Challenges faced by teachers when teaching English grammar using Communicative Language Teaching approach in multilingual classrooms.

Challenges Faced by Teachers When Teaching English Grammar Using Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Multilingual Classrooms

¹Gwen Mutolwa., ²David Sani Mwanza

¹PhD student, University of Zambia

²Lecturer, Department of Language and Social Science Education, The University of Zambia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51584/IJRIAS.2025.10030043

Received: 08 March 2025; Accepted: 12 March 2025; Published: 10 April 2025

ABSTRACT

The Communicative Language Teaching approach is the recommended methodology to be used in the teaching of English as a second language in Zambia primary schools. The language policy stipulates that English should be used as a language of instruction from grade five to tertiary education. Considering Zambia as a multilingual country, there seems to be a gap between the policy and practice which affects the effective teaching of English grammar using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. The aim of the study was to establish challenges faced by teachers when teaching English grammar using the CLT approach in grade six multilingual classrooms in Central Province of Zambia. The study used a qualitative design, and data was collected using face to face interviews. A sample of 20 grade six primary school teachers participated in the study. Data was analysed thematically. The study revealed that teachers experienced challenges such as learners’ poor proficiency in English language, learners’ low classroom participation, teachers’ lack of proficiency in the learners’ dominant local language, lack of teaching and learning materials, teacher to pupil ratio, and learners’ linguistic diversities in the classroom. The study recommended that teachers should be trained on how to navigate the complexities of multilingual classroom when teaching English grammar.

Keywords: Communicative Language Teaching approach, Grammar, Multilingual, Challenges

INTRODUCTION

The adoption of the Communicative Language Teaching approach came into effect as a language teaching methodology after the dissatisfaction of the teaching methods such as the Audio-lingual method, the situational method and others. Richards and Schmidt (2010) defined CLT as ‘an approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence, and which seeks to make meaningful communication and language use a focus of all classroom activities’. The emphasis of CLT is that learners are supposed to interact among themselves and with the teacher as they learn the second language (Daisy, 2012). For interaction to take place, the learners must be engaged in activities that would help them acquire skills for meaningful second language communication outside the classroom. This entails that the skills acquired should be applied outside the classroom in real life situations so that there is a link between the language structures taught in the classroom and what learners are expected to use outside the classroom (Baydikova and Davidenko, 2019). The goal of Communicative Language Teaching is to foster students’ communicative competence which includes grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic competence (Mwelwa and Mwanza, 2020). To do this, CLT characteristics should be used in the interaction between students and teachers and among learners themselves. The most evident characteristic of CLT is that almost everything is done with a communicative intent. Students use and learn the target language through communicative activities (Zhao, 2022).

The current Language in education policy in Zambia came into effect in 2013 through the Zambia Curriculum Framework (Mandyata et al. 2023).  According to the 2013 revised policy, the language of instruction from preschool to grade four in all the subjects is one of the seven regional official local languages which include Chitonga, Cinyanja, Icibemba, Kikaonde, Lunda, Luvale, and Silozi (Ministry of Education (MOE), 2013).  They were named official languages for instruction in early childhood education and grades one through to four and each of them had a designated area (ibid). The 2013 revised policy stipulated that local languages would be used as medium of instruction in all subjects in preschool and early grades 1 to 4 with English taught orally and then in writing (Kombe and Mwanza, 2019). However, the policy stipulates that the language of instruction from grade five to tertiary education should be English (MOE, 2013). This means that all the subjects should taught in English except for the Zambian Language as a subject which should be taught in the designated official regional local language. It should also be noted that the Zambia Primary School Syllabus stipulates that the teaching methodology for all English components from grade 2 to 7 should be based on Communicative Language Teaching approach (MOE), 2012). For the lower primary all the components that is listening and speaking, reading, and writing should be taught using CLT. However, grammar should be taught along side the four language components. However, ‘from Grade 5 to 7, Grammar can be tackled as an independent area. At this time, it is expected that elementary definitions and explanations of concepts can be introduced to the learners’ (MOE, 2012). This means that grammar should be taught communicatively.

