Solving the Problem of the Failure in English

Failure in English class is much higher than it should be as English as a subject is not necessarily hard compared to mathematics, physics etc. This problem has been heavily researched by the author of the article that I have read.  

The author first showcases the magnitude of the problem with numbers such as out of 187 students in a year 49 of them were in English where it really should not be the case. He also presented us with three groups of these failing students, those who have the ability to do well but simply do not have enough interest, those who do not know what their problem is and are stuck because of it and lastly those who cannot keep up with their class.  

The author also described some solutions to each group that he himself tested. Firstly, starting with the first group, these students cannot do well in English class as they cannot get themselves into it, it simply does not interest them enough. So according to the author the solution to this problem is moving a struggling student from for example English I to English III, that keeps them interested as they have to actually work hard to achieve results. For the second group the solution is to work with them individually and work on their problems one by one.  

Lastly for the last group we are not presented with a clear solution but rather and explanation on why they’re failing and that is because they are what we would call backwards pupils.  

To sum up students most students failing English are not failing because of their lack of ability but because of the approach to teaching them is usually one and the same and same methods might not apply to different students. So, in order to get rid of this problem teachers should adopt their methods to different students/student groups as it would provide a far better teaching environment 

ref. Backus, Bertie. “Solving the Problem of the Failure in English.” The English Journal, vol. 9, no. 10, 1920, pp. 579–583. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/802278. Accessed 15 June 2021.