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Language in education

Long-term English language learners

By February 18, 2011May 30th, 201982 Comments4 min read18,971 views

When I first started teaching in Australia, I had a Korean-Australian student in one of my undergraduate classes who sounded like most of the other students in my class, like a native speaker of Australian-English. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she had been born in Australia but had grown up leading a transnational life with frequent moves back and forth between Australia and Korea. At home she spoke Korean with her family and at school she spoke English. In Australia she had attended mainstream schools in English and when they had been in Korea she didn’t go to school at all or attended international schools with English as the medium of instruction. The perfect way to raise a bilingual child, you might think. I thought so until I saw her first written assignment. Her academic literacy was oddly different from that of all the other students: in comparison to the native speakers (with whom I’d mentally categorized her on the basis of her spoken English), her grammar was shaky, and in comparison to the overseas ESL students her register vacillated between extreme formality and informality, and all shades of style in between. She also had trouble formulating a coherent argument, which is not that uncommon, but which was surprising on the basis of her oral performance.

I’ve since come to recognize bilingual students with high levels of oracy but low levels of (academic) literacy as a distinct subgroup among my students as I encounter one or two of them in almost every class I teach. I was reminded of that bilingual student and all my other students with a similar linguistic profile, when I read Kate Menken and Tatyana Kleyn’s paper about long-term English language learners (LTELLs). According to the authors, LTELLs comprise one-third of the ELL population in high schools in New York City. LTELLs are defined as having attended school in the USA for seven or more years and still requiring language support.

Although […] LTELLs are orally proficient for social purposes in English and their native language, their skills in these languages are several grade levels below in reading and writing, resulting in poor overall academic performance. (p. 403)

Despite the fact that the numbers of LTELLs in NYC schools are substantial, they do not receive any specialized services, and the services they receive are mismatched. For ESL support they are usually placed in the same class as new arrivals with limited or no oral proficiency in English. As a consequence, their ESL support is way below their level, they get bored and they disengage. For Spanish on the other hand (most of the LTELLs Menken & Kleyn interviewed were English-Spanish bilinguals), they are either placed in Spanish-as-a-Foreign-Language classes (too easy again) or in Spanish enrichment classes with new arrivals who have received prior education in Spanish and whose Spanish is much more proficient. In this scenario, too, the LTELLs disengage, this time because the class is far too difficult for them.

Because of their high levels of oral proficiency, these students are often misjudged and their need for reading and writing support is overlooked. However, their low literacy in English results in poor academic performance overall. The high school average of the LTELLs in Menken & Kleyn’s study was a D+, and almost 20% had an F average. Failure breeds failure and many LTELLs drop out of school altogether.

LTELLs develop in a context of subtractive schooling where there is a lack of support for writing development in their home language and a sink-or-swim attitude to English learning. In such a scenario one language “subtracts” from the other and neither develops sufficiently.

As Kimie and I are finalizing the special issue devoted to “Language and Social Inclusion” which we are guest-editing for the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, we’ve been thinking about the many ways in which institutions, including educational institutions, conspire to exclude linguistically diverse populations rather than promoting their inclusion. LTELLs are a case in point: schools fail these students by failing to address their specialized language learning needs. Surely bilingual children deserve better then receiving an education that turns them first into LTELLs, and then poor students, and then drop-outs, and ultimately excludes them permanently from the mainstream.

ResearchBlogging.org Menken, K., & Kleyn, T. (2010). The long-term impact of subtractive schooling in the educational experiences of secondary English language learners International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13 (4), 399-417 DOI: 10.1080/13670050903370143

Ingrid Piller

Author Ingrid Piller

Dr Ingrid Piller, FAHA, is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research expertise is in bilingual education, intercultural communication, language learning, and multilingualism in the context of migration and globalization.

More posts by Ingrid Piller

Join the discussion 82 Comments

  • Charles says:

    Although I am commenting several years after the initial post, this is a topic of interest for me as I am currently working on a dissertation I plan to call “6 +1 years of writing assessments: predicting at-risk L2 writers”.

    Our school has currently gathered seven years of direct writing samples from Grade 3-12 students; scored with analytic scoring using the 6 +1 Oregon Traits Rubric. The interesting phenomenon in the data is L2 students who score less than 3 out of 6 in the six trait areas never cross the threshold of 3 even after repeated years of attempts. In contrast, L1 students who initially score below 3 do progress; as well as L1 and L2 students that score 3+.

    The purpose of the study will be to validate the assessment as a predictive tool to identify at-risk L2 writers as early as Grade 3. If the tool can be validated, we don’t need to wait to investigate intervention strategies before the gap in their development widens.

    I would be interested if others have come across any other predictive tools in identifying potential LTELs for early intervention; especially in K-12 schools outside the US.

  • KyKy says:

    As students experience unbalanced focus on academic skills, it’s the teachers’ duty to find solutions for it. In my own view, teachers should identify the issues, then give a workshop to students on introduction to academic writing because they don’t know how to do it yet their professors expect them to be proficient in a genre they’ve never encountered. Though tests do not accurately show students’ abilities, it can be effectively used to check the academic skill levels of entering students.

  • Siqi says:

    Unbalanced language skills is a quite common problem in China as students are not required to take any oral test during their course of learning English. Students who do pay attention to their oral proficiency are mostly comprised of those who want to pursue higher education in foreign countries, and since English is not used in daily life in China, many students lack the motivation to improve their oral performances.

  • Nguyen Thien Duyen Ngo says:

    From my view, the LTELL situation can happen not only in English native speaking countries but also many places in the world. I somehow consider myself as the case of LTELL because of my difficulties in writing the formal essay in my mother tongue as well as in English. I really love reading in both Vietnamese and English; however, my writing skills do not improve that much. I consider this problem as my aptitude and I think it will be an endless fight and try to improve my academic writing skills in both languages.

  • Rochelle says:

    This article reminds me a lot about the people from my country, Singapore. We are bilingual and at the same time, we are also LTELL. Due to our society background with Malays, Indians, and other races, we are brought up in a way to know one another’s languages. At the same time, it becomes hard for us to be proficient in either English or one particular language academically. Albeit this fact, it based on the students’ capabilities, determination, interests, and motivation for the subject.

