Activity 4-11

Topic Sentence: All foreign students have the same difficulty – the English barrier. Sometimes, to make an American understand and to be able to understand Americans is not easy for a foreigner.

A. The words of English.
A.1. Once, I happened to user an old word which people nowadays don’t use anymore and my teacher and friends couldn’t understand what I said.
A.2. English words also cause problems because there are a lot of words that combine to make different meanings.
A.3. E.g. “to work out”

B. Pronunciation.
B.1. English has some words that appear to be the same but have different pronunciations for different meanings.
B.2. E.g. “conduct”
B.3. To understand an American also depends on his or her accent.
B.4. Northerners have a different accent from southerners. If a foreigner learns English in the northern part of the country, he or she might have trouble communicating with southerners.

C. Technical terms and phrases which may be about new technology that doesn’t exist in their country.

Conclusion: Many foreign students find that learning English is the hardest part of college life.