EFL

EFL refers to the use or study of English by speakers with a different native language. Language teaching practice often assumes that most of the difficulties that learners face in the study of English are a consequence of the degree to which their native language differs from English. A native speaker of Chinese, for example, may face many more difficulties than a native speaker of German, because German is closely related to English, whereas Chinese is not. This may be true for anyone of any mother tongue setting out to learn any other language.
Language learners often produce errors of syntax and pronunciation, thought to result from the influence of their first language, such as mapping its grammatical patterns inappropriately onto the second language, pronouncing certain sounds incorrectly or with difficulty, and confusing items of vocabulary known as false friends. This is known as "language interference". However, these transfer effects are typically stronger for beginner's language production.
Some students may have very different cultural perceptions in the classroom as far as learning a second language is concerned. Also, cultural differences in communication styles and preferences are significant. For example, a study looked at Chinese EFL students and British teachers and found that the Chinese learners did not see classroom discussion and interaction as important but placed a heavy emphasis on teacher-directed lectures.

This is the last of our 5 languages in 5 days posts.