WHY DO PEOPLE LEARN LANGUAGES?
In this chapter we are going to look at the reasons people have for learning languages (especially English), and the reasons for their success as language learners.
Reasons for leaning languages:
Why do people want to learn foreign languages? Why do people want to study English? Is it for pleasure? Is it because they want to understand learning literature books? Or maybe they want to get a better job. There are a number of languages different reasons for language study and the following list (which is not exhaustive) will give an idea of the great variety of such reasons.
(a) School curriculum:
Probably the greatest numbers of language students in the world do it because it is on the school curriculum whether they like it or not!
(b) Advancement:
Some people want to study English (or another foreign language) because they think it offers a chance for advancement in their professional lives. They will get a better job with two languages than if they only know their mother tongue. English has a special position here since it has become the international language of communication.
(c) Target language community
Some language students find themselves living in a target language community (either temporarily or permanently). A target language community (TLC) is one where the inhabitants speak the language which the student is learning: for students of English an English-speaking country would be a TLC. The students would need to learn English to survive in that community.
(d) English for Specific Purposes'
The term English for Special or Specific Purposes has been applied to situations where students have some specific reason for wanting to learn the language. For example, air hostess need English primarily to guide passengers in the plane on how to use the safety devices. They may not use the language at all apart from this. Business executives need English for international trade. Waiters may need English to serve their customers. These needs have often been referred to as EOP (English for Occupational Purposes).
Students who are going to study at a university in the
Students of medicine or nuclear physics or other scientific disciplines (studying in their own
Countries) need to be able to read articles and textbooks about those subjects in English. This is often referred to as EST (or English or Science and Technology).
We can summarize these differences in the following way:
ESP
EOP EAP EST
Figure I English for Specific Purposes
What is interesting about all these examples is that the type of English the students want to learn may be different: waiters may want to talk and 2 listen, whereas scientists may want to read and write.
(e) Culture
Some students study a foreign language because they are attracted to the culture of one of the TLCs see (c) above). They learn the language because they want to know more about the people who speak it, the places where it is spoken and (in some cases) the writings which it has produced.
(f) Miscellaneous
There are of course many other possible reasons for learning a language. Some people do it just for fun because they like the activity of going to class. Some people do it because they want to be tourists in a country where that language is spoken. Some people do it just because all their friends are learning the language.
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