Naila Tulebayeva, Kazakhstan
All the above mentioned topics are of big interest, but me and my colleagues need to learn more about inductive grammar teaching, using multiple examples, analyzing and comparing different verb tenses etc. to help our learners understand English grammar and use it correctly in communication process

Tina, China
Teaching English to a large class has always been a headache to me, especially when you want to develop their speaking skills. Students have neither enough attention from their teachers nor much practice, while the teachers exhaust themselves but gain little.

Carmen Vargas, Peru
Wow! I have read most of the comments and I totally agree with all the teachers round the world. We all have the same problems. Personally, I think listening skills is the most difficult to develop, but as I said before, I agree with all of you!! Teaching itself is the most challenging aspect in our lives, but we all love it.

Worrell, Trinidad and Tobago
For me, having a large class for any foreign language teaching is a big disadvantage. Students need a measure of individual attention. After all, we learn our mother tongue mainly from mummy or daddy (or both).

Drita, Macedonia
During my whole teaching experience, which is almost a decade now, I have been in many teaching situations where I have been challenged a lot and that has motivated me in my work. But, this time I am both challenged and a bit sceptic. It is the application of an on-going assessment. I like this type of assessment but because it is quite subjective and our students are not used to this type of assessment I am concerned a lot. Yet, I find it quite challenging and I am ready to experience it.

Wangzhaohui, Chengdu, China
How to make the whole class actively involved in learning activities is the greatest challenge for me, especially when the students are not English majors.

Fiametta, Peru
What is challenging for me is developing Sts writing skills, and reading comprehension. As teachers we have the responsiblity to promote learning independence and help Sts think critically in order to be successful not only in the classroom but outside the classroom. So they take actions, and make decisions to transform reality.

Ada, HK
The greatest challenge is the marking of students' assignments. There are simply too many students in each class and marking their work takes up most of my time.

Ray, Brasil
I have a very peculiar problem here in the North-east of Brasil. The "R" is not pronounced, the "W" is pronounced as "H" and very often the "H" is pronounced as an "R". This causes a lot of problems as there are many words in English which are the same, differing only with the first letter. Even after 25 years teaching English, I find basic pronunciation dificult to teach here because of this regional trait.

Bill, provincial Thailand
The challenge I face is trying to experiment with the reduced and very powerful 'minimalist' form of English known as BASIC (850-word core), as pioneered by Ogden and Richards decades ago. It is also being reexplored in something called BASIC GLOBAL ENGLISH (Joachim Grzega's model, a 750-word core) and an 'English Lite' model being developed in France called GLOBISH (Jean-Paul Nerriere's model, 1,500-word core). If we can teach students to control a limited lexis and reduced syntax and a local but comprehensible pronunciation -- to say almost anything they want -- we don't need to force students to climb the Everest of 'complete English' with its endless synonyms and idioms and complexity, and 'native speaker' norms. A mini-lingua franca is needed as a model in the spirit of ‘less is more’ and ‘downsizing discourse’, a fully functional power tool capable of expressing even quite complex thought in simple words. Call it GLOBISH or English Lite. Much less time spent mastering it, teachers can be trained far easier to be competent in it. The profession has to rethink what is realistic as a lingua franca for most average non-elite often rural learners in the Global South. Back to BASIC, which is no one's 'native English', is one avenue that needs pilot programs. It is THE challenge to the profession. All my experience in Thailand with working-class youth suggests this as an alternative direction. CA Simpson (above) faces similar problems in China, as does Mozhgan in Iran.

Nina Koptyug
There are new demands on teachers, but the pay remains the same. It is very hard to motivate teachers, to help them use the new technologies, if they are snowed under with work.

Kristin, Australia
Many of my learners come from backgrounds in which an 'A' is the only mark good enough to get from a test etc - to give learners less than this seems to imply they are a failure!!!! I find this such a challenge but I have to train my learners to understand their grades and my beliefs of learning. However this is not the end of it as my learners then have to return home with a grade that they know will not be received in such an understanding climate........

Effie, Greece
After being in the profession for sixteen years I am now attending a distance learning training course. Despite my experience I really want to apply all the new methods to my classes. At this point of my career this is very challenging to me.

T.Smiles,Tamil Nadu India
I am teaching English in an Engineering College most of my students are from English medium school background, inspite of their exposure to the language they are not regular in using English language to communicate among themselves and I find it a continuous challenge to motivate them to use the language to gain greater fluency. As the first step I always prefer to talk to them only in English

Oswaldo, Peru
I find really hard to turn structural based lessons into functional ones, it's all a challenge, probably to be creative is what we need, but can this be taught?

