Challanges and Issues in Teaching and Learning English Essay Example

of English for a third world state like Pakistan and recently the government decided to introduce English at all government schools from the year one.

English language is regarded as being far from satisfactory in the country, not conducive to learning the language (Warsi, 2004). Perhaps this is because teaching of English is an extra ordinary complex task. All who know English cannot teach it well so it is imperative for the teachers of English to improve the teaching by knowing the learning difficulties and factors affecting the learning of the student in English on the basis of errors done by them. Like teaching, learning of language is a difficult task and children make mistakes while learning a language.

To Maicusi (2000), “Making errors is the natural thing in the world and it is evidently attached to human beings…. it is necessary part of learning and teacher should use the error with the view of having better result in the classroom”. This indicates that second language teacher should be experienced and qualified to use the learner’s errors for learning process. But teaching and learning of English in Pakistan is based on the system of grammatical patterns and there is a trend of formal and bookish language, students just produce sentence and focus on reading and writing (Nunan, 1988, p 27) .

It has been witnessed that, in recent times government has taken several measures to improve the quality of English language in the country. However, it has been felt that, there is not satisfactory progress in the improvement of English language. Study was conducted to find out why English teaching and learning

is not improving. * To find out what problems teacher face in teaching and what problems students face in learning English. * What facilities have been provided for teaching and learning of English at secondary level. To observe the existing practices of teaching English at secondary level.  Following were research questions of the study: * What method teachers use for teaching English? * What problems do students face in the classroom in learning English? * What academic facilities have been provided for teaching of English? * What needs to be done to resolve the existing challenges in teaching and learning process of English at secondary level? Teachers instructing students in learning English as another language often face with a variety of common and student-specific problems.

Instructing students in the English language involves building a student's reading and speaking vocabulary and understanding of written and spoken English language. To facilitate a positive learning atmosphere for students and encourage them to practice and continue to learn the language, teachers should find ways to correct these common problems and reinforce the core information students need to effectively communicate in English. Problems with Teaching English in Schools Factors Affecting Quality of English Language Teaching and Learning: Going Off Schedule:

Teachers of foreign languages may first notice that their lesson plans change over the course of the class. Classes may progress slowly despite your efforts. Students learning a second language often learn at different paces and generally learn material differently. Encouraging students to practice the skills learned in class and incorporating listening exercises, such as learning poems or parts of a favorite story in the new language out

of class, students may be able to stay on track with your plan of instruction at a slightly slower rate.

Tutoring or other supplemental activities can allow you to assist those students who need extra instruction on some material and maintain a close pace to the schedule you have set. Using Other Languages: Another noticeable issue for English language teachers is having students fall back on their native language for conversation. It is often easier for students to communicate in their native language instead of English. It is usually frustrating for students to rethink and reword their thoughts into the new language clearly.

Diversifying your student groups so that not all of the students in one group speak the same native language will discourage students from reverting to their native language to communicate and encourage them to use the one they have in common. Real-World Application and Dry, Outdated Text Lessons: Differentiating between in-class speech and real-world speech application can be tricky. Textbooks and in-class material instructing students on the fundamental aspects of the English language and proper grammar can be stilted and very unrealistic in terms of dialogue examples.

When students are taught English as a second language, they may assume in-class speech patterns will be the same outside the classroom. Often, textbook language uses more uncommon or outdated terms and phrases, which can confuse and contradict what a textbook shows. Written Versus Spoken English Confusion: Students may be able hear and understand spoken English but confuse sentence structure and grammar when writing the same thing. Grammatical problems in writing are another problem teachers face in teaching English language.

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can be difficult for students to write clearly in a second language, as their native language may have different requirements for tenses and placement for sentence structure. Teachers often face problems with sentence formatting and grammatical requirements needed for writing to be coherent. Building Vocabulary Base: Building up a student's English vocabulary is one of the first issues teachers instructing students in a second language face. Thinking about one object and remembering two identifying names for it can be confusing for younger and older students.

