TEACHERS’ CHALLENGES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Keywords:
English as a Foreign Language, higher education, EFL teachers, teaching challenges, teacher workload, student motivation, large classes, language teaching, professional development, instructional resources.Abstract
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in higher education is a complex process that involves linguistic, pedagogical, technological, institutional, and sociocultural challenges. University English teachers are expected to develop students’ communicative competence, academic language skills, critical thinking, and confidence while working within different educational contexts and institutional constraints. The present study investigates the major challenges faced by teachers in teaching English as a foreign language in higher education. The study focuses particularly on challenges related to students’ diverse proficiency levels, motivation, classroom size, limited teaching resources, technology, assessment, time constraints, curriculum requirements, teacher workload, and institutional support. A quantitative research approach with a descriptive survey design is proposed. Data are conceptualized as being collected from higher-education EFL teachers through a structured questionnaire designed to identify the frequency and severity of different teaching challenges. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, are used to analyze the data, while comparative and correlational analyses may be employed to examine patterns among the identified challenges. The illustrative findings indicate that heterogeneous student proficiency, low student motivation, large classes, limited instructional resources, insufficient technological facilities, heavy workload, and restricted instructional time represent important challenges for university English teachers. The study concludes that improving EFL teaching in higher education requires more than individual teacher effort. Universities need to provide appropriate professional development, adequate teaching resources, manageable workloads, technological support, realistic curricula, and institutional policies that enable teachers to respond effectively to students’ diverse learning needs. Strengthening teacher support systems can contribute to improved teaching quality and better English language learning outcomes.
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