The document discusses the status of English language learning in Pakistan and problems faced by secondary level students. Through observing an English class, many issues were identified including spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and interference from the native language. Some common problems faced by students are poor sentence structure understanding, spelling errors, grammatical problems, and lack of focus on writing skills. The document provides recommendations to address these issues such as improving teacher training, revising the assessment system to focus on accuracy, and encouraging more opportunities for self-writing practice from an early age.

3. Roll No.
BD560645

5. Presented To.
Ms.Samina Rehman

6. (5655)
“”Psycholinguistics
And Language
Teaching
Methodology””

7. Topic:
What is the status of English Language
learning in Pakistan?Observe a class
of secondary level and note down the
problems faced by the students at
secondary level in a classroom while
learning a second language.Write
down the findings and suggest some
possible remedies.

8. Language is the unique possession of
man.It is God’s special gift to
mankind.Language is present
averywhere in our thoughts and
dreams,prayers and
meditations.Besides being a means of
communication and a storehouse of
knowledge its is an instrument of
thinking as well as source of delight.

9. Broadly speaking language is a means
of expression. We express
our feelings and thoughts through
language.its differs huamns beings
and animals.

10. English Language have much more
importance.It is perhaps the most
flexible of all languages. Therefore,
people belonging different parts of
the world widely use English. It is the
lingua franca of the world. It’s the
language of
researchers,science,computer,Higher
Education and above all its
International Language.

11. Introduction
There are four language
abilities:listening,speaking,reading
and writing.These four abilities can be
classified into two
dimensions:receptive skills and
productive skills.

12. Listening and reading are included in
receptive skills whereas writing and
speaking are included in productive
skills (Baker,2006).Writing has
utmost value in four language skills.it
is important to write grammatically
correct language in all types of
examination and communication.

13. Although English is a compulsory
subject in Pakistan from secondary
level,it is observed that even after
spending a lot of time in learning
English,majority of school and college
students are unable to write
grammatically correct English.

14. Most of the times,students learn some
material by heart and reproduce the
same in the examination
hall.Teachers are seen encouraging
students with such practices to get
good grades in the examination.Less
attention is given on creative and self
writing.

15. Objectives Of The Study
 To identify some common problems
faced by students in learning English,
 To identify the types of error and
mistakes students do in their written
work,
 To suggest solutions to improve the
writing ability of students in Pakistan,

16.  To review English language teaching
scenario in Pakistan,

17. Literature Review
“Concept of second language
acquisition in Pakistan”
English is taught as a second
language in Pakistan.It
seems relevant to
understand the concept

18. Of second language acquisition as
viewed and understand by Pakistani
students and teachers .Ellis (1997)
and Gas and Selinker (2008) define
the second Language Acquisition as
the way in which the people learn a
language other than their mother
tongue,inside or outside the
classroom.

19. It refers to the learning of a non-native
language after the learning of a
native language.It means the
acquisition of a second language in
classroom situation as well as in more
‘natural’exposure
situations.Unfortunately,in
Pakistan,teaching of English in
confined to classroom teaching only.

20. Little attempt is made to develop a
language learning environment at
school or institution level.I have
observed that students and even
teachers speak in their mother
tongue while teaching and learning
English.Hence the students are not
exposed to a learning culture which is
peculiar to learning and practicing all
the target languages.

21. Status Of English Language In
Pakistan
English language enjoys a significant
importance in Pakistan.It is the official
language in the country.It is also the
language of teaching and research at
secondary level.According to the new
education policy 2009,English will be used
as the medium of instruction for sciences
and mathematics from class iv
onwards(government of Pakistan,2009).

22. English language proficiency helps the
people a lot in getting new jobs and
scholarships.English speaking persons
enjoy more respect in society and in
the job market as well.

23. Teaching Of English In
Pakistan
Hussain (2005).talking about the English
language teaching situation in Pakistan
says that in a large majority of Pakistani
classroom the grammar translation method
is employed.More efforts are put on
development of reading skills.Readers are
usually given text which is followed by
grammar,comprehension,and vocabulary
building and translation exercises.

