Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners in Primary Stage: A Case Study on the Primary Schools in the State of Kuwait

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to identify the the perceptions of teachers of English language about the main challenges in teaching primary stage pupils; and to recognize the challenges that are experienced locally in the five educational areas available in the state of Kuwait. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been applied because data are supposed to be in the form of numbers. The survey was provided by a hard copy to about (20) teachers of English language in the state of Kuwait. The survey itself consisted of two sections. The first section refers to some sort of a ranking question. That means the teachers ordered the factors that may develop teaching English to young learners according to their point of views. The second section of the survey included an open question as follows: Which aspect do you think the most challenging in teaching young pupils and why? The results revealed that teachers of English are challenged by several factors including lack of training, resources and acknowledge. Most teachers suffered from lack of time to teach; particularly, teaching writing and grammar.