Michael Clarke
Ultimately having good command of the ability to write well is something that everyone should desire. There is however less emphasis placed on writing in schools nowadays because of the advent of instant communications and less strict form and rules. Bit of a shame really, where's the next Shakespeare coming from?

Mal Jmaes, UK
I am teaching a group of trainee Polish bus drivers here in the UK. Although their knowledge of grammar is very good the main problem in the classroom is to get them to join in with drills. That was untill I gave a short presentation of the schwa and the way we eat our vowels in the UK. They were intrigued enough to follow and copy sentences and when they realised how much easier it was when they used the schwa. Every lesson I now choose a sentence where they attempt to identify the schwa before I say it.

Rajesh Vasudevan, Bangkok Thailand
The world today is more demanding. Like in any other profession, teaching also has been the traget of jet-rocketting culture. This has directly or indirectly affected the quality of both learning and teaching. Children are exposed to the latest trends and their quest to know more has thus increased much more than the usual. Whereas schools very conveniently forget this aspect of knowledge imparting. The teaching fraternity is still "walking in darkness." Schools are more focuesd at money-making than man making. They are not very keen about supplying the latest updates to the teachers. Even the publishers are also more into money-making. They think that colourful front page and inside will make all that teaching very easy. Often the search engines online are not giving any promising links. Still the teaching is going on. Students, parents and top it to all, we have the parents also stretching the index finger at the teachers. In house workshops are becoming too much a farce. All these messiahs of English language forget that learning English, for that matter any language needs quality resources for the teachers. One might argue that teachers have to teach with all limitations. Teaching is not the concern here. Every school follows a certain curriculum. And that curriculum has definite objectives. So keeping that higher level of demand in mind the planning part of teaching is done. Text book is not enough to make a plan. Language has to be acheived through practice. That has to be brushed up everday. Many schools fail to achieve this. Compelling work allotment, demanding framework and the like hampers any teacher's real zest. The teacher then compromises with whatever little he /she knows /or has and add more miseries to the student life.

Elisaveta Statelova, Bulgaria
Classroom management is quite a challenge, simply because with 5 lessons a day with the same lively 14-year-olds one has to be quite imaginative to keep their attention.

M.K.Smitha, Kerala,India
It is true that a lot of difficulties are there in teaching a foreign language to students coming from background where the parents have not completed their secondary levels. But most of the parents believe that English being a world language has to be studied from an employment perspective.

Heidie, Philippines
For three years in teaching ESL, our resources had been very limited and its a great challenge for me as a teacher because students have great expectations towards their students and I believe as a teacher we must be resouceful. Still it is difficult without sufficient resources because it could loosen the students attention as well as their motivation, especially when you have passive students.

Truong Binh , Viet Nam
Of course there are several difficulties in teaching languages in general and English in particular. But in my opinion, making young students learn English interestingly is one of the most challenges. Adult learners often study English with clear purposes but the young ones rarely do.

Ubon Sanpatchayapong, Thailand
It takes time and careful consideration to look for materials suitable for my students. Time constraint is , therefore, a problem to include authentic ones. However, I usually include one or two authentic materials as examples for students to encourage more extensive readings.

Nicky, Italy
Today I start a new class with about 200 Italian science students of varying levels. How on earth can I teach them anything worthwhile in 24 hours?

Mozhgan, Iran
Lack of students motivation,large classes, boring and not authentic teaching books, shortage or lack of instrumental aids in most schools especially in countryside & villages are the most important factors in unsuccessful process of teaching English in Iran but many thanks to you for helping us to be informed about the latest teaching strategies and insights.

Riaz Uddin, Pakistan
Teaching English as a second language in Asia is an ordeal. Limited resources, frequent use of mother tongue makes the efforts of English abortive for want of creating congenial enviroment wherein the childern may participate in general discussion in English other than mother tongue.

Irene, Poland
The most difficult for me is to develop speaking skills and to prepare my students to communicate in English in everyday situations. My students and I use English only in artificial situations using texts or recordings. It's very difficult for me to speak to them freely so how can I teach them fluency in speaking. I think that it should be done something to help teachers of English spend some time with native speakers. In my country none of my collegues can afford to go to England. It would also be fine to send English teachers to our schools.

Cristina Florêncio, Brazil
Developing listening skills is most challenging because most students (and teachers!) panic when they have to face that. Most listening exercises demand a good memory too and at first it's difficult to get well in both areas at the same time.

