Section 3. Outlining, The Standard Topic Outline form.
Some of the problems facing learners of English. Today I'd like to talk about some of the problems that students face when they follow a course of study through the medium of English, if English is not their mother tongue. The purpose is to show that we're aware of students' problems, and by analysing them perhaps it'll be possible to suggest how some of them maybe overcome.

The problems can be divided into three broad categories, psychological, cultural and linguistic. The first two categories mainly concern those who come to study in Britain. I'll comment only briefly on these first two and then spend most of the time looking at linguistic difficulties which apply to everyone wherever they are learning English.

Some of the common psychological problems really involve fear of the unknown, for example, whether one's academic studies will be too difficult, whether one will fail the examinations, etc. All students share these apprehensions. It's probably best for a student not to look too far ahead but to concentrate day-by-day on increasing his knowledge and developing his ability.