Common Difficulties and Solutions in Teaching English as a Foreign

Language

Collected and presented by :

Dr. Mamdoah M. Subahi

Objectives

By the end of this program you will be able to :

know some of the difficulties that face teachers at school. (Knowledge)

know how to deal with these difficulties. (Knowledge )

find out solutions to deal with these difficulties. (Analysis)

use solutions to avoid such difficulties. (Application (

Activity 1

Dear colleague will you kindly write down some of the difficulties you face while teaching English.

Some of the difficulties 1- Spelling 2- Homework. 3- Some pupils do not appear interested in English. 4- Disruptive (upsetting) Behavior. 5- Pronunciation Difficulties. 6- Writing Composition. 7- Terrible (very bad ) Handwriting. 8- Learning Vowel Letters is Difficult. 9- Some students can not understand a dialogue or a

reading passage. 10- Most students are afraid to speak in the classroom. 11- How to evaluate students?

Activity 2

Spelling is not easy even for the native speakers because of many reasons will you write down some of these reasons. AndAnd suggest some of the solutions to over come such a problem.

Spelling is not easy because of many reasons such as:

1)  Pupils can not read words specially in sixth elementary grade, 1st and the 2nd year intermediate.

2)  They do not know the correct pronunciation of some English words.

3)  Spelling and Pronunciation are not well-matched in English.

4)  There are 26 letters in English that have 44 sounds.

Some solutions for spelling difficulty are : (1)

There are some solutions that can help teachers enable their pupils to master words and their spellings. Let us mention some:

1)  Teachers should explain the correct rules of spelling.

2)  They should help pupils repeat and spell each new word 4 or 5 times or even more chorally.

3)  They should help pupils read words correctly.

Some solutions for spelling difficulty are : (2) 4)  Weekly dictation is beneficial in gaining the ability

of the correct spelling. 5)  Dictionaries can be used in the late intermediate

stage and in the secondary stage to reinforce spelling abilities.

6)  Posters containing difficult words can be hung on walls in front of pupils to look at them for a long period of time. They can be exchanged every week or two weeks.

7)  Teachers should diversify (vary) exercises for giving dictation.

Activity 3

Some students forget their homework. As a teacher what would you do to over- come this difficulty?

Some of the solutions are:

1-   Accept excuses when youngsters come in without their homework.

2-   If it becomes a daily occurrence, look into the reasons.

3-   Make sure they understand exactly what you ask them to do for homework.

4-   Discuss with them in private the importance of doing homework.

Reward with praise those who respond to your directions. The others will soon be seeking your praise too.

Activity 4

Some pupils do not appear interested in English as competent teacher what will you do to face this problem?

Some solutions (1)

Plan lessons in which there is a great deal of variety. Devote the longest time span (period) in each lesson to oral practice activities. Subdivide these activities into four or five different types to avoid boredom.

Ensure wide student participation. Let students formulate questions, prepare pictures or other instructional materials, give cues (signs) for oral activities, lead games and rhymes, dramatize conversations.

Some solutions (2) Keep the pace of the lesson very brisk (rapid). Give

the students the feeling that they are moving ahead all the time. When a student cannot answer a question, give the correct answer quickly or ask a more able student to give it. (Give a student a reasonable time to answer; then move on to someone else and come back to the first student a little later in the lesson).

Don’t correct every mistake the students make, during the warm-up and motivation segments of the lesson especially, correct only those errors which impede (obstruct) understanding. Make a mental note of minor (small) errors and give practice in their correction later in the hour or in a future lesson.

Some solutions (3) Don’t strive (try hard) for immediate mastery. Accept

reasonable fluency and reason able accuracy (particularly of difficult sounds) since you will reintroduce all language items many times during the course.

Encourage your students by making it possible for them to enjoy many small successes frequently. Do this by announcing tests, differentiating assignments, and praise them when they have done supplementary (extra) outside reading or when they have learned the lines of poem or a play.

Some solutions (4)

Praise them- with care of course- If their answers today (although still poor) is better than yesterday’s, it is reason enough for praise.

Make it possible for them to talk, as quickly as possible, about the things they would talk about in their native tongue. Demonstrate (show) that English is another type of communication which permits ( allow) them to say anything they can say in their language.

Some solutions (5) Utilize (use) the people or places in the community to

reinforce the students’ knowledge of English.  Plan a little more than you think you can cover in an

hour. Plan for the slow and for the gifted. Be flexible in your planning. If something of interest

happens in your school or community and if you can use the happening to reinforce or to teach language items or an aspect of the culture - or, just as important, to strengthen your rapport (relationship) with your students- put aside the lesson you had planned and discuss the interesting occurrence. (of curse not all the time , only when you have a chance)

Activity 5

Some students have destructive (negative) behavior as an expert what are some of the steps you may use to avoid such behavior?

You can follow these steps when having disruptive behaviors (1):

Keep students busy. Make few and reasonable demands. Accept reasonable excuses. Excuse them from examinations when they

have been absent. Praise them! Keep your expectations for them within

their ability levels. Make sure they understand exactly what

you expect of them.

You can follow these steps when having disruptive behaviors (2):

Don't ask for a choral response to a question unless you are specifically practicing that question and answer.

