In a previous article (Logan 1978) I discussed various teaching and learning difficulties in the third world. An earlier article discussed specific educational problems in Papua New Guinea (Logan 1976). This article, a sequel to those two, is concerned especially with educational problems that may arise due to language. The article was prompted by my undertaking a course in crosscultural education and by correspondence arising out of my previous article in this magazine. In fact it has been suggested that the whole subject requires much thought, and in this article I merely report others' thoughts to generate discussion and possibly initiate some research activity. Without a knowledge of the role of language one can always use it as a convenient excuse for poor student performances. As noted in the previous article language difficulties were blamed for one problem until it was also found to be a problem at another college without a similar language 'problem'.It is instructive to list some of the suggested causes of learning difficulties experienced by science students in a crosscultural educational environment. These incIude the student problems: lack of ability, poor background, poor motivation, slow cognitive development, weak vocabulary, poor comprehension of English, specific conceptual problems, unwillingness to work hard and poor study habits. The teacher problems include poor teacher expectation, unsuitable teaching staff with poor English accent
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