TitleThe reasons of poor performance in English language learning at grade 7th.Abstract: The aim of this research is to find out the reasons of poor performance in English language learning. This research highlights the factors affecting students’ capabilities to learn English. The quantitative approach was suitable for this research. The questionnaires were used as quantitative research tool. The students of grade 7 were selected for this research. The findings revealed that teaching methodologies affects performance of students in English language learning.
Students lacking English foundation negatively affect their performance. The class discussion in mother tongue rather than English is one of the reasons of poor performance in English. Lack of motivation is also one of the reasons of students’ poor performance in English. The findings revealed that lack of confidence to learn English negatively affects students’ performance. They are afraid of making mistakes while learning English. The selected syllabus limits students to make their performance better in English language learning. 1. Introduction:Now a days it has been mainly well known that most of the students go through from many problems while learning English as a foreign language in the specific countries where it is not native language.
This research has an important goal to explore the most highlighted causes of poor performance of students in English language learning because in almost every country where English is not used as a national language, students’ do not have good proficiency.Hashmi 2011, identified that students’ weakness in English language learning is because of the difference of the social context, cultural environment; for example, in the environments where the first and second or foreign languages learning take place such as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and others.Although in current situation English language learning as always played a vital role in many of the countries’ development, but the proficiency level of these nations is still not reached to satisfactory level.Students are weak in English language learning, especially in the countries where English is not used as mother tongue.
In such countries, many causes lay behind the poor performance in English language learning. Many factors are affecting the poor performance in English language learning; including poor educational background, unqualified English teachers, uneducated parents, improper methods of teaching, lack of confidence and many others. Poor English background is one of the most affected factors in English language learning. It involves poor educational background of English, including improper methods used to teach English and lack of efficient understanding of grammar rules. It engages the socio-economic status as well, when learners are not provided with well-developed platforms of English language learning. Their learning capability is directly affected. For parent’s and teacher’s role in poor performance of students in English language learning, Daniyal stated that both parents and teachers are responsible for providing the facilities and learning forums to students so that they could minimize the poor performance in ELL.
English as a foreign language has been acknowledged in all over the world. Therefore, it is necessary to highlight the causes of poor performance in English language learning. 1.
1 Aim of Research: The aim of this research is to find out the reasons of poor performance of grade 7th in public schools. In this context, questions below will be answered:1- What kind of methodologies are used that impacts English language learning?2-Why students’ background effect the ability of English language learning?3-What type of problems students face while learning English?4-What kind of problems students face in syllabus?5-Why parents’ education effect students’ capability to learn English?The objectives of this research were to examine:1-To find out wither teacher understand teaching methodologies.2- To know wither students lack English foundation.3-To know about parental education.4-To determine wither students want to rely on L1 while learning L2.1.2 Importance of Research:In public sectors, most of the factors affecting performance of students in English are not highlighted for better results. This research brings light to the factors affecting students’ capabilities to learn English.
This research highlights the problems students of public schools face while learning English. These problems involve their home setting as well. The home environment impacts a lot on their performance in English.
In this regard, this research will show reasons of grade 7th students’ poor performance in English language learning.2. Literature ReviewMost of the authors believe that there are some reason behind the poor performance of English language learning. “According to Roger (2003) some so called English language teachers are not academically qualified to teach the subject and a such do not teach it hell and as they are not specialist in the field of study, they are graduates of other discipline secondary school leavers, who took to teaching English because they would not rid even teaching appointment in their respective disciplines. The author added that some students are to some extent responsible for the fact that they perform poorly in English language and they do not even practice the habit of speaking simple and correct English always but always speak pidgin English, even when they ask their English language teachers questions about their lessons the author claims that this has infect landed some of them in trouble before their teachers.””According to Grege (1992) there are factors that have been associated with student’s poor performance from various schools that may have difficulties in using the language with adequate performance of the primary school schools. According to the author ninny reasons that causes poor performance in English language such as the weakleness of curriculum design lade of qualified English teachers, lack of student’s motivation, school resources class size different of social contents and cultural environment”.
3. Research Design and Methodology: 3.1 Research Model:The current research aimed to find out “The Reasons of Poor Performance in English Language Learning of grade 7th”.
The quantitative approach was suitable for this research. 3.2 Sample:This research involved 30 students both girls and boys of grade 7th. A public institute was selected for this research. 3.3 Data Collection Tools:A questioner was designed as a tool of quantitative research approach to address the research problem.
It contains 12 questions followed by four options that is agree, not agree, strongly agree and not sure. The questionnaire was followed by factors affecting the performance of students in English. These factors involve teaching methodologies, English foundation of students, impact of parents ‘educational background and reliability on L1. Further factors involve students’ lack of confidence to learn English, class discussions in L1and minimum exposure to English at home.3.
4 Data Collection:After taking permission from school management, questionnaires were given to students of grade 7th, and gave them instructions to fill it.4. Results:4.1 Usage of mother tongue is necessary to learn English language.
Total Student 30Q 1. Teaching methods of English Language Teaching affects the student’s capability to learn English. 10 % student respond that they were agree about teaching methods of English language learning which affect the students’ capability to learn English. While 10 % student gave answer in strongly agree and rest of the 10 % student were not agree about the impact of teaching methodology of English language learning.Q 2. Parent’s educational background has an impact on learning English. 10 % student were agree on the parents educational background of English learning while 15 % students were strongly agree on parents’ educational background and on the other hand 5 % students said they are not agree about parents’ educational background.
Q 3. Good command on English from primary level affects English language teaching. 20% students respond with strongly agree because they know that good command on English from primary level have good impact on the other side 10% students were also agree about that statement.
