Common Dif ficulties

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. And 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
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
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

‫حقيبة التقويم المستمر مراجعة سريعة لها‬ 

 

I really appreciate
your participations.
Thank you very much