English is one of the most prominent languages which are widely practiced around the globe. The English language works as a passport to enter the West which is considered as a hub of all types of developments.
In Pakistan, learning the English language is like opening the doors of the global village upon you. In Pakistan, the English language is a vehicle that enables a human to learn wast knowledge of the universe whoever hops in.
But despite the importance of this language, this language is also facing a huge amount of challenges in Pakistani society. These challenges are acting as barriers to the people who are learning the English language as their second language. So it is the mutual concern for the government and non- government organizations to take those bold steps which should practically exist in society rather than existing on papers to eradicate the barriers.
1) Lack of resources
In some remote areas of Pakistan people do not have a proper source of earning the bread for themselves and their family. In such cases people can’t afford the fundamental education then how can they learn English as L2 which is much expensive.
2) Two streamlines of Education
In Pakistan, we have two streams of education which are commonly known as Urdu medium & English medium. Urdu medium is largely associated with public sectors and the English medium is largely associated with private sectors.
Public sector institution is usually government-funded which provides education
to the lower or working class, and middle class. Public sector institutions are
usually cover crowded with students with the lowest number of individual
attention from the teacher. Due to this students barely get 30 to 35 mins of
exposure with L2 which draws the line of L2 learning towards the bottom.
One the other hand privately sector institutions are the opposite. They provide
individual attention to the students, classes are not overcrowded and students are
from the elite class which can afford the number of learning opportunities that
draw the line of L2 learning upward.
3) Less availability of L2 resources
People don’t have enough resources for a second language. Because at the
government level a very little number of programs are run which are equal to
none. But there are some non- government organizations which are running
several L2 programs in the Pakistani society and provide enough exposure of L2
to the people. Some organizations even pay to the people for learning the
English language.
4) Lack of training and trainers
One of the major barriers of L2 learning is less availability 0f the trained
teachers. In the public sector, we have teachers but those teachers don’t have the
proper training to teach L2. So if someone doesn’t have enough training himself
or herself then how can he/she teach to the students?