English learners struggle with the language

An article by Teresa Watanabe called "Many English learners still struggle with the language, study shows" on Los Angeles Times talks about the fact that nearly 60% of students in Californian high schools are not proficient in the language despite the fact that they have been getting English education for at least 6 years. The study says that besides many other important factors, the problem also lies within the current English education system in the US - and I would like to tackle this issue a little bit more.

English is my second language, and I have been learning the language at school since I was seven years old. One thing about foreign language education is that instead of practicing and speaking the language, students usually learn a lot about grammatical rules and structures of the language. That is what happened with me, as well.

I think that I have a good understanding of essential grammar rules in English. For example, there is a major difference between "your" and "you're." Saying "your dog" is very different than "you're dog." However, it is still very shocking to me that a lot of native English speakers, even the highly educated ones, cannot distinguish between the two. Sometimes, I receive email full of such mistakes in my inbox from a native English speaker, and I ask myself: "Is this that person's fault, or is there a serious flaw with the language education here in the US?"

It is a difficult question to answer, because there are many factors in language education such as the person's background, ability, willingness or age. However, I still think that there must be something wrong with the English language education if a surprising number of native speakers are making the mistake that I, as a non-native speaker, have been warned against numerous times. That is why I am not surprised with the study that Teresa Watanabe wrote about.

I would love to hear from native English speakers who received English language education in the US. Is there really a flaw with the system? Is this something unique to California, or does it happen in other states as well?

Link to article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0528-english-20100528,0,2808835,full.story