  • Yan Yan says:

    I think this example of Korean students is very typical. Since I am also an international student, I have noticed that many international students are more or less unbalanced in English language communication. For example, some students are better at speaking and some students are better at writing.
    In my experience, international students in Asia are better at reading and writing, and international students outside Asia are better at speaking, which may be related to their English learning environment. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, and this is not based on any statistics or research, just my personal experience

  • Cami says:

    I feel like I can also sympathise with the LTELLs in this piece. I am fluent in Korean, thanks to self-study and also living with Korean housemates. I learnt most of my Korean by listening and speaking to Koreans and my spoken Korean is good enough that people expect to meet a Korean if they have only spoken to me on the phone and not seen me. In contrast, my written Korean is a disaster. One of my friends who is a Korean teacher always compliments me on my spoken Korean but she told me that since my spoken Korean was so good she was completely shocked when she saw my first text message. After living in Korea for a year and texting people more my Korean spelling has improved but my speaking and writing are so far apart I have given up on improving my writing. I was offered work in Korea, due to my ability to speak Korean and English, however I was quite worried about having to write in Korean and can’t say that I have a real command of Korean since the writing side is so underdeveloped. Unlike listening and speaking skills, it is really difficult to develop writing and reading skills unless you are more diligent and search/create opportunities for yourself.

  • tting says:

    Language and culture are closely related. Learning a language is inseparable from the culture in which it is spoken. Usually orally bilingual, but often with limited literacy skills in their first language; and their academic literacy skills in English are not as well developed as their oral language
    abilities. They often “stuck” at intermediate levels of English proficiency or below. Some reach higher levels of English proficiency but do not attain adequate English academic language to be reclassified. These students more likely than other students to be identified as having learning disabilities. Some students may become discouraged in school and be at risk of dropping out of school.

  • Duong Khanh Vu says:

    This is unfortunately the case for some vagrant understudies. I have as of late run over an understudy whose oracy is of an abnormal state though his composition/perusing abilities don’t match to a similar level in one of the classes I educate. The speed of expanded English capability for the individuals who move from a non-English talking nation to an English-talking one is commonly high. Be that as it may, this learning is separated into two gatherings, initially of talking and besides of different aptitudes.

  • Nidhi Dhir says:

    learning a second language is always different experience since it is not inherent from childhood like mother tongue. I suppose this article belongs to me as i found my self quite good at speaking and listening and my writing skills are not that much developed. i have learnt english as second language in english medium school but i often find myself struggling in achieving satisfactory results in writing skill. The LTELL circumstance occurs to native English-talking nations as well as in numerous Asian nations. Consistently, there is an extent of learners who move from secondary school yet get themselves unfit to create a scholarly quality article in their local dialect.

  • Xinyue Ji says:

    The author claims that LTELL students are well performed in speaking and social purposes. It’s true because in ELC in Macquarie, one of my classmates was from Philippines and she had no problems in speaking, but she failed in two-thirds of the writing tests. From this situation, I agree with the author that LTELL students should both concentrate on speaking and academic reading and writing. If they don’t, their English may be out of balance and causes trouble for them.

  • Fern says:

    This is sadly the case for some migrant students. I have recently come across a student whose oracy is of a high level whereas his writing/reading skills do not match to the same level in one of the classes I teach . As a result, he has failed his examination providing him a conditional offer for post graduate studies. He is a physiotherapist by profession and works as an assistant at a practice here in Australia, another reason I believe why his oral communication skills are of a higher standard.
    Fortunately, as failures of this course are given special attention in the skills they need to improve on, on an individual basis, he was able to pass his hurdle at the second attempt. I believe that the focus lessons designed for failures by the institution is an attempt at inclusion of students of diverse levels that help students achieve their goals.

  • Ngoc Hiep Nguyen says:

    This is a truly interesting experience shared by the article’s author. I have also heard somewhere in this international education environment that there are usually a few English native speaking students who are bad at their academic (writing) skill, but now it is confirmed by an expert in this field. Some reasons for this phenomenon as given out by the author are so convincing when they illustrate that these natively oral students are so often highly judged in oral presentation that they overlook the other academic skills (reading and writing), and that the the schooling environment does not supply these students with specialized services to afford their academic skills.
    From this sharing I may draw out one my own lesson that “practice makes perfect” – in this case it seems to me that the English native speaking students do not spend enough time for academic skill practicing vis-a-vis their oral performance. Also, this story inspires me a lot, a student learning English as a second language, it still have time and space for me to improve my academic writing skill further.

  • Piiigah (kamali) says:

    The speed of increased English proficiency for those who move from a non-English speaking country to an English-speaking one is typically very high. However, this knowledge is divided into two groups, firstly of speaking and secondly of other skills. The power of making connections and involving in conversations improve one’s oral skills but academic writing ability is a complicated topic which cannot approach or learnt easily.

  • Lai Ng says:

    I guess this is my experience as well. As a second language learner, it is understood that sometimes the speaking ability is not equivalent to the writing ability. The illusion of speaking well means writing well is a key issue in tertiary education in western world. More support in academic learning is encouraged in different fields. Academic writing in science papers must be quite different from academic writing in arts subjects. Academic writing is different from the articles we read daily. I am still learning and it is not easy to be skilful in such writing.

  • Anas says:

    This article excites me for 2 reasons – 1. the relevance to my own personal experience and that of my friends 2. gives me an insight on how I can understand my future students better as I become a teacher in Jordan. This article has basically put into words what I could not as a LTELL. As mentioned previously in my Task 1 comment, many Jordanian students are able to produce coherent and logical verbal arguments in classroom discussions but fail to produce the same level of competency in writing, in particular, academic writing. This could be related to the L1 (Arabic) in which the sentences are frequently long with no or little punctuations. As such, based on this article, I could reflect on my academic educational journey as I weave my way through my L1 and L2.

  • yym says:

    This article has shown that students who live in the migrated family may have lack of ability in literacy but are skilled in oral speaking between two languages. At the same time, due to the obstacles of the surrounding environment, migrant students can not learn and practice their mother tongue like other peers. However, it is an accumulated process to build the skill of academic reading and writing. In China, children received compulsory academic language learning which leads them to have the higher ability in literacy than oracy. In my opinion, these two factors are closely related so that students need to balance the directions of language learning.

  • xqx says:

    For most of the English learners who learned English as a second language, to improve the academic writing skills are always more difficult than oral skills due to the higher and critical standard of academic English level. Besides, a long-term English learner may perform well in general English. However, if they want to obtain a higher level of academic English, they should get through a professional study process and practice in order to develop the academic writing skills.

