Any language starts from the ear. Whenever a child is born, it gets accustomed to the language it listens to everyday. A child learns a language mainly by the process of imitation. On the other hand, a child born deaf is most often dumb also. Listening is indeed the foundation for proper speaking. A person who listens will speak naturally but training and practice are required to make a person write and read. A child whose second language is English, learns its mother tongue by constant exposure to it. This natural process of mother tongue acquisition is absent when a child learns English as a second language. A second language learner of English must listen to the English spoken by his/her teacher, radio, television and gramophone records in order to enhance one’s vocabulary and pronunciation skills. A second language English learner must focus on the international features of the language. If a learner is provided with the opportunity to listen to new words and taught to apply them in regular lives, the learner’s vocabulary increases.
Speech is basically the use of oral signs which are addressed to the ear. A second language learner must be exposed to English both inside and outside his classroom and this will build in him/her a need for communication. A second language user of English might be taught about the phonemes in the target language. The more one can train one’s ear, the better one can speak the language. Reading is a kind of decoding of the graphic representation of a language. Learners must have familiarity with a sufficient number of words so as to be able to comprehend them if they are encountered in reading. Proper sound-letter correspondence, skill of word analysis and structural analysis will improvise a second language learners skill in English.
Writing is the graphic representation of ideas and experience on paper. The modern technique of language teaching focuses primarily upon listening and reading and only when the learners have sufficient practice in oral exercise, they are initiated to writing. Learners are also introduced to composition exercises to develop their writing skills. Firstly, the learners are taught guided composition and once they have been trained in it, they are taught free composition.