24. Zehra (1995).observes that in
government schools all subjects are
taught in urdu except English.Even at
some places English is taught in Urdu
or in mother tongue.As a matter of
fact the majority of teachers
themselves are not so much
proficient in speaking and writing
skills.

25. They are afraid of speaking English in
the classroom.Hence there are
deficiencies in the development of all
the four abilities of English
language.These deficiencies in
students start from class 1 and
continue up to the higher levels of
education.

26. I observed class 9th
,in different
govt.secondary schools of Jhelum.I
gave them passage of English an
students have to read it thoroughly
and give the answers of given
questions.
The passage was this:

27. Passage:
Hazrat Khalid Bin Waleed (R.A) was
extremely kind-hearted and just to
the people.His army had strick orders
not to do any harm to the
farmers,aged
persons,women,children and other
civilians.They are the real strength of
society,he said,They should always be
treated with kindness and respect.

28. This was something new for the
conquered people,who felt very
happy now.The lranian and byzantine
officers were very hard on
them.Hazrat Khalid Bin Waleed’s
treatment won their hearts so much
that they began to hate their cruel
old masters.

29. Questions:
 How did Hazrat Khalid Bin Waleed
(R.A) treat the people?
 What were the orders given to the
army?
 What did he say about the farmers
and civilians?
 How had their former masters treated
them?

30.  How did Hazrat Khalid Bin Waleed
(R.A) win the hearts of the conquered
people?
 Why did the people hate their old
masters?

31. And the 2nd
topic was “An Ideal Student”
And students have to write the few lines
about this topic.
There are many problems for learning
second language in Pakistan.Through
this research I find that many
students committ spelling and
grammatical mistakes.

32. General Problems
Faced By Students In Learning
English As A Second Language,
Students face a number of
problems in English language
acquisition in Pakistan.Some
problems are at the policy
level,some at the institutional
level and some at the individual
level.

33. Although problems are different from
student to student,there are some
common problems which I have
observed while teaching English to
school students.A list of some
common problems is given below:

34.  Poor understanding of the sentence
structure
 Spelling mistakes
 More focus on reading skill
 Interference of the mother tongue
 Teachers are not sufficiently trained
to teach English
 Grammatical problems

35.  Students as well teachers are afraid
of using English as a communicative
language in the classroom
 Poor assessment system.The current
assessment system focuses on
learning.And in examination hall self
writing and speaking skills are not
assessed.

36. It might be appropriate to cite Mansoor
(1993) who says that even after
years of learning English as a
compulsory subject;the students lack
fluency and face difficulties in English
language usage.The teachers of
English are not properly trained and
there is hardly any interaction
between teachers and students in the
classroom.

37. English cources have heavy literacy
content but no attempt is made to
develop the productive skills of the
language.The spoken component is
completely ignored.There might be
more problems and issues in teaching
and learning of English as a second
language.I have only provided a
glimpse of the overall situation in the
country.

38. Spelling Difficulties
According to Edward (1999) spelling mistakes
can be of different types such as confusing
letters which are similar in shape or
orientation.For example,as student did in
my research; “woz” and “was.They also
committ mistake in “former”and
“farmer”.Some students also wrote spelling
that was wrong for example they wrote
“kindnes” instead of “kindness.

39. Grammatical Problems
Grammatical errors are seen all through
the students written work.Tense
mistakes are common among all the
students.I have observed a lot of
grammatical mistakes.For example
most of students wrote in my search:
 He has/have ordered his army not to
harm them.
Instead of

40. He had ordered his army not to harm
them.
In another place,they committ mistake.
Their former masters have been/has
been hard on them.
Instead of
Their former masters had been hard
on them.

41. These examples clearly show the influence of
Urdu language on learning.English students
usually try to translate word by wordfrom
Urdu language.As the most popular and
mostly adopted teaching method in school
is the Grammar Translation Method.
Students develop a habit of literal and word
by word translation feom Urdu into English
and from English into Urdu.