  • Luv says:

    Each language learner has its own pace of learning and its skills develop differently as well. It depends on their current contexts, background and how motivated they feel to make efforts to learn the language. Part of their development is personally attained and the other part lies on where they learn and who they learn with, at school or at home. For schools, I think it might be difficult to cater each student necessities, and also for the school convenience, they do not pay attention to students’ differences appropriately for a numbers of reasons such as budget, time, curriculum and so on. If there are 2 or 3 students out of 20 or 30 who have different levels of proficiency in one or two skills from the rest of the class, it could be hard for the school to put them in one group only. The questions could be addressed to school, teachers and students on what each can do to make learning engaging and appropriate for everyone.

  • Luis TV says:

    During my living in the U.S, I met several people who I could relate to what this article describes. Based on this experience, I could say that LTELLs are the least effectively supported group of learners, and perhaps that may have been one of the reasons that the people I met had for not pursuing any higher education. As Menken and Kleyn posit, LTELLs’ oral proficiency is native-like but their reading and writing skills, which are the most required in academic settings, are below the expected level. Therefore, these learners fail because the education system fails them in addressing the particularity of their cases. Furthermore, as Piller suggests, bilingual children deserve better than being placed in a highway towards failure.

  • Sirin says:

    Thanks for sharing this personal experience with us, Ingrid. I feel like we are back in week 1 again, where we discussed the power of literacy and the supremacy of written over oral skills. Within academic settings your student’s native-like oral skills seem to be less valued than her written performance. Oral skills, in my opinion, develop simultaneously to English learning, as students are exposed to the English language and somehow extend their vocabulary through active English output. Written skills, on the other hand, are more likely to develop through specialised training in highly organised educational settings. Hence, to me, it is no surprise that there are discrepancies when comparing non-native students’ oral and written performances.

  • Ary says:

    Standing on a more personal perspective, I think long term English language learners could be either EFL learners or ESL learners, either of which could face serious difficulties on their way of climbing the proficiency status. However, when it comes to academic discourse, the standard is rather high for both oracy and literacy, although there are certain differences, e.g. styles, for different disciplines (and possibly the level of education that is being considered). For that reason, the categorization of ESL or EFL would be of very little importance. Under such circumstances, the learners should be “classified” with proper processes (diagnosis tests could suffice to a certain extent, or placement tests serving as a diagnosis one) so they can receive suitable and useful support.

  • AN says:

    This was definitely an interesting read for me, considering the fact that I have not been in the teaching line for long. It is quite ‘eye-opening’ to realize a distinct disjuncture between the ability to speak a language so fluently for years and the ability to write as proficiently in the same language, in spite of being a LTELL. It is also quite fascinating that the ability to read, write and perform academically involves a completely different thought process as opposed to having a fluent conversation in English at a café (can’t imagine writing theses the same way we talk to our friends at that café). A common ‘bump’ on the road for most L2 learners such as I, and my fellow peers back in my country (Malaysia). It also gets tricky when we are required to acquire more than two languages at once. Most of us had to depend on private language centres (or ‘tuition as we call it) for our language learning, as schools did/ could not provide the support we needed since more focus had to be given on ‘keeping up’ with the required syllabus and passing examinations…
    I can’t help but to think of students who are not able to receive the needed support from outside of language classrooms (which may be due to various reasons). And of how I, as a teacher, would need the ability to identify these students and provide the support they need.

  • Hasnahana says:

    Thanks for this effective article as I can relate myself to this writing. I have been learning English as a second language for 15 years since my kindergarten and still needs improvement in four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). I am facing more difficulties after coming to Australia with all the skills. Up to year 12, the medium of instruction of education was Bengali and after that at the university the instruction was English. Being a teacher of English medium school in Bangladesh, I must say the picture is different with the students who are going to English school from the very beginning of their education as the medium of instruction is English and they have good proficiency in all the skills though they are living in Bangladesh.
    Another observation I must share, the children who are born and brought up in Australia are very good at English but they have poor proficiency in the four skills of Bengali. They can speak Bengali with the code-switching with English and most of them cannot read or write Bengali though they can understand the Bengali language. To me, I think, in both cases, we need awareness and practice of both language learning and parents can motivate and help their children to learn the language.

  • Mii says:

    To the best of my knowledge, I think specialized supports are necessary in this situation. LTELLs should receive one-to-one tutor hours to improve their literacy in English. This reminds me of the situation in my home country where people consider oral skills much more important than reading and writing. English learners are always advised to study speaking first, to try to speak without thinking about grammar. The good point is that the students will have their confidence to communicate. However, when it comes to writing, they might find it really tricky.

  • Karly says:

    The article is a great illustration of how an individual’s literacy should not be overestimated nor underestimated in a learning environment. A failure to understand an LTELL’s first and second language capabilities will mean that the needs of the student will not be adequately catered for both languages. This may subsequently have adverse effects for the LTELL in being bored of material that is too easy for the student or being incapable of understanding material that is too advanced. Both situations will lead to the individual being unable to progress their literacy which has disastrous effects on the LTELL’s development.

  • mengyao.jiao APPL941 says:

    Being a bilingual learner sounds is fascinating thing, long-term language learners who can speak two languages also are sorts of bilingual learners. There are some misunderstandings about their abilities of literacy and oracy including writing and speaking. For example, people always consider the English speakers also good at English writing,but actually long-term language learners can not have a balance of oracy and literacy. These misunderstandings results teacher overrate learners abilities.

  • Au says:

    I have two cousins who were born in USA. Both have had a good performance at mainstream schools with high academic achievement, although they speak Mandarin at home with their parents. They go back to their mother’ home in China every four years, and stay there for about 3 months. I am not sure what factors could have influences on a bilingual child’s literacy, but in this case the student may not receive enough formal education at mainstream school.

  • Salam Moussa Oghli says:

    This is sadly the case of a lot of first generation migrants and it is interesting how it is a cross-cultural phenomenon. My cousins (Armenian-Syrian background) went through very similar problems when they moved to Sydney and they had to hire a tutor to help them with their comprehension and writing skills even though their speaking and listening skill seemed to be native-like. One of them could not continue her studies and enrolled in TAFE instead.
    There is usually a lot of pressure on the children of new settlers as they are expected to graduate with the highest marks and become successful. High academic performance cannot be the outcome of merely hard work and late night studying. A lot of the students require direct courses that help them improve their literacy skills.