Q 4. Exposure to modern techniques of English language teaching enhance the capability of students to learn English. According to that given statement 17% students gave answer with the statement of strongly agree because at public sector modern techniques are not used properly and other 13% students were also agreed about it.Q 5. Lecture given in mother tongue affects the proficiency of English. At public sector mostly, lectures are given in mother tongue so 15% strongly agreed that it affects the English proficiency and 13% were also agreed about that statement but 2% students said they were not agreed that native tongue affects the learning of English language.Q 6.Class discussions in English enhance students’ capability to understand English.
60% students were agree on class discussions in English while 26% students were strongly agree on class discussion in English and on the other hand 13% were not sure about class discussions in English.Q 7.Having more developed platform for English language teaching has a direct effect on learning English. 66% students of grade 7th were agree, 23% were strongly agree and 10% were not sure for having more developed platform for English language teaching.Q 8.Motivation is necessary to learn English. 66% students were strongly and 33% were agree about the need of motivation to learn English.
Q 9.English usage at home has a great impact on English language teaching. 70% students were agree and 30% students were strongly agree with usage of English at home.Q 10.Lack of confidence affects the capability to learn English. 76% students were agreed and 23% students were not sure about the lack of confidence to learn English.
Q 11.Usage of mother tongue to learn English is necessary. 83% students were agree, 10% were not sure and 6% were not agree about reliance on mother tongue to learn English.Q 12. Syllabus of English book limits the students to learn English. 66% students were agreed, 16% were not agree and 16% were not sure about the syllabus that limits them to learn English.
4.2 Analysis of Data:According to the data analysis result, the students of grade 7 gave answer by using different options like agree, strongly agree, not agree and not sure. At first, they have the question about parents’ educational background through which students’ English language learning is affected and they do not have proper environment to acquire that skill. In questionnaires’ results it was seen that half percent of the students said that they are strongly agree and other students were also in the favor for that good command in English language learning from primary level and it is one of the most important steps and plays vital role to enhance students’ English learning ability but that skill is not used proper at public sector.As for as the results of exposure of teaching methods are concerned, most of the students strongly agreed and remaining of them were agreed for that statement because of these teaching techniques students can enhance their English learning ability but in public sector these methodologies are not used frequently and most of the teachers follow old ones.According to results, class discussion in L2 impacts students’ capability to learn English.
It is important to have class discussions in target language as it directly affects English language learning. It was seen in result evaluation that class discussions in mother tongue rather than English will have negative affects students’ capability to learn target language. The results showed that students having lack of English foundation are more prone to have poor performance in English. Those students that didn’t practice English at primary level are more prone to have poor command on English. It is necessary to have an English foundation for having good command on English.
Motivation plays a valuable part in English language learning. As a result it can be said that students having lack of motivation to learn English shows poor performance in English. When students are not encouraged by their institute to learn English and its current importance in all over the world, negatively impact their performance in English language learning. The home environment in which students’ abilities are developed, affects their performance in English language learning. When English is not adopted by parents and other family members, it negatively impact students’ capability to learn English. They face difficulty to use English in their daily life. As a result it can be said that students having lack of confidence to speak or write English are at risk of poor performance in L2. They are afraid of making mistakes while learning English.
In this way, they couldn’t learn a foreign language while hesitating. According to results, it was seen that students rely on mother tongue to learn English. They need help by the mother tongue to learn English. They need translation of every text to understand the context. As a result it can be said that students’ reliance on mother tongue in grade 7th is one the reasons of their poor performance in English. They are not well acquainted with English from primary level which directly affects their performance in English.
They are not capable to learn English without relying on L2 in grade 7th, negatively impacts their performance in English language learning. The selected syllabus impacts the capability of students to learn English. As a result it can be said that selected syllabus negatively impact students’ ability to learn English. When extra readings are not supported, it also becomes the reason of poor performance. 5.
Conclusion: According to results, many reasons were seen which became the major factors for the poor performance of English language learning at grade 7th students that were not effective use of teaching techniques which can affect students’ ability to learn proper English language learning. While another necessary point was also observed that is poor parental educational background and that thing can have deep impact because of parents’ not cooperating attitude it may lead the students towards failure. According to results, it was seen that class discussions in mother tongue rather than English affects students’ performance in English language learning. Students lacking English foundation negatively impact their capability to learn English. It was also seen in results evaluation that lack of motivation is one of the reasons students perform ineffectively in English language learning. The home environment where English is not adopted by parents is also one of the reasons of poor performance in English.
It is important to use English in daily life as it directly affects process of English language learning. To be relying on L1 in grade 7th affects their ability to learn English, because they are afraid of making mistakes while learning L2. They are not confident enough to understand L2 without relying on L1. The mother tongue plays the part of helping agent for grade 7th students in public sectors. The selected syllabus, without extra readings such as novels, limits students to learn English. It negatively impacts their performance in English. 6. RecommendationFor recommendation these steps can be focused:• In-service teacher training can be planed.
• Curriculum can be designed to enhance four skills, reading, speaking, writing and listening.• Students can be motivated to speak English at formal and informal place.• Opportunity can be given to students for learning English at school.
• Ministry of education can make sure teachers are trained or not.• English language can integrate into daily lifeReferencesHashemi (2011). “Achievement, gender the single-sex co education debate.” British journal of sociology of education, 21(2): 204-218.
Grege (1992) Reading on English as a second language Toronto: Little BrownTHE FACTORS AFFECTING THE STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE Muhammad Daniyal – Academia.edu
