My Experience in Learning / Acquiring English as a Second Language.

Study english as a second language is not too easy and not too hard. Research on second language acquisition has shown that second language learners also pass through sequences of development and that many of these sequences are similar to those of children learning the same language as their first language. In addition, the features of a second language learner’s previously learned language will also influence the learner developing second language system.
Until the late 1960s, most people regarded second language learners’ speech as an incorrect version of the target language. This incorrect speech was considered to be largely a result of transfer from the learner’s first language. Contrastive analysis was the basis for identifying differences between the first and second language and for predicting areas of potential error.
There are important similarities between first language and second language learners. One important finding has been that, in both first and second language acquisition, there are sequences or ‘stages’ in development of particular structures. That is, certain features of the language seem to appear relatively early in a learner’s language while others are acquired much later. A some what surprising finding is that these developmental sequences are similar across learners from different backgrounds: what is learned early by one is learned early by others.
Among child language learners, this is perhaps not so unexpected because their language learning is partly tied to their cognitive development, that is to their learning about the relationship among people, events, and objects around them. But among second language learners, whose experiences with the language may very quite widely and whose cognitive development is essentially stable, it is more remarkable that developmental sequences are so similar. Furthemore, although learners obviously need to have opportunities to hear or read certain things before they begin to use them, it is not always the case that those features of the language which are most frequent the easiest to learn. For examples, virtually every English sentence has one or more article (‘a’ or ‘the’), but many learners have great difficulty using these forms correctly. Finally, although there is some evidences that the learners’ first language influences the sequences, many aspects of these developmental stages are similar among learners from many different first language backgrounds.
From myself, I learn English as a second language sequences. I have begun to learn English since I was elementary school at 4th grade. Somehow I have been quick to learn new things and my memory quite good. I always memoize a new words around me, like flower, table, door, ect. As soon as I began to touch English I found it is interesting and I like it very much. Eventhough I make errors, like the sructure and pronunciation but I believe that practice can makes perfect.
In Junior high school, I have studied in boarding school and live at dormitory with some friends. In that place, we learned to use English and Arabic in daily life. Everyday we must speak English or Arabic depend on the time. Usually, we used English at Monday till Wednesday, Arabic at Thursday till Saturday, and we can mixed it at Sunday. If our teacher heard us not to speak one of these language, they would punish us. Beside that there were spies whose listen us if we used Indonesian. If we did not obey the rule, they would punish us to clean the mosque or pay some money. This is one way from my teacher to teach us a second language.
When I was senior high school, I did not stay at dormitory again. I live with my family and I did not use English in my daily life. I jusy study English at school two times a week. In my school I just studied about grammar, writing and reading, I never speak English again because I did not have friend to talk. Actually I have many friends who know about English but if we talk in English they always say “ah...Lebay”. So we did not talk in English anymore except in English class. I know many English words, but I did not use it in speaking. And I think it is an useless thing. So, I decide to follow an English course to practice my English.
After I graduated from senior high school I decided to continue my study in English Department Hasanuddin University, because I want to study English more and more. When I accepted in English Department, I was very happy brecause I met with many friends who were very antusiastic to study English so I spiritful to study.
Well, for a long time, all English I have been learning just a kind of tongueless language though I have nearly invested a lot of my spare time to improve my English. I just find that I have made progress both in reading and writing, but I was not brave enough to speak out, this is really an awful thing. Sure, I have ever tried to improve my speaking, like join in the English Meeting Club. But every time I met my club I was too shy to speak out and I confused to choose the word that I must use in the context
But beside of that in my deep heart, I have a big motivation to be a good speaker in English. I always suggest myself “English is easy! English so easy!” I will try to make it as brief as I could. Now, I have many friends who know about English and we can learn together and I have many teachers who always motivate us. And the last I must brave to speak out eventhough I make a fault because practice makes perfect.

Sources :
• Lightbown, Pasty M dan Nina Spada. 1993. How Language are Learned. Oxford : University Press.
• www.google.com : second language learning
• www.google.com : English as a second language