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Common Linguistic ProblemsWhen is comes to learning new languages there are many common linguistic problems. I am currently Studying Spanish as a middle aged adult. I never thought learning a language would be so challenging. I had always wanted to learn Spanish, and figured it would be easy. I have been learning Spanish now for almost 18 month, and I feel like I will never learn the language completely. I plan on moving to peru to help me learn and understand the language better. I have heard many times that it takes 5 years to learn and understand a language, now I believe it! There are many common linguistic problems when learning English as a second language. These can be but not limited to homonyms, heteronym, idioms, and structural ambiguity. All these contribute to common linguistic problems. We will take a closer look at all of the above. Homonyms, idioms, and contronyms are also known as lexical ambiguities. They each have a different level of ambiguity. These can create a lot of confusion for a English student that is learning English as a foreign language. A homonyms are words that are spelled or pronounced in the same way as one or more words but has a different meaning. A couple of example are , sow (as in plant seeds) and sow (female pig), left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave), bow ( to lean forward) and bow (front part of a boat). A heteronym is a word that is spelled the same as another word but is pronounced different and has a different meaning. Some examples are, lead (to show or guide someone) and lead ( a heavy bendable metal used as fishing weights and in car batteries). Another example is bass (a type of fish) and bass (a low pitch frequency). I would imagine this could be very confusing when reading, and or cause problems when speaking, which could be confusing to both the listener and the speaker. This could also be challenging for a student of English because they may not know what word to use. Structural ambiguity is when a sentence has two different means. One example is, They are hunting dogs. This can mean the dogs are out hunting right now, or the hunters are hunting for dogs. Another example is if someone said ?I want to paint a bicycle?. Well this can mean 2 things. The person that said this phrase could mean they want to paint a painting of a bike, but the person listening could think they actually mean a bicycle. Structural ambiguity can be problematic for native speakers too. An idiom is a common saying or expression, that is used in language, which have a complete different mean than what is said. Idiom are commonly used in different languages. An example sentence is he paid an arm and leg for the car, which means he paid a lot for the car. Another is, I am going to tie the knot tomorrow, which means I will get married tomorrow. Idiom phases can cause confusion for any student learning any language. I think I can teach the student these problematic areas. It?s important to think of the context of the conversation. This alone can create less confusion. It?s easy to say this, but when learning a language it?s different. Sometimes when learning a language you don?t understand all the words in a sentence which can lead to the context being misunderstood. If the students are aware of these ambiguities it can help them have more clarification. No matter what learning a language takes a lot of time, patients, and hard work. I know from experience how challenging learning another language can be. I have run into some of the mentioned problems above. It can be frustrating. Spanish has idioms, heteronyms and structural ambiguity. There is a lot to learn when learning any language. The more the student is exposed to the language the more they will be able to understand. References- The New Webster?s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language http://www.tesolcourse.com/tesol-course-articles/common- linguistic/article-01-mg.php http://www.teflcorp.com/articles/47-tefl-common-linguistic- roblems/153-common-linguistic-problems.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronym_%28linguistics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambiguity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom