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What are the differences between English as a second language and English as a foreign language?

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Question added by ahmad darkoshi , Commercial Accounting , Damas company
Date Posted: 2013/08/10
Rukhsana Tunio
by Rukhsana Tunio , Public School Hyderabad as a Junior School Teacher from March 2002 to August 2004 , Qadir Law Associates Hyd

ESL stands English as the second language and means learning English in an English speaking country like UK, USA.

EFL stands for English as a foreign language and means English in a non native speaking country like Qatar, Oman etc.

Shosho Naji
by Shosho Naji , lecturer , University of Diyala

A second language means it is the second language used in the same country( it has an official language and a second one) ,foreign language means it is taught as  a language not used as the official language by some members within the country.

Orouba Dandashly
by Orouba Dandashly , Housing/invoicing/planner , Saudi Oger, Kaust Project

the same as long it is not native language

I see no difference - for us English is second and is foreign

Technically, it is the same. Studying ESL (English as a second language) means that it is not your mother tongue, i.e. it is a foreign language for you

i think for us or those who speak it as a second language so it's both but for some one who can't speak it or have no idea about it it's a foreign language

Kaunain Beg
by Kaunain Beg , Owner , Private

Differences between spoken and written English

fatemeh haghighi motlagh
by fatemeh haghighi motlagh , Foreign buyer (procurement) , Mohammadian Trading Company

dear some countries have two formal languages such as Canada that have English and french so in such countries it is considered as second language but in other countries that have one formal language naturally English is considered as foreign language...

SEOLYEONG JEON
by SEOLYEONG JEON , instructor , Design #

Second language is dual language along with using one's mothertongue from when someone is born and this is that a nation recognize as official language along with one's mothertongue.
Foreign language is..
we can see the example in the korean English education.
English is not official language in korea but government emphasis on the importance learning and using English.
English is not official language but many people try to be good at this and invest a a lot of money to learn this.
it is foreign language.

English is the lingua franca of business and academia.

Chinese refers to a group of Sino-Tibetan languages.

Spanish

Arabic

German

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