Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Graduate Degree Application: English as a Second Language

As the granddaughter of immigrants, I understand the difficulties that can plague the non-English-speaking foreign-born. My childhood was filled with warm memories of my grandparents, but I also remember struggling to understand their broken English. My grandmother had her own pronunciation for everyday words, such as "ween-doors" for windows and "harr" for heart. I generally understood these, but sometimes she would use a new word that I could not figure out. Weeks went by one year before I deduced that "pineys" was peonies. The problems on the immigrants' side of the language barrier are even greater. My grandmother was arrested and taken to the police station one day for jaywalking because she did not understand what the policeman directing traffic was saying to her. Neither she nor my grandfather, although well educated in their home country, could obtain more than a menial job in the United States. It can only be imagined how much more serious the language barrier would have been had there been a medical emergency or crime in progress.

While foreign accents were considered quaint in my grandparents' day, today people of foreign extraction are given far less consideration than then if they have difficulty with the language. Americans expect foreigners to learn the English language and speak it fluently and there is very little accommodation for people who cannot speak English. Moreover, children of foreign extraction are at a grave disadvantage in school if they cannot speak English well. They fall behind and the years they lose are effectively never made up. In addition, it is difficult for them socialize when they cannot speak the language.

English as a second language is a marvelous approach for helping immigrants in America or foreigners abroad learn to speak English fluently. As a subject geared specifically for the non-English-speaking student, it is far superior to a regular English ...

Page 1 of 2 Next >

More on Graduate Degree Application: English as a Second Language...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Graduate Degree Application: English as a Second Language. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:59, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000652.html