English as a second language

The United States and the United Kingdom is home to the ten best universities in the world, according to the 2012 QS World University Rankings. Not only that, these two English-speaking countries are also home to thousands more universities and colleges that offer quality education. Many students around the world dream of getting into one of these universities and colleges. If you are aiming to study in university or college in the UK or in the US, then it is essential that you learn how to use English as a second language.

The US and the UK uses English as their national language. In fact, these two countries far have the largest number of native English speakers. Universities and colleges domiciled in the UK and in the US mostly use English as their medium of instruction, save for some language schools that require their students to use the language they are studying as second one. To fully understand the things that are being taught in universities and colleges in the UK and the US, an interested student should learn how to use English as a second language. To fully submerge himself in a field that uses English as main language of instruction, a student really needs to employ it as his second language.

It is not enough for a student to just understand English. It is also not enough for a student to be just able to speak or write English. To maximise his learning experience, a student needs to use English as a second language. Only by doing that he could fully benefit from the education offered by universities and colleges in the UK and the US. There are several schools in non-English countries that offer courses that allow students to learn how to use English as their second language.

Everyone has been up to compete with the global standards.  These standards reflect the needs of the world, for which a few mediums reign to fit.  Considered to be part of these elite mediums is English.  Hence, learning English as a second language has become the norm.

Learning languages hasn’t been any stranger for most; in fact, for a lot, learning another language is imperative.  Moreover, learning another tongue, just like English as a second language, is a symbol for academic advancement.

An advancement indeed, learning to use another language has been a means to another nation, a nation both different and similar to those learning it.  It is also an indisputable edge over another.  In a simple illustration, if one employer is faced by the dilemma of hiring an employee, which will he choose?  One that has good work and education background, or one who has similar background to the first, except for an increment skill in foreign language proficiency?

Of course, the employer will choose the one with the most number of skills, same as the analogy of “bigger or more is better.”  Learning another language, say English as a second language also reflects a good number of image enhancing adjectives:

i. It exudes discipline.  To learn something, one has to surrender to conventions (of said discipline) and trust the discipline that lies behind the lesson.

ii. It depicts willingness to learn.  One already knows the native tongue; yet, this one did not stop the language learning there and instead, immerse in another dimension of language education.

iii. It carries an outward-looking individual.  To learn another language, one goes to greater lengths of poking at another world (in contrast to self-contained).

Foreign languages have surprises in store for the learner: one never knows when it could come handy.

English has been used as a medium of instructions in many countries for many years. Even in countries in which their native language is different, they opt to teach some lessons and subjects using English. Most of these are countries that had been colonized by Western nations which native tongue is English. As a result, their former colonies have adopted English as a second language. But what benefits can these people receive by using English as their second language?

Over 375 million people speak English as a native language, with majority them living in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, around 400 million to around a billion individuals speak English as a second language, with varied levels of mastery. It is estimated that around 200 million have mastered English as their second language. It is undeniable that English is already considered a lingua franca, or working language. English has been the most dominant language in for the past centuries, particularly because of the rise as world powers of two nations that considers English as their native language – the US and the UK. Nowadays, English is used by people not sharing a common tongue to communicate with other. They use English as their common language, and people who can speak English as a definite global and working advantage over other individuals who cannot.

Another advantage for using English as a second language is that many instructions and lessons are written in it. If a student has mastered English and has a great deal of command of it, he would likely be able to understand well all the academic lessons as instructions in the global workplace.

If you have not decided on using English as your second language, it is to your advantage if you decide so to use it.