An Empirical Study of Elementary School Students’ English Language Learning Issues

Abstract

This study examines elementary school pupils' perceptions of grammatical challenges, vocabulary constraints, and pronunciation and fluency issues as they relate to learning English. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 517 students (265 males and 252 females) enrolled in English-medium and English-Urdu-medium schools using a quantitative, descriptive-comparative design. The findings show that problems with pronunciation and fluency were regarded as the biggest obstacle, followed by problems with vocabulary and grammar. While medium-based comparisons demonstrated that English-Urdu-medium students faced more difficulties than English-medium learners, especially in grammar, gender-based analysis showed that female students felt these challenges more strongly than male students. The results are consistent with previous research highlighting the importance of affective variables, instructional strategies, and language exposure in language learning. In order to address gender- and medium-specific learning challenges and improve early English language proficiency, the study emphasizes the necessity of communicative, context-sensitive teaching strategies, targeted vocabulary and grammar instruction, and differentiated support.