One of the functional aspects of teaching English as a second or foreign language is to teach the grammatical concepts of English as well. For learners to be communicatively competent there is need to develop their grammar. Grammar is a necessary component of language teaching and for learners to have a good command of language and communicate effectively, there is need for them to understand and master the grammar rules and constructions. Chalker and Weiner (1994: 177) defined grammar as: “the entire system of a language, including its syntax, morphology, semantics, and phonology.” Using CLT to teach grammar, teachers need to relate teaching grammatical concepts to both meaning and use, meaning that both form and function should be taught in a communicative way (Hassan et al 2018). The teaching of grammar should involve language structures, meaning and their use in real situations (Yusob, 2018). Previously, the teaching of grammar was traditionally dominated by grammar-translation method, where the learners’ mother tongue was used and seen as important in explaining the meaning of target language. This was done by translating the target language into the native languages (Yusob, 2018). However, grammar is now taught using the Communicative Language Teaching approach whose focus is using the target language as the language of instruction in the classroom but allows the judicious use of the learners’ familiar language when teaching to explain difficult concepts (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson, 2011).

Zambia is a multilingual country because it comprises of about 73 languages spread across the country (Simwinga, 2006) of which 7 among them are recognised as regional official languages and these are Bemba. Tonga, Nyanja, Lozi, Kaonde, Lunda and Luvale. Languages are spread across the country, and this makes all the schools to be multilingual because they comprise pupils with diverse linguistic backgrounds. In most parts of the world, children are exposed to one or two languages as they are growing up. And as they grow up and move to other places, they find other languages other than their mother tongue which they must learn. In multilingual classes, learners come from different homes with different native languages and the only language for communication may be the target language which they are supposed to learn (Dali and Tsisana, 2021). It can also be defined as the ability of a person or society to use more than one language (Catalano and Hamann, 2016). Multilingualism refers to the presence of more than one language in a geographical area (King, 2017). A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of mother tongue. The success of learning and teaching second and foreign languages should be aligned with the multilingual realities of the world. A multilingual classroom in a primary school is comprises of learners whose first languages may be different from each other or a class where several languages are used. In some cases, the language of instruction may also be different from the learners’ first or local languages. This also includes teachers who may not be native speakers of the language used in the region where they teach. They maybe proficient in the language of instruction and their first language and are multilingual because they teach a language that is not their first language (Calafato, 2020). Though this may be the case, the education policy favours a monolingual language of instruction policy. Teaching multilingual classes using one language hinders effective learning in the classroom thereby disadvantaging the learners to acquire the content they are supposed to acquire (Mkandawire, 2017). The study by Mwanza and Nyimbili (2020) found out that one of the challenges teachers faced when teaching literacy was the mismatch between language of instruction and dominant learner’s familiar language. This challenge was linked to inappropriate zoning of the languages which did not represent the sociolinguistic situation in the zoned areas. Previous studies also highlighted the challenges of teaching English using CLT and others on teaching English grammar in secondary school (Alexio 2003; Coskun 2011; Ansary 2012; Omondi, Barasa and Omulando, 2014; Rasheed, Zeeshan, and Zaidi, 2017; Chishipula 2016). and from the university (Asmari and Radman; 2015). The study was conducted to establish the challenges teachers experience when teaching English grammar in a multilingual grade six primary classrooms.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The language of instruction for grade 5 to 7 primary school learners is English language. The Zambia Primary School syllabus recommends using the Communicative Language Teaching approach to teach all the English components including grammar (MOE, 2012). Based on the multilingual situation in Zambia, most of the classes are multilingual and this calls for teachers to strategies how the linguistic diversities in their classes can be handled in the monolingual ideologies. Therefore, the research question stated in question form was; what challenges do teachers face when teaching English grammar using the Communicative Language Teaching approach in grade six multilingual classes?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the study was to establish the challenges faced by teachers when teaching English grammar using the Communicative Language Teaching approach in grade six multilingual classrooms in Central Province of Zambia.

METHODS

It was a qualitative study, and data was collected through face-to-face interviews. Ary et al (2019) defined qualitative research as research that ‘seeks a deeper understanding of by focusing on the total picture rather than breaking it down variables and analysing it numerically’. The population of the study comprised of all grade six teachers in all primary schools in Central Province of Zambia. The target population for the study was drawn from schools in three districts of Central Province of Zambia namely Kapiri Mposhi, Mkushi and Serenje. The schools were chosen in consideration with their location and accessibility. A total of 20 teachers were purposively sampled. All the 20 teachers were grade six teachers from diverse multilingual classrooms across the three districts. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews from all the sampled grade six primary school teachers. Data was thematically analysed to find some common themes concerning the challenges of teaching English grammar using CLT in multilingual classrooms. The data was sorted, categorized and presented under themes.