  • Kim says:

    The case of the long-term English language learners (LTELLs) is a new issue for me yet worth further exploring as it seems to be related to second language acquisition (SLA), the area of linguistics I am interested in. Such a phenomenon may also exist in other non-migrants EFL students and, to some extent make me, and perhaps, other ESL or EFL learners aware that a supportive environment is vital. While it could be true that the school has contributed to the students’ learning in this context, there might be also other internal factors such as motivation, language aptitude, and willingness to communicate since learning does not always take place in the classroom setting but also outside and beyond the classroom both intentionally and incidentally.

  • Prim says:

    This article teaches us the significant element of considering of LTELLs and this reminds me of my friends who are Korean, were born and have grown up in Australia. They are all good at speaking English communicating with natives, of course. However, it might be a bit difficult for them to build up their academic competence and literacies in their environment; this is because they usually speak in Korean at home and with their relatives such as grandparents or cousins. Interestingly, one of those friends’ younger sister can rarely speak Korean since their parents had stopped teaching Korean seriously because they were too busy to do so. Therefore, interestingly, the older sister can almost 90 percent can understand and speak Korean but her younger sibling can’t. I thought, as a Language teacher and professional, we must be able to consider different situations and backgrounds of LTELLs.

  • Nasser says:

    The article appropriately stresses the need to address those literacy issues faced by first-generation and second-generation immigrant students compared with non-migrant bilingual students. The responsibility mainly lies with education stakeholders in general and schools in specific to respond to the issue and provide opportunities for them to integrate into the new community and project a sense of self-belonging.

    Studies carried out by Andreas Schleicher, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, in 2015 reveal that this integration primarily depends on the host country. He argues that the gap between these groups is reduced when stricter immigration policies by host countries are introduced.
    Other approaches recommended by the research, which can be applied by schools to improve migrant students’ literacy skills amongst other skills, include:
    introducing early childhood migration policies
    offering language development activities
    communication with parents to familiarise them with integration policies and programmes offered

    See the report below for further information:
    https://www.oecd.org/education/Helping-immigrant-students-to-succeed-at-school-and-beyond.pdf

  • Thi Bach Tuyet Nguyen says:

    This article reminds me the case of my Australian-Korean friend who is studying PhD in Mathematics and Actuarial Science. He has lived in Australia for such a very long time when he was small. He speaks Korean with his family at home whereas he uses English at Uni. I once ask him why you do not speak English at home as a way of practicing English and he says that it is easier for their family members to express their own ideas in Korean because they are much more familiar with Korean culture. He speaks English very well with native-speaker accent. However, when it come to writing, he makes many grammatical mistakes in his master thesis. Or even when he posts some statuses in English on Facebook or texts messages to me, various mistakes are made. Hence, he tries to improve his academic writing skills now to prepare for his PhD dissertation.
    To me, I have witnessed some cases like my friend and the writer in this article, they are also immigrants in Australia but their abilities in both spoken and written forms are completely like native speakers. Instead of using their mother language at home, they take advantage of using their target language (English) as well. In fact, using a language everyday is a useful tool of mastering it.

  • Naoya says:

    As an English and Japanese teacher working in Australia, I understand how difficult it is to acquire writing and reading skills in comparison with speaking and listening even though it also takes language learners time to get used to speaking and listening in a different language. When I teach English to Japanese students going to either a Japanese school in Australia or an international school, I can see them having difficulties writing, expecially spelling in English regardless of what kind of school they go, which is interesting. I used to believe that the latter students’ performance outperformed the former learners’ performance. However, in fact, there seems to be almost nothing different in their writing skills at this stage. Probably, it is important for students to receive language support necessary to them at a certain age in order to obtain benefits from being overseas.

    • Frank says:

      Hi Naoya,

      It’s a perspective I’m very unfamiliar with myself, as the second language I learnt doesn’t have a written form. What you mentioned in terms of having the support at a necessary age though; coming from a speech pathology background we learnt a lot about ‘critical period’ hypotheses, which is exactly that idea you mentioned. I learnt about the critical periods primarily in regards to children picking up their first language, and only minimally in reference to second language learners. Reading on it briefly, it seems like a rather contentious idea with lots of debate.

  • Marie says:

    I almost felt like struck by lightning while reading this article. Throughout my life, I wondered why I’d speak English fluently yet struggle so much in academic settings – particularly in writing. I grew up in a few different countries which enabled me to speak several languages comfortably, however, when it comes to academic writing, I am never confident about my production which often led to procrastination. The discrepancy between people’s as well as my expectations and my real academic performance would put a dent in my ego. I am glad to learn that this could be more than a personal issue and is being addressed by researchers. In the transnational era we live in, more children and students will need a tailored education.

  • Natalie Estrella says:

    As an Academic English teacher with over 15 years of experience at the University of South Australia I have come across many LTELLs struggling with Academic English proficiency. As the blog above mentions, generally these students are second generation migrants and have progressed through the Australian primary and/or secondary education system, probably achieving minimum grades. It is not until aspiring to enter undergraduate studies that finally support is available to develop their academic literacy skills through ELICOS centres such as the one where I work. Despite this, problems of disengagement mentioned in the above blog, continue to exist as even though they are surrounded by peers with similar English proficiency, they feel disheartened and demotivated by the fact that they are in a kind of limbo land, part local student and part international student, and hence the setback of having to take on conditional English language studies that their local peers do not need to do. Personally, I think the solution for this is for Australian schools to incorporate EAP classes within the curriculum, as a subject that local students can enrol in too. I know that I for one, would have appreciated knowing about academic skills such as paragraph structure, essay structure, referencing, critical reviews, and report writing before embarking on my university studies, rather than the ‘sink or swim’ approach that I experienced.

  • Aureliano says:

    In regards to the exclusion of linguistically diverse population in educational institutions I relate to it as the universities in my country welcome a very diverse population of students coming from public and private schools, from rural and urban communities, as well as aboriginal students. This could be superficially seen as positive, as universities become an place of equality, but it is easy to see how students with poor literacy skills start to quickly lose motivation and sometimes take twice as much to finish their degree or even drop out after a couple of semesters. With this in mind, most universities in my country are now offering mandatory courses that attempt to level writing and reading skills before students before they start their undergraduate degree. Besides they also offer continuous writing support available.

