Students' Difficulties in Learning English at Primary Level: A Teachers' Perspective

Headnote

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore the students' difficulties in learning English at primary level in district Bahawalpur. All the teachers teaching English at primary level in public schools of district Bahawalpur were the population of the study. The sample size was 120 English teachers selected from 60 government primary schools. Questionnaire was developed to gather the information about learning difficulties of students. It is concluded that teachers are more inclined to teach reading and writing skills as compared to speaking and listening. In learning English, primary school students face a number of problems related to sounds recognition, reading comprehension, sentence construction, pronunciation, applying grammar rules and insufficient support from family. The results reveal that male students encounter more problems as compared to female students. However, no significant difference is observed in the opinions of rural and urban teachers, and regular and contractual teachers about students' learning difficulties. Certain changes and modifications are required in the approach to English language teaching at public schools.

Key Words: English language teaching, Learning difficulties, Grammar translation method, Language skills

Introduction

English enjoys a special position amongst the world languages today. In order to interact and come closer in 21st century, it is widely being used by the people of global village. For achieving success in their academic and professional careers, individuals of world nations require to be equipped with strong literacy skills in English (Grabe & Stoller, 2002).Their cultural, political and economic needs are met by learning English language (Nawaz, Amin & Tatla, 2015).

In the context of usage of English, different value is attached to English in different nations. English is taken as a foreign language for non-native speakers in countries where use of English is limited; whereas English has the status of second language for non-native speakers in nations where English is frequently spoken (Lyytinen, 2003). In the context of developing countries, Coleman (2011) analyzed the role of English for development, and contribution of English has been highlighted for increase in employment, facilitation in international mobility, provision of development opportunities, and serving as an impartial language in complex language context.

Pakistan is one of the countries where English is an official language, and it is taught and learnt as a second language (Akram...