Incorporating interactive lessons to identify common objects and images is a great starting place for building vocabulary for everyday items. Activities and practice material focusing on recognizing and using words with the correct spelling are key elements of instructing students in English as a second language. Pronunciation: Students may be able hear and understand spoken English but confuse sentence structure and grammar when writing the same thing. Grammatical problems in writing are another problem teachers face in teaching English language.

It can be difficult for students to write clearly in a second language, as their native language may have different requirements for tenses and placement for sentence structure. Teachers often face problems with sentence formatting and grammatical requirements needed for writing to be coherent. Building Vocabulary Base: Building up a student's English vocabulary is one of the first issues teachers instructing students in a second language face. Thinking about one object and remembering two identifying names for it can be confusing for younger and older students.

Incorporating interactive lessons to identify common objects and images is a great starting place for building vocabulary for everyday items. Activities

and practice material focusing on recognizing and using words with the correct spelling are key elements of instructing students in English as a second language. Pronunciation: One of the biggest difficulties a teacher faces when teaching English as a second language is to inculcate proper pronunciation in native speakers. The English language has a number of characteristic features which most foreign speakers do not imbibe readily.

That is the reason why different regions have their own English accents. So if English is spoken in 50 different regions, it is likely that it is spoken in 50 different ways. This also explains why many students have great difficulty in understanding native English. Thus, there is a very clear gap to be bridged between the teacher and their students before actual Grammar: The fact that English grammar has its own set of complicated rules and regulations makes it a tough language to conquer. A good number of students struggle with these rules, and cannot really understand many of the principles on first or second reading.

To make matters worse, English itself is of different varieties. Therefore, students may find the Queen's English quite different from American English. These exacting and tricky challenges make it necessary for any teacher of English to have a formal training in teaching practices and methods. It is not enough to have sufficient skills in listening and understanding the language. Even a native speaker of the English language requires a methodical and intensive training program to qualify as a good teacher of English as a foreign language.

Many of the skills like understanding specific problems related to particular regions and

building basic communication skills in students etc can only be acquired through a formal learning of the same. A commonsensical approach would be of no help here. Teachers have to be prepared for the most bizarre mistakes, and need to know how to handle these delicate situations with aplomb. That is why it is important to undergo formal training in teaching English before you actually begin the process of teaching English as a foreign language.

In schools, students are being taught that English is an international language. To learn this language requires constant practice and patience. The kind of feeling that prevails among the students is that it is not possible to achieve fluency or mastery over English language. This kind of tendency prevents students from learning from learning new languages like English. Students who are learning English, they are not able to produce even a single sentence without any grammatical error in English.

The reason stated for this is that they study subjects from the examination point of view only. This is true with English language too. Our examination is such that it makes student rote memorization rather than testing their analytical and creative skills. In this process, they memorize lessons, reproduce them in exam halls and forget them in the same day itself. Students learn basic grammar at school level for the purpose of passing only in the tests and examinations and not to face any real life situations. Application-oriented advanced grammar is not taught in schools.

Furthermore, adequate practice is not given to students to learn a language. Exposure too is far less for them (Dr. R. kannan 2009).

English education system cuts a sorry figure in Pakistani schools; it does not yield fluent speakers of the language, which should ideally be the primary goal of teaching English. The problem lies in the fact that English is not taught as language, it is taught as subject. Like other subjects, for example, Urdu, Social studies, Islamiyat etc, English is considered a subject too. It is usually divided into two parts: English A and English B.

English A contains a text book with some short stories and some poems. Students are supposed to simply translate the stories and poems into Urdu using the grammar translation Method and answer comprehension questions which they memorize word for word from the helping books. English B covers the grammar side of the subject, and students are usually more concerned about it than they are about English A. The curriculum of English B consist of essays, moral stories, letters writing, application writing, tenses and translation from Urdu to English.

What happens indeed is that teachers make the students learn some selected essays, stories, letters and rules of grammar by heart. Students reproduce these rules mechanically on tests and exams. No attention is paid to speaking part of the language. As long as the students reproduce everything they pass the exams. Little consideration is given to developing their creative capabilities or critical thinking with language. Teachers strictly adhere to the grammar-based syllabi and the focus is on Grammar Translation Method (Akhtar, 1997).