  • Van Le says:

    This is the first time I really think about this matter. In my country (Vietnam), it is a different situation: People mostly consider oral competence in a foreign language such as English is priority and of course they often relate a person who sounds native as speaking the target language is good at it in all aspects. This leads to the tendency to overlook the supports in academic literacy. In an English- speaking country, the supports migrant students recieve should be appropriate to the students’ levels, needs and should also aim at helping them to overcome their difficulties in both speech for social purpose and academic performances.

  • Haley says:

    This also makes me consider the value and wisdom of some English medium universities in non English speaking countries. I currently work at one such institution and see many students being pushed through the English preparatory program and into an academic situation without what would appear to be the necessary skills to succeed academically.

    They may get to a reasonable communicative level, but the writing and analytical skills needed to succeed are often lacking, especially considering that this often their first exposure to English medium education. Once out of the preparatory program they are provided with no further English support and are left to deal with complex subject matter in a foreign language.

    It would appear the monolingual problem can also exist even within one’s home country.

  • Siyi Wu says:

    I am totally agree with that. This situation does not just happen in English. Actually, for some Australian-Chinese, they can speak Chinese very well but they do not know how to write it. Also, they make many grammatical mistakes clearly. For these groups of people, they can speak at least two languages. However, they cannot use or write all of them very well.

  • zhongliang lin says:

    This article highlights a common problem encountered by bilingual students. Most of them have high levels of oracy but low levels of academic literacy. This made me realize that a person’s literacy is not related to his oral ability. A very interesting example is that many long-term English learners in China,their literacy skills are much better than their oral abilities. I think this is because they have done a lot of exercises in reading and writing training. However, due to the lack of a speaking practice environment, their speaking ability is not outstanding.

  • Preeya says:

    English language is recognized the most language to learn. Having more background of the knowledge is the more opportunities will open to achieve better. However, some native people are not good in all English competence especially in writing. I was born in monolingual society where English is not the first language and English as a basic core curriculum. Teaching English in Thailand focuses on grammatical rather than speaking, sometime teachers use Thai language to teach English in the classroom. Moreover, almost Thai students learning English through using translation programme into English. Consequently, the problems will arise when the students go to study in higher levels in the countries where English is the first language. The students always face the problems in English language proficiency, especially in academic field. This article remained me about my English language learning journey and the importance of four skills of English language.

  • Arnon says:

    In my opinion, language aptitude and ability of the learners are different which show us in this article. I also as a LTELL found that there is a difficult to writing between formality and informality. This is because I always translate English into my mother language in my mind. In my case, I thought my reading and writing are better than speaking or listening that because these skills depend on my practise and finally every skills in any languages can improve by practise and personal discipline.

  • Tamanna says:

    I can consider myself belonging to LTELL, as I am learning the English language from very early childhood. Still, I am struggling in English to communicate with others and to improve my academic performance. The children who are brought up in this situation, it is very common that they have to cope up with two languages at the same time, which is not easy at all. They learn both languages but it is difficult for them to focus on both languages completely. May be that’s why, they fail in their academic exams. I observed that, children of Bangladeshi people who born here, they always mix up English with their home language in their talking. Though they overcome this difficulty with the increased age, they can not able to show their proficiency in English due to interference of their home language. I think the Government should take necessary education policies, syllabus, curriculum, suitable teaching methodologies to help the migrant students to improve their language learning process especially in academic area.

  • Pegah Marandi says:

    Dear all,
    It seems that being native in a language does not specifically indicate high proficiency in literacy (writing specially), for example a person can speak and understand a language (even mother language) very well, but can fail when it comes to writing. I can see this in myself also as I can speak Persian very well, but when it comes to compositions, I cannot meet the criteria of the writing. This can also be observed in the above mentioned student of Professor Piller. Moreover, it seems that moving back and forth from one country to another can have influence in not grasping the exact criteria of a specific language, but again that is not fixed for all. I remember I had a friend few years ago and when he spoke English, it seemed he is a Native British speaker which indicates some have good ears for language though not being the citizen of that country. This is clearly observed in Australia also where HSC students suffer when it comes to writing. Though they are natives, some are unable to compose a proper reflection or an essay for their school tasks. Another important factor in becoming a good writer is to read a lot. These two skills move align with one another and are complementary.
    With regards,
    Pegah

  • Orpheus says:

    I can relate this post to the situation of some bilingual students in a Vietnamese class that I taught at a language center. These students speak Chinese with their parents at home and use Vietnamese to speak at schools. They were really good at speaking skills as they could speak Vietnamese quite fluently and express their ideas by using Vietnamese quite well. However, when it comes to writing essays at exams, they usually made a lot of mistakes, and their scores for writing test were not as high as those they achieved in the speaking tests. I spent a lot of time and effort helping them to improve both of their writing and reading skills. Therefore, I think every educational institution should pay more attention to these students to address their specialized language learning needs.

  • Ann says:

    Again very interesting blog. This let me to understand my self. I am included to LTELLS. I have been learning English as a second language for nearly fifty years! Seems to be that there is no end. However, there is a purpose of learning English.
    Most of the time I prioritise my first language. Although I am living in Australia I do not use English very much. Therefore, I find some difficulties in reading and listening.
    Fortunately,most of Australian schools cater migrant students. Thus, our kids do not struggle very much to learn English because they learn other subjects in English and automatically catchup faster. They do have to use only English at school. Any way learning a language is not easy at all.

  • Nana says:

    I have evidenced some cases in which adult migrants who came to Australia at different ages learn to speak English in a very fluent way, but they find difficult to write correctly in English. One of the reasons is that they almost never attended to an English class, but they learned English just speaking. some even do not know the spelling of some words; a simple short text message may have many mistakes. I am not referring to slang or ‘Aussie’ expressions, I mean grammar and spelling mistakes. The case with children or teens is in some way different because normally they are enrolled in school or English courses, but they interrupt them because of their parents’ travels or work. The lack of English grammar teaching in schools in Australia (that I am not sure if still happens) affects writing literacy not only to migrants but also to native Australians.

