the unique characteristics of English, why words are spelt and mean what they do, and the basic rules of grammar.

People still learning English usually do not use correct pronunciation or grammar. To improve pronunciation, people must learn the characteristics of English. Wright’s program has thirty characteristics, which include how syllables are stressed differently, the different sounds that symbols make, words that can be used for different parts of speech, and words that have many definitions. After people master these skills, they can become proficient in the English language.

Keith Wright wrote another article that explains how best to teach his program. A teacher must determine the individual needs of new English speakers, including their ages, genders, and cultures.

People learning English have to learn sounds, words, and concepts that their languages do not have. This means that teachers have to understand the learners’ culture so that they will be able to reconcile the differences between their native language and English. Wright also believes technology is a huge advantage to learning English, including computers and DVD players.

He gives some tips to mastering the language. Learners should speak the language as much as possible, teachers need to guide learners and give them helpful feedback, learners need to make connections between concepts, and learners should be exposed to stimulated real-life situations. Also, learners should enjoy learning the new language.

Here is the full article.

These articles interested me because I tend to forget how difficult it is for foreign speakers to learn English. Where I live (Los Angeles area), there are many immigrants, mainly Hispanic, who try to speak English, but it is often very broken English. I forget that there are so many different things, like stressing the correct syllables, to overcome when learning English.

It also surprises me that there is such a systematic way to learn a language, like Keith Wright has developed. If more programs like this are created and perfected, assimilation could become much easier in the future. Language barriers would be knocked down, and people would be able to relate to each other more easily. However, this program makes it seem as though all people learn languages in the same way. I do not find this to be true, so I wonder how the program takes that into consideration.