42. Structure of students in Urdu language
is quiet different from English
language.The result of using
Grammar Translation Method in
teaching of English is that students
do not think directly in English
language.They think in their mother
tongue.

43. How To Improve Students’
Written Work
Williams and Fisher (2002) recommend
that children should be given
opportunities to put their ideas down
on the paper from an early age.It is
highly desirable that they are
provided these opportunities.From an
early age,they begin to understand
what the writing is and gain a sense
of authorship.

44. Unfortunately,in Pakistan,even the elder
students are provided less opportunities for
self-writing.In the new national education
policy (2009),English language will be
compulsory from grade 1 and English
language will be used as the medium of
instruction for sciences and mathematics
from class iv onwards(Government Of
Pakistan, 2009).

45. One can hope that children will be
provided opportunities to develop
their writing skills from the early age.

46. To Aware The Students Of The
Importance Of Writing
Calkins (1994) suggests that while
teaching writing we are not supposed
to begin by talking about
writing.Rather we need to
demonstrate the power and purposes
writing has in our lives.The students
may be invited to discover ways that
writing can enrich their lives as well.

47. William and Fisher (2002 p.4) present
three broad purposes for writing as:
 Personal-writing for yourself e.g
personal notes,diary,letters;
 Imaginative-writing for others e.g.
stories,poems,plays;and
 Functional-writing for a practial
purposes
e.g.recipes,instruction,information.

48. I would briefly describe the overview of
writing as proposed by
Pachler,Barness and Field (2009).

49. Copying
Copying is not as simple as it might
seem.Learners need to copy
accurately in the first step.Then they
can develop their writing skills in the
target language.Sometimes learners
find it difficult to concentrate and
copy accurately.This problem can be
solved by focusing more attention on
the text.

50. Practice
From copying,learners can move to practice
through repetition exercises.Writing is
traditionally the form used to practice
grammatical structures.There can be a
number of activities in substitution such as
replacement of words by alternative and
the use of appropriate reference
material.The teacher needs to insist on
accuracy and demonstrate the value of
correct spellings.

51. Repetition exercises can reinforce the
correct forms of language.Teachers
need to involve the students in
communicative tasks such as writing
of letters,emails,faxes and messages
requiring the use of information and
linguistics structures in a meaningful
way.

52. Free Expression With The
Help Of Writing
While learning a modern foreign
language,learners face the problem to
express themselves freely without
getting help of translation from the
first language.Students should be
encouraged to use the known
language by making them write short
poems,jokes and stories within the
topic area.

53. Conclusions
English enjoys an important status in
academic and social life of Pakistan.It
is the official language in the
country .More job opportunities are
available for English speaking
community.
Researchers and personal
experiences indicate a number of
weaknesses in English language
teaching in Pakistan.

54. Language teachers are not competent
enough to adopt communicative methods in
the classroom.Grammar translation method
is widely used for teaching English.
Students face a number of problems in
learning English.Major problems include
poor understanding of the sentence
structure,more focus on reading skill.

55. Interference of the mother
tongue,lack of a language culture in
classroom,poor assessment system
and negative attitude toward writing.
The most common errors and
mistakes students do in their written
work are errors in sentence
structure,spelling mistakes and
grammatical errors.

56. Recommendations
All these points can be helpful for writing
English:
Training sessions may be conducted to
refresh the knowledge and to enhance the
competencies of English language teachers
in Pakistan.
Teachers’ and students’ attitude toward
may be revisited and revised.Positive
attitude to writing is a key to successful
writing.

57. Teacher needs to develop a language
culture in the classroom as well as in the
institution in which the students can
practice and use the learnt language skills.
Preferably,students should be taught how
to write from an early stage.
Students should be involved in activities
which promote self-writing and creative
writing.

58. Assessment system for English language
skills need to be revised.The present
assessment system only assesses the rote
learning among students.
Teachers should concentrate on accuracy of
grammatical structure.They should provide
feedback to remove mistakes of grammar
and sentence structure.

59. References;
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65. The End
© 2010 by Dr. Robert J. Walker all rights reserved.