CHALLENGES OF TEACHING GRAMMAR AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ESL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

One of the most important objectives of English language teaching in Pakistan is to make students competent in using correct English grammar. The researcher has observed many challenges which hinder the ESL teachers to achieve the objectives. So, the researcher attempted to study these challenges. The present study aims at exploring the challenges of teaching grammar at elementary level faced by ESL teachers in the Government schools of Bahawalpur City. It is also analyzed that whether these challenges vary according to gender or not. Qualitative research paradigm has been followed by the researcher for the present study. The data has been collected through an open-ended questionnaire. The analysis has been done thematically and in tabulated form. The results reveal that the challenges falling under the themes of experience, students, lesson, English and L1 and facilities are greatly faced by the ESL teachers in different situations. However, teachers contradicted about one of the challenges falling under the theme of teachers’ perception. The impact of gender and teaching experience regarding facing challenges also studied. So, there is an impact of gender as the female ESL teachers have been facing more challenges of teaching English grammar as compared to the male ESL teachers. It is also concluded that teaching experience helps the teachers to solve many challenges of teaching grammar. Lastly, pedagogical recommendations have been given to overcome the challenges of teaching grammar.