  • Chunja says:

    I can see that LTELLs is not an uncommon phenomenon. Since I have been to Australia, I met many Asian people who were born and raised here, definitely their speaking English is fluent and sounds like native speakers. However, some of them shared with me that they did not perform well in writing essays and reports at school. I could also pick out grammatical mistakes or spelling in their messages. I may say one of the main reasons for this can be their perspectives on the importance of literacy. As they have no difficulties in communication, they consider them “native speakers” and may feel learning to write in standard/academic English is not really necessary. Also, these students may have not learnt formal English properly and already get used to it, so they feel afraid to change.
    To me, I myself probably consider myself a LTELL because although I have been learning and using English frequently for quite a long time, I still see lots of room for improvement in my writing.

  • Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri says:

    Hello everyone,
    According to this article, I mostly agree with the author. I think a student who immerse in a context where English language is spoken, it leads for the student to be proficient in oral communication; however, it does not mean the proficient speaker of the foreign or second language is a proficient at literacy skills. Having strong basic knowledge of literacy is the key of success in academic studies. Students should have meet the requirements of academic study such as literacy which considers one of the most important component in academic study. For example, I studied English from intermediate school till university, but I have not learnt literacy. Later, when I started doing my postgraduate study, I started learning literacy gradually. So, lacking knowledge of literacy may impede students in their academic journey, even if the students are proficient in spoken language. I think students who are not proficient in oral communication, but proficient at literacy skills may outperform than those who are lacking literacy skills and proficient in spoken skills.

  • Wendie LIU says:

    Thanks for sharing.As the contemporary society develops dramatically, more and more migrant students and their parents are facing the bilingual problems in those multilingual countries. Although lots of migrant students are immersed in the full English speaking context with high oracy but some of them are still confronted with obvious troubles in literacy mastery. At the same time, due to the barriers of the surrounding environment, the migrant students cannot learn and practice their mother tongue as well as other peers using their first language.
    Besides, undesirable academic and linguistic performance in both their first and second language in school and society, some of them may be obsessed with the alienation from other peers and even the whole society, and then lock themselves out from social inclusion. Finally, they may jump into a vicious cycle and be forced to drop out of schools in the long-term English learning.

  • N says:

    In my opinion, I think literacy skills should have guided since early schooling. As i come from the country which teaches English as a second language, literacy skills are kind of left behind. In school or even in the language school, they tend to focus on oral and aural skills than reading and writing skills. So, students can speak well but not good at literacy. When they move to study overseas, they would get struck into Academic reading and writing. It is the same as in the article, bilingual students who many time moved between 2 countries. They do not attend or miss classes which means they are not have a chance to practice and get used to Academic reading and writing. As a result, they can not do well regarding to lack of literacy practice.

  • gab88 says:

    Kate and Tatyana raise some interesting points from their research of bilingual American teenagers in that the system doesn’t provide the appropriate support they need but with that being said but I don’t agree that institutions “conspire to exclude linguistically diverse populations…” I think they simply don’t know what to do in order to effectively teach and transition these students to ‘mainstream’ norms. It is usually left up to the teacher who usually is already having to deal with numerous students and there aren’t enough hours in a day to address the issues surrounding such a group of students. Therefore, the fact that this is identifiable; more resources and support needs to be available to assist with the linguistic disparity, and this should be coming from governments/ Education departments and the heads of schools to form support/resources. Intervention should be done as early as possible especially if we continue to judge the success our students on ‘standardised tests’ such as NAPLAN.

  • Thuy Linh Nguyen says:

    This article is very helpful as it points out one issue that has been outlooked and misjudged for a long time. I have also encountered many people who can speak English fluently but still need to go to the writing classes. I argue that it is of importance to institutions, educational institutions and teachers to acknowledge the needs of these students and to provide them the support they need.

  • Farzaneh Morovati says:

    Hello,

    Interestingly, this blog refers to me as a LTELL who has started English from early childhood and still works on English Knowledge in both literacy and oracy fields. It is a very important point that high proficiency in oracy would not necessarily result in perfect academic literacy. Also, this fact can be true in my native language. Mostly students are not competent enough to write formal letters or academic assignments, since proper instructions and trainings are not conducted during the school times. Being native in a language is different from using that language academically / technically acceptable. From my personal point of view, competency in oracy can play a role of contributor in facilitating the back bone of the academic knowledge. However, the main efficiency rests on the particular practices and trainings employed by individuals to improve their academic competency. It goes without saying that academic mastery needs extra practices to be shaped with maximised endeavours in second or foreign language learning. In my opinion, the level of academic knowledge is an indicator of the individual’s position in higher educations and upcoming social participations/involvements.

    Thank you
    Farzaneh Morovati

  • J.J says:

    I have had a similar experience as mentioned in the article.
    I have spent a year in an English-speaking country (to learn), and I have improved my ability to speak English by having a relationship with foreign friends and being exposed to an English -speaking environment. When I back to my country, I was confident in speaking English, and I was sure that four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) would be improved as I expected. However, when I took the preliminary exam for the IELTS, the results were very different form my expectation. In a writing part, the grade was much lower than speaking. The reason Why I got a lower score was that there were a lot of grammatical mistakes because I wrote the essay in speaking styles. This is because I did not know that it is important to learn how to write as I have learned how to speak.

  • Thet says:

    This article is thought-provoking in that I, as a non-native speaker of English, think myself as LTELL, who has been learning the language since Kindergarten, but who still needs to improve the English proficiency not only for communicative purposes but also for academia. In my point of view, it is natural for a majority of non-native speakers of English. What about my mother tongue? My self-reflection points out that I am still not a competent user of my mother tongue. Like writing different genres of academic discourse in English, I will have to struggle to write a summary or a report or a thesis in Burmese.
    Another point that the article gets me to think is about bilingual and multilingual education. As the population of non-native speakers or learners of English is growing, in my opinion, there should be a careful consideration in developing language policies, syllabuses and curricula and teaching pedagogies and assessment systems to help this majority of learners succeed in their language learning process.

  • abc says:

    The conundrum of LTELLs is a fascinating one, which I imagine will only grow in the future thanks to increasing globalisation and migration. I’d be fascinated to know what measures Australian schools have put in place to cater for these students. I’d also love to know whether these measures differ between public, independent and private schools. It would be very interesting to discover how the Australian approach to LTELL students compares to that of other OECD countries.