Train students patiently to keep together in choral repetition.

Don't raise your voice or continue to work when students are talking.

Don't penalize the wrongdoers! Reward, with praise, those who are attentive (caring).

“The behavior and the attitude of the teacher is perhaps the most important factor in the classroom, and thus can have a major effect on discipline.

Activity 6

As good teachers will you mention how can you avoid students pronunciation difficulties?

Pupils face some pronunciation difficulties (1) :

1- Students should listen to new words before they produce them orally. The underlying educational principle is that perception and listening should precede production and speaking.

2-The teacher should always give his students the correct pronunciation of new words because he is model fully imitated by learners. This requires that the teacher has to check the pronunciation of most words, if not all. It is easier to teach afresh than to re-teach after wrong learning.

3- The teacher has to pay attention to supra segmentals as well as segmental. This implies that he has to pronounce words correctly regarding their consonants, vowels and stress.

Pupils face some pronunciation difficulties (2):

4- The teacher has to pronounce sentences with their correct intonation (tone) and sentences stress and at a fairly normal speed.

5-Good pronunciation should be aimed when one is teaching other skills such as reading aloud, grammatical structures and, vocabulary.

6-The teacher should call his students’ attention to silent letters while teaching new words by probably dotting them when demonstrated on the board. such focusing is helpful in learning both pronunciation and spelling.

Pupils face some pronunciation difficulties (3):

7- The teacher has to emphasize words with problem sounds more than words devoid (with out) such sounds. The former (pervious) words require more repetition.

8- The teacher has to design pronunciation drills that handle some common pronunciation difficulties especially those caused by new sounds not existing in the native language.

9- The teacher may teach his students some regularities that control the relationship between writing and pronunciation, e.g.. the pattern of sold, hold and fold and the pattern of it, bit, and sit.

Activity 7

Some students even in high lever do not know how to write composition whether as a homework or in the final exam. So as talented teachers what do you think the best way to avoid such a difficulty?

Pupils face difficulties in writing composition (1)

Ask your students to prepare the composition at home in order to express their own ideas correctly and easily.

Motivate the topic by creating a situation or using discussions, wall charts and guided words.

Elicit ideas related to the topic. You can ask your students to express their own ideas orally. Choose the most suitable ideas and write them on the board in order to help students when doing their homework.

Pupils face difficulties in writing composition (2)

Give your students enough help with functions, structures and vocabulary needed to express and expand each idea.

Students should be given enough time to write an introductory paragraph in the classroom because there must be a model to follow.

Pupils face difficulties in writing composition (3)

Your comments on their compositions had better be careful, clear and helpful and it will be very useful if you do this work in the classroom.

When correcting your pupils’ notebooks, you should pay attention to the major errors such as those in grammar, word order, spelling and punctuation.

Activity 8

One of the most annoying problems for teachers is terrible handwriting for students. As a caring teacher what do you think the best way(s) to make your students’ handwriting legible (readable)?

Some pupils have terrible handwriting (1)

The teacher is a model fully imitated by the learners. Some teachers have unsuitable handwriting.

Some students do not know how to use the pen (pencil) correctly.

Some students are unable to form the correct shape of some letters and they find it difficult to distinguish in handwriting between some letters such as /w- m/, /n- u/ and so on.

Some pupils have terrible handwriting (2) The teacher should remind his pupils with the

rules of correct handwriting such as the following:

 Beginning the sentence with a capital letter. Leaving one-letter space between words. Ending the sentence with a full stop. Leaving two-letter space between sentences.…

etc. Some pupils develop incorrect ways when

writing because of their teachers who do not train them well in the first and the second year intermediate.

Some pupils have terrible handwriting (3) Students should be trained on the correct

movement of the hand. Students should write on four-line notebooks. An ink pen shouldn’t be used in the beginning

levels. Intensive work should be done on teaching the

correct form of each letter. The teacher should display the best

handwriting in front of other students. It will be very useful if teachers make

competitions in handwriting in order to encourage those pupils who write beautifully.

Activity 9

Students some times face a difficulty which is they sometimes do not know English vowels. As a teacher what do you suggest to solve this problem?

Learning vowel letters is difficult for some pupils (1)

Revise vowel letters daily. Ask different individuals to write some

letters on the board. Ask mistaken pupils to re-write the letters

again. Repeat these steps when needed. Be very keen in using flash cards

containing different letters. Never forget the other letters.

Activity 10

Some students can not understand a dialogue or a reading passage. What will you do to help these students dear teacher?

Some can not understand a dialogue or a reading passage :

Show pictures. Dramatize the material, Explain in a simple language. You can translate in the mother

tongue but this step should be your last solution.

Activity 11

Most students are afraid to speak in the classroom. What do you think the reason(s)? And what are some of the solutions to overcome this difficulty?

Students are afraid to speak in the classroom

Start with choral repetition, followed by individual repetition.

Call on the more able or less timid students first.

Be patient with really timid individuals. Praise them for any effort, no matter

how slight. Try to avoid continuous looking at

their faces when they speak. Use paired activities.

How to evaluate students?

A quick review and a reminder of how to evaluate sixth grade students

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I really appreciate I really appreciate your participations. your participations.

Thank you very Thank you very muchmuch