Acquisition of english language skills by arab learners an analysis of the problems faced

Abstract

The paper probes the difficulties faced by Arab learners, especially from countries like Saudi Arabia, in mastering the four skills of English language namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing (LSRW). The four skills are used during first language acquisition in the order of listening, and thencome speaking and later on reading and writing and these skills are required in using and comprehending any language. In this contribution a comparison has been made between the structures of both Arabic and English language, to analyse the interference of L1 on L2. Once the first language is acquired the brain is almost wired to a set of linguistic features. Such patterns interfere with the new linguistic structure of the second language. Some interference would be positive and would go unnoticed but some are negative bringing in a lot of difficulty during the new language acquisition process.