Barriers in the Learning of English: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Education in Saudi Arabia (KSA) is becoming crucially important due to its economic and technological connections. Teaching English is felt important especially at tertiary level for many educational reasons. The experts are of the view that educational objectives will remain unachieved unless teaching-learning of English is properly done. The entire process of the learning of English in general is attributed to many variables’ adverse effect. The study explores the barriers faced by the learners while learning English. Descriptive method of analysis includes purposive sampling technique to choose two samples: students and teachers. The study took place at KAU-Jeddah consuming around 8 months. The findings indicate that the obstacles confronted by the learners are of different kinds such as learning habits, information retention abilities, linguistic issues, and attitude towards learning. Other barriers are concerned with the nature of learning styles, methods, pedagogies etc.