  • Yang says:

    Some native students are very good at both academic writing and oral fluency, some are good in oral but not in writing. For me, I was born in a monolingual family, my parents could not speak other languages except Cantonese. And I started learning English in primary school with some simple vocabulary, sentences and grammar. We were asked to be more focus on the theory but lack of practical use. Our teachers taught English in “Chinese mode”, which means the teacher use Chinese to teach English. We, as the students, only could understand English after translating into Chinese. As a result, when I firstly arrived in Australia, I felt really difficult to me in writing with academic style and in speaking English with others. I did work hard with a long time and now I improve a little bit. I am in the stage of good at writing but not oral fluency.

  • Satoko says:

    This story reminds me of my junior high school students at a Japanese school where I am teaching on weekends. Some students cannot write Chinese character, or kanji, learned at a primary school. They also feel complexed about grammar in Japanese in writing essays. One of the strategies of mine is to make a habit of writing a short essay about what interests them, so I assign the essay every two weeks. I am trying to give some feedback about structures and contents, rather than linguistic features because even though we can change hiragana (the basic form of Japanese) into kanji, we cannot change the contents in typing. Of course, most of my students do not like essays, but so far their sentence structures seem to be improved gradually. Writing about their favourites and giving some explicit feedback should be encouraged to maintain their basic literacy skills.

  • AzPc says:

    I was born in a multicultural family which my parents don’t share the same language so that my family mainly use English to communicate without each other. My school English teacher was surprised to see me with my oral English skills at the first time. However, she find that I got really bad grammar than any other classmates in the class. This problem was still be with me, especially for the IELTS exam, I got really lower mark on writing but quite good mark in others.

  • Ya says:

    This is an interesting article. I have studied in Australia for around 2 years. when I was studying in EFL classroom, I found that some migrant students in Australia, they can speak fluent English, but they were terrible with writing. Also, I met some migrant people who are born in Australia, they can speak English and their parents’ mother languages. However, these migrations only have the high literacy level of English. Therefore, if immigrant parents intend to improve their children’s two languages’ literacy level, they should encourage their children to be more exposed to two languages literacy environment.

  • Gab says:

    The most captivating point made in this post is “schools fail these students by failing to address their specialized language learning needs. Surely bilingual children deserve better then receiving an education that turns them first into LTELLs, and then poor students, and then drop-outs, and ultimately excludes them permanently from the mainstream.” I strongly agree with this! I believe that teaching or enabling language learning (and any other things) requires the understanding of learners’ needs first and foremost. By identifying the needs of students, designing and creating appropriate language learning programs and curricula can be done which will directly target the learners’ specific language learning needs and skills.

  • Ss says:

    In china, we need to learn English even from the kindergarten. However, although I have already learnt English for almost twenty years, I have no ideas about the difference between speaking and writing English before learning IELTS. The vocabulary, sentence and even examination skills are totally different in speaking, writing, reading and listening parts within IELTS. And it is after I came to Australia and began to write essay, I realised even writing language, there are differences between formal (or academic) and informal.
    To be honest, I think everyone can be seen as a long-term language learner, no matter he/she is native speaker or not. The knowledge relating to linguistic is too huge and even native-language speakers cannot actuarie all of them. For example, they may find some unknown vocabularies when they are reading; they may feel hesitate when they first time seen an internat slang. Therefore, there are no ends in language learning.

    • Adia says:

      This phenomenon shows us that learning a second or foreign language for academic and communicative purposes really need special attention. Many learners can find their oral performance fluent enough yet have difficulty in their formal written performance, especially for academic purposes. However, it does not only happen in second or foreign language but also in L1. Many students also still need support in their academic writing in their L1, even tertiary students still need some help in their writing and still find it challenging to read academic literatures. Therefore, we can neglect such need in second or foreign language, especially when it is very influential in their education outcomes. They may speak fluently but it doesn’t really reflect their academic writing and reading skill.

  • Roxxan says:

    I was quite interested in this article since I am a long term English learner and has a different culture background. Thanks for the interesting post. I remember there is a student in my English learning class, his spoken English is really good because he has been to a lot of English speaking countries before; therefore, both teachers and classmates believe that he is a good language user and teacher pay less attention on him. However, after the writing task, his failed his writing task which shocked the teacher. As mentioned in the article ‘Because of their high levels of oral proficiency, these students are often misjudged and their need for reading and writing support is overlooked.’ In this case, teacher needs to pay attention to all students in class although some of them look like ‘good language users’.

  • 44209150 says:

    Thank you Professor Piller for such a captivating post. Personally, I come to realize that to some extent, one’s competence in speech cannot be equated to their own literacy ability. This post just helps me to relate the personal experience to my niece, my cousin and myself in learning a language. Even though my niece has had an opportunity to grow up in the US at the early age and her English spoken language can be seen as “native” in terms of accents and natural expressions, her low scores for the mandatory subject” English literature” at school have reflected her poor performance in written language. The question imposed in this case is whether she has no aptitude for her written skill; literacy formal instruction or her and the time spent on writing practice is not sufficient to perform better. Another example of my cousin is a contradictory case. She is highly capable of oral and written performance in her first language and French. She shared her experience with me that on top of her aptitude, thanks to reading habit at the early age she can write well in both languages. She quickly picked up languages on the basis on imitation. “The more you read, the better you write”, said she. Concerning my case, I am not only long-term English language learner but also my mother tongue learner. Despite the fact that my spoken first language has been certainly well-presented, scores for the written essays in Vietnamese at my secondary schools and university were always at average level. It happens exactly the same as my English language learning when my spoken skill has always outperformed my writing. I reckon that apart from my literacy aptitude, mainly due to my lack of reading passion, which gives rise to my struggle in written expressions in both languages.

  • Jo. says:

    It seems to me that formal education has taken native language literacy too lightly. The LTELL situation not only happens within English-speaking countries but in many Asian countries, too. Every year, there are a proportion of students graduating from high school but still find themselves unable to produce an academic-quality essay in their native language. One possible reason is the over-reliance on exams as the measurement for teaching and learning. As teachers are pressured to achieve their KPI (the percentage of students passing the exams) without proper training and other professional support, their only choice is to focus on the quantity, not quality. Education, in this sense, becomes more similar to a mass production chain than an act of developing a person. Teaching, instead of representing a noble activity, becomes a duty that generates income.