Curriculum can be seen as the systematic attempt by educationalists and teachers to specify and study planned intervention into the educational enterprise (Nunan 1988: 1). But in

Pakistan the government has never thought on this line and the existing situation has gone from bad to worse where English language teaching is considered as being dissatisfactory, non-conducive and counter- productive for learning the language in Pakistan (Warsi 2004). According to (Warsi, 2004) translation method is still being used in most of language programmes.

Language teaching programmes are not according to the needs of the teachers and learners. This view also tells us that in Pakistan, there are still traditional methods of teaching. We know that method is essential for any kind of development in any language especially for learning any second or foreign language. In this context the use of modern methods in Pakistan for learning English has been dream because the teachers teaching English have no knowledge of modern methods. However, things are changing in Pakistan gradually; awareness is spreading with a steady pace and people are becoming more educated.

Media is revolutionizing everything. But the dilemma of the day is that our teachers are standing still, they are not experimenting with new teaching techniques in their “authoritarian, cold and unproductive” (Chowdhry, 2003) classrooms. Teaching English is not treated any differently than other subjects. Students are made to memorize sets of grammatical rules. Little attention is paid to communicative competence of the students. As English is not used very commonly in the community; learners do not have access to this language outside the classroom.

That is why the responsibility falls on the shoulders of schools and the teachers to provide the learners with rich and fruitful input (Akhtar, 1997). English Language Teaching in system Pakistan is not efficient enough

to meet the needs of the learners. They do not have good command over English language to pursue higher studies in the country or broad. They need to be able to read comprehend academic books in English on their own and at the same time they should be able to communicate in English as well.

They should attain linguistic competence and the communicative competence. In Pakistani school system teachers and students play the roles of oppressor and oppressed respectively. The classrooms are strictly teacher centered and lack resources (Kiran Amna). After above all discussion we can conclude that generally in Pakistan there r too many hindrances in teaching and learning of English which include over crowded classes, use of traditional methods, faulty examination system and non availability of required facilities. Methodology and Procedure:

It was a qualitative study. Teachers and learners were asked about the problems they face in teaching and learning of English. They were also asked about the facilities available to them for teaching learning process. Classroom was also observed. For the expert opinion on curriculum effectiveness or suitability subject specialists of English were interviewed. ELT experts also interviewed to know about the recommendations for existing teaching and learning of English language. To keep ethical concern written permission was taken from the principle of the school.

For procedure the required research tools were developed. Check list for classroom observation and schedule for interviews. Through interview teachers and students were asked about the facilities like provision of appropriate furniture, availability of computer labs, libraries, provision of English newspapers, books, audio-visual aids like tv, tape recorder, charts, pictures, over-head projector, multi-media etc.

Through classroom checklist existing practice of teaching and learning of English were observed.

Findings were extracted from analyzed data and recommendations were made for different concerned people. Population: This study was conducted in a school of university of Punjab Lahore. The Population was the Secondary level of the school. There were 50 male students and two teachers. Sample: Class X was observed for the purpose. There were 25 students and one teacher. Findings: After the analysis of the data, many challenges/issues/facts regarding teaching-learning of English have been identified.

It was found that teacher was lacking in on job trainings and refresher courses especially, of English language teaching. In addition to this, teacher does not get training in syllabi change, mostly teacher use Grammar Translation Method, no awareness of Communicative Teaching Method, a few of students and teacher use English language in their classrooms, no development of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, there was no use of group or pair work. School has no library and hence there is no provision of English Newspapers, no computer use, and audio visual aids.

The English is being taught as a subject not as a language. Lesson planning, insufficient time allocation, classroom management, modification in curriculum of English, and improper inspection system were some other challenges in the development of English Language in the secondary schools were found. No teacher was expert in ELT. But on the other hand most of the students do not ask questions, and their emphasis is on reading skill especially on aloud reading skill.