Burcu Eroglu, Turkey
I believe that the most important reason of not teaching English effectively is that you have to teach large classes in Turkey. Because in that situation you cant be effective on the students. There has to be such an atmosphere in the classroom that your students should gain all skills. That's why it's possible to have small classes.

Irene Ong, Malaysia
I find the bigger the student number the more challenging it is to be able to reach each and every student. One can manage with the minimal of technology and yet be able to reach each individual when a class is of a manageable number. I would consider 20-25 as a reasonable number for teaching to be effective. All other 'obstacles' can be overcome when a teacher is inspired to teach and inspiration is more likely to arise when one is not overwhelmed by too large a class!

Abdul Rohman, Indonesia
It seems to me that teaching many classes, 12 classes a week with each class consists of 36 students,makes me exhausted. I cannot correct my students' work. I know that a good teacher is the teacher who knows the improvement of her students in learning. But what I can do with so large number of students. I sometimes get frustrated becoming a teacher. The students' parents rely on me about their children learning but the school assigns me so many classes a week.

Abdelaziz Dqaqi, Morocco
I think that teaching writing is the most difficult skill to teach. Students find it hard to write even in L1.I always resort to group work to make the task easier or choose some intersting topics. Still, students encounter the same problem.

Suxuejun Xian, China
It seems to me that teaching students to remember the English words is the most challengling job as a teacher. On one hand, I have to teach them how to use the words grammartically, on the other hand I have to make them understand the words in the way the native speakers do. Quite often they will either use the words in the very Chinese way or memorize the words in the same way. This makes me feel rather difficult in teaching English vocabulary.

Martha Mendoza, Peru
Developing writing skills is especially challenging for me because most of my students have not developed that interest in reading which enables you not only to improve your vocabulary but become aware of text cohesion, as a result of this either they have nothing to say or are unable to express it clearly. What is more they do not seem to understand that when they write something for others to read they will not be able to be next to the reader to clarify ideas. That is why developing writing skills is one of the things that requires a lot more preparation, motivating and warming up. However, the final product when carefully prepared and successfully achieved is worth the job.

Rene van Wyngaarden, South Africa
We find it extremely difficult to teach large classes as result of lack of discipline. At this stage many of the parents can't read or write which results in lack of parental intervention. People are poor and battle to earn a piece of bread , recources are way down the list of priorities. We also experience many kids with emotial trauma (lack of either one of the parents or both for various reasons) With 11 official languages in the country and a limited goverment budget as well as a terrible back log in proper fascilities in the rural areas teaching is a challenge. Very little is done towards mother tongue education. The parents speak their home language to the their kids. The only English they experience the 5 hours at school. The teachers are on the whole not fluent in English , but somehow we cope and come by. Reading the letters of teachers over the wide spectrum of the world one realizes that teaching is suffering as result of the lack of money. Or might it be the lack of proper admin. of funds. Perhaps the grown up men (and women) should stop hurling bombs and use the money for education around the world.

Maria Jose Boga, Argentina
I believe developing listening and speaking skills becomes a challenge when it is intermediate level students you are teaching, especially if they have not been trained in these areas since the very beginning. Therefore, you have to play recordings for much lower levels, for instance, or foster students´s confidence and help them develop the ability to produce a meaningful oral message, when they expect to have a better performance and may be a bit frustrated.

Eliana Barrios Fuentes
The most challenging situations have been teaching a large number of students (40) and with limited resources.

Terkule Aorabee, Nigeria
Nigeria, especially the urban and semi-urban areas have classes that range between 50-80 in one stream. I teach three classes of four streams in my present school and with this population, all the problems associated with teaching English manifest themselves to the fullest. One can hardly mark scripts to correct errors, manage the classromm effectively etc. the students are of varying degrees from stark illitrates to semi-illitrates. One needs a lot of skills to handle the situation.

Brian, UK
Something I've always struggled with is maintaining a balance between having fun enjoyable classes and keeping some discipline and control. This has been a problem especially with kids. They seem to think that if you are a fun loving teacher, they somehow don't have to respect you.

CA Simpson, China
3 years ago I would have ticked almost every box on the list as classes in Asia tend to be monstrous all you have for resources are a box of chalk and a blackboard. With large numbers almost everything becomes a problem but in time you find ways of getting around them [not necessarily solving them] but one problem I've never managed to overcome is correcting pronunciation when you have classes of 50 students.