  • DIEU PHUONG THAO NGO says:

    From my experience, I think the phenomenon of LTELLs is common. In some famous tourist attractions from where I come from, such as Sa Pa, Vietnam, the local people speak English fluently with a nativelike accent even though they cannot read and write. During my CELTA training course, I met some American-Vietnamese fellows who spoke perfect English but usually misspelled words. The reasons behind this could be personal aptitude, perception about the importance proficiency in oral and written English, or academic opportunities. I sometimes consider myself a LTELL too because despite having more than 10 years learning English in an instructional setting in Vietnam, I still doubt my academic literacy when facing the academic conventions of a Western country.

    I also think this can happen to the L1 as well, as I consider my formal speaking to be better than my formal writing. During my formal education, I could never get a good mark in writing an essay in Vietnamese. I think the reason for this is because of my aptitude.

  • 000 says:

    While tutoring HSC Advanced English, I assumed one of my students who spoke like a native Australian had no trouble with written English. She proved me wrong when I marked her writing and discovered that she made basic grammar errors, such as changing tenses throughout a piece of work. At first, I thought this was simply because she did not proof read her work before handing it to me, so I marked it and indicated the areas needed for improvement without much emphasis on grammar and more on structure and the articulation of ideas.

    As she kept writing and I kept marking, I realised that this was a serious problem and discussed it with her. She said she did not realise her mistakes were due to her ignorance of basic grammar rules. So, I responded by asking, “Didn’t you learn this in primary school?” She then told me she was born in Taiwan and came to Australia in Year 1. I asked if she remembered learning about grammar at school and she replied by saying how she just remembered not understanding anything and being confused, but going with the flow of things because everyone in her class got it.

    I felt guilty about not discussing this with her earlier because it impacted on her writing and it was my responsibility to clarify this. However, I also feel that it is rude to ask where someone is from because a lot of second or 1.75 generation immigrants consider themselves to be Australian and thus the question might sound like you are challenging their identity, especially when they speak like a native Australian.

    As she was my first student ever, I did not realise that this was a problem. From then on, I learnt that I had to know my students before making assumptions about their abilities.

  • Rąwąn Alħąlwąni says:

    Regarding LTELLs, I wonder if their native language literacy has the same level of that in English. If they can not progress in English writing and reading, where they mostly spend their life using during school time, why these two skills are not improving as the oral skills? Is it possible that these skills flourish more in their native or parents’ languages rather than English? If so, why?

    As children progress in speaking and listening first before they are introduced to books to read them and then imitate what they read to attempt to write the same thing, should not be this the same case with these LTELLs? My conclusion of their level of English is that they catch the language from people they encounter in their life, i.e. they are not taught how to speak it fluently rather than they catch it from natives, without much guidance to literacy skills “reading and writing.”

  • Jose says:

    Dear IngridVery apt post, I must say. I taught English in three pravite English Medium Schools in Karachi for about ten years. These schools charged exorbitant fee and in return give children an artificial culture where English-only was practiced. This English-only was interested in improving the speaking skills in English and little thought would go to academic writing practices becuase schools leadership knew very well how to please their customers! The result was that though we had many students who were relatively fluent in their spoken English but woud write as they would speak without realising the differences in the medium, register,. organisation of thoughts so on and so forth. Apart from that, I also discovered the fallacy of the native speaker fallacy’ when I began my doctoral studies where I happened to see the academic pieces of my friends native seakers of English’. Prior to that I would think they would have certain privlidges which I did not have. Great.

  • Jean Cho says:

    Something that the HDRO should consider – they waiver English tests for PhD candidates who completed bachelors or postgraduate studies in an English-speaking country. Thanks for your thought-provoking posting (as always)!

  • Born and raised in Australia, my nephews, age 12 and 15, sound very Australian, speak Japanese fluently and consider themselves first and foremost as Australian. But they’ve never really developed competence or confidence in academic writing in English. After moving to Thailand last year, one of them started to attend a Japanese cram school for the first time in his life; he wants to attend a university in Japan in the future, for which he needs to improve his writing in Japanese. Though he has only one class per week, I can see that, after only nine months, his academic writing in Japanese is already, definitely superior to that in English! His logical thinking seems to have improved, and so has his confidence in Japanese. He is even more determined to move to Japan in a few years – the power of literacy, indeed.

  • Saeed says:

    Hi and Thanks for the good post.

  • khan says:

    Dear Ingrid

    Very apt post, I must say. I taught English in three private English Medium Schools in Karachi for about ten years. These schools charged exorbitant fee and in return give children an artificial culture where English-only was practiced. This English-only was interested in improving the speaking skills in English and little thought would go to academic writing practices becuase schools leadership knew very well how to please their customers! The result was that though we had many students who were relatively fluent in their spoken English but woud write as they would speak without realising the differences in the medium, register,. organisation of thoughts so on and so forth. Apart from that, I also discovered the fallacy of the ‘native speaker fallacy’ when I began my doctoral studies where I happened to see the academic pieces of my friends ‘ native seakers of English’. Prior to that I would think they would have certain privlidges which I did not have. Great.

  • Sheila Pham says:

    It’s interesting to think about this sub-set of students, though I think this problem can occur even if children don’t have a transnational life. I grew up with kids like this, who sounded like Australians because they were born and raised in Australia full-time, but somehow their grasp of written English wasn’t what it could be; maybe because they socialised so much with their cultural group and maybe because they didn’t get the right academic support. These students didn’t do well at school so they wouldn’t even get to university. It’s probably true that it’s their spoken fluency that has inadvertently caused them to fall through the cracks. I guess if they sound like everyone else, then teachers would just think that these students weren’t good at writing, rather than recognising that there was a more fundamental problem present.

    • Thanks, Sheila. All the literature out there suggests that the best way to support these students are strong bilingual programs where they can learn how to read and write in both their languages, rather than curtailing development in the home language as main-streaming them too early tends to do. Once they have become LTELLs, many educators now call for setting language and literacy goals in all instructional planning in all content areas (something that seems to benefit not only LTELLs but learners with a wide range of abilities), and, of course, explicit academic literacy support. Menken & Kleyn also suggest adding “Native Language Arts” so that they can develop foundational academic literacy in the other language.

  • Dariush Izadi says:

    Dear Ingrid
    Thanks for pointing that out and introducing the reference in regard to Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
    I’ve always wanted to know why these types of students lack the necessary technical vocabulary and that they lack the grammatical resources required to express themselves and to discuss the relations such as cause and effect or to develop a basic or sound argument as you’ve mentioned!

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