Overcoming the Disadvantages of Learning English in a Foreign Language Context/ Ingilizceyi Yabanci Dil Ortaminda Ogrenmenin Dezavantajlarini Asma Yollari

1. Introduction The teaching of foreign languages has been of great importance throughout the history and has gained much greater importance with the swift globalization turning the world into a small village. People need English as a foreign language to have a good career, to pursue their academic studies, to be able to communicate with the native speakers of English or with people from other countries, or various business purposes. Whatever the reason to learn a second/foreign language, its significance in one's life has led linguists and language teachers to seek ways to teach a language in the 'best' and 'quickest' way possible. But can this aim have been realized? There is a widespread complaint among Turkish learners of English that despite the years they spend learning English at schools most of them cannot gain the desired level of proficiency. There are various reasons this failure and English, being a foreign--rather than a second--language in Turkey,0 brings certain disadvantages to learners. This article first examines the distinction between a 'foreign' and a 'second' language. In the second part of the article, some practical advice to both teachers and students on how to overcome the disadvantages of being in a 'foreign language' situation is given. Some applications to provide students with language input are illustrated such as using internet, films, songs, radio, book etc. whereas the major guidelines to use them are also stated. 2. The Distinction between Foreign and Second Language The distinction between 'second language' and 'foreign language' is crucial language teaching. A 'second language' is a non-native language learnt and used within the target language community whereas a 'foreign language' is a non-native language learnt and used outside the target language community. A 'second language' usually has official status (i.e. used as the official language of the target community which people should know to carry out some of their official, educational and business affairs) which a foreign language does not. So, example, a Turkish person learning English in the U.S. is learning (mostly acquiring) a second language. All Turkish students learning English in Turkish schools or courses are learning a 'foreign' language. To quote Brown (1987:135-136) a more detailed classification: [T]he learning of a second language is either (a) within the culture of that second language (for example, an Arabic speaker learning English in the United States) or (b) within one's own native culture where the second language is an accepted lingua franca used education, government or business within the country (for example, learning English in the Philippines or India). ...the learning of a foreign language is learning a non-native language in one's own culture with few immediate and widespread opportunities to use the language within the environment of one's own culture (for example, learning French or German in the United States). As a result of this distinction, two terms emerged in English teaching: TESL (Teaching of English as a Second Language) and TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language). The purposes of second language acquisition are often different from foreign language learning. Since the second language is frequently the official language or one of the two or more recognized languages, it is needed for full participation in the political and economic life of the nation (Paulston 1974: 12-13); or it may be the language needed education. Foreign language learning is often undertaken with a variety of different purposes in mind; example, traveling abroad, communication with native speakers, reading foreign language literature, or reading foreign scientific and technical works. A second language, because it is used within the country, is usually learnt with much more environmental support than a foreign language whose speech community may be thousands of kilometres away. …