Syrian Refugees’ Challenges and Problems of Learning and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL): Jordan as an Example

Abstract

The study sought to identify the problems and challenges of teaching EFL to Syrian refugees and to identify the solutions to overcome the problems. The study has successfully met the purpose by conducting semi-structured interview with 10 Syrian refugees, one director of resettlement agency, one EFL manager, and one ESL instructors. The thematic analysis results shows that social, education, financial, and institutional are four important challenges of learning and teaching ESL to Syrian refugees in Jordan. Most of the social challenges are derived from the financial crisis, concerns about immediate family and relatives who are still residing in Syrian, childcare, lack of fulfilling basic needs, and mental hazard are severe social challenges for the Syrian refugees in terms of teaching ESL. Most of financial challenges are centralized to afford the regular family expenses, such as food, clothes, and medicine. Most of the challenges of learning EFL in terms of education include poor educational background, uncomfortable with English, lack of knowledge of teachers to deal with Syrian refugees, and lack of motivation. Budget crisis for addressing the demand of additional learning materials, new class environment, scarcity of teachers and volunteers, and poor academic background of Syrian refugees are major challenges under the institutional related challenges. The study recommends that the curriculum of teaching EFL should be designed easily by using sophisticated and learner friendly teaching methods. If necessary, ESL teachers should pay extra attention to teach EFL to Syrian refugees. For providing extra effort, the institution should pay extra compensation to motivate the teacher.

[Retracted] Improvement of English Teaching Model Based on Computer Network

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Second language acquisition from Syrian refugees’ perspectives: Difficulties and solutions

“…One major issue, however, that might be added to the array of challenges is that refugees encounter serious hardships in acquiring a second language, whether the process of learning a second language, such as English, takes place in an Arab-speaking country (Alefesha and Al-Jamal 2019) or a non-Arabspeaking context (Şeker and Sirkeci 2015). The factors that may contribute to the refugees' SLA extremity are multifaceted and might be related to a battery of reasons that are inextricably intertwined.…”

Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey

“…As a recommendation, a dire need exists to seek more effective ways to improve the expectations and beliefs related to the academic achievement of both teachers and Syrian students, despite the many barriers present in Turkey. That is because both students’ and teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning might negatively affect the opportunities of refugee students to engage in assessment situations (Alefesha and Al‐Jamal, 2019; Woofter, 2019; Nortvedt et al., 2020).…”