FINDINGS

There were several challenges teachers faced when teaching English grammar using Communicative Language Teaching approach in multilingual classrooms.  The study was meant to find out the challenges teachers faced when teaching English Grammar in grade six multilingual primary classrooms in Zambia. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews with teachers.

Poor learner proficiency in English Language

The teachers revealed that they had challenges teaching English grammar using CLT because most of the pupils had low English proficiency in terms of speaking, reading, writing and understanding. It was therefore difficult for the teachers to use English language throughout the English grammar lessons.  Some of the responses from teachers were as follows.

Most of the learners don’t understand English and others fail to express themselves but may understand. So, it becomes difficult to teach everything in English because pupils will just be looking at you (Teacher 1).

Learners don’t understand English, if you just concentrate using English you find that only few understand (Teacher 10).

Some pupils are not able to understand English. I am forced to use the language they understand. … speak English then interpret it (Teacher 3).

Some children are not fluent in English. They fail to construct sentences and express themselves in English (Teacher 2).

Most learners don’t know how to read and write so I incorporate local language especially when explaining things to them so that they understand. (Teacher 4).

Most of the learners don’t know how to read English. So, I say some words in Bemba as well I teach them which takes a lot of time (Teacher 5).

I have challenges with learners who can read but understanding what they read is a challenge. When they are given an exercise, they fail to answer (Teacher 6).

Most of the learners do not understand English. Many pupils have reading difficulties….. language of instruction as English is not fair because of the location … some parents are illiterate (Teacher 11).

When learners move from lower (using local language) to upper (using English) it becomes difficult for them to start using English …. They are still struggling with English language (Teacher 12).

Understanding of the learners since everything is in English especially since they used local language from grade 1 to 4 (Teacher 18).

Low classroom participation by learners

The other challenge which was revealed was that during the English grammar lessons, there was low participation among the learners in the classrooms. The responses from teachers were as follows.

If you ask questions which require one word answer then some will answer but questions which require sentences, then the same pupils will participate (Teacher 6).

Some learners do not participate much, learners not familiar with the dominate language fail to participate (Teacher 7).

It is a problem….. only those who understand some English participate (Teacher 10).

I have the same pupils participating in class especially when using English (Teacher 14)

Teachers’ lack of proficiency in the dominant local languages spoken by learners

Although the language of instruction for upper primary is English, teachers stated that it was challenging to use English throughout the English grammar lessons because of learners’ lack of proficiency in English Language. Therefore, teachers were forced to use the local language to explain some concepts for learners to understand.  However, it was challenging for some teachers to use a local familiar language because of their unfamiliarity with the local language of the pupils and the communities where they taught. Some of them had never been exposed to the languages they found in areas where they were deployed. Some of the responses were as follows.

It is also difficult for me to help them in local language since I am not fluent in Bemba or Lala (Teacher 1).

Sometimes I continue using local language even as they write even asking some their friends to explain to them with words I don’t know since I am not fluent in Bemba (Teacher 4).

Language barrier …. Being Tumbuka and brought up in Eastern province. I fail to help the pupils because I don’t know Bemba. Most of the learners do not know English (Teacher 13).

Language barrier… you cannot teach throughout using English, you have to use Bemba or Lala but I find myself in a situation where I don’t know some of the words in local language (Teacher 20).

Teachers’ judgement of multilingualism as a problem

It was also stated that another challenge that teachers experienced in their classes as much as they wanted to use the learners’ familiar language to help them understand was the presence of other languages in the classrooms apart from the dominant local language.

Some learners do not participate much …… learners not familiar with dominate language fail to participate. When I use Bemba to help them, some learners do not understand because they are Tonga. We have received a lot of Tonga families here because of farming (Teacher 7).

We have Namwanga communities who don’t like using other languages. The pupils from these communities give me challenges especially when it comes to pronunciation and use of language (Teacher 11).

You introduce words and learners are blank, then you are forced to use local language. But again, some pupils may not understand the language you are using (Teacher 17).

 Teaching and learning materials.

The other challenges teachers brought out were lack of teaching and learning materials. It was revealed that it was difficult to implement certain activities in the classroom when teaching English grammar because materials were not provided by the school.

Not enough books, some pupils don’t know how to read …. I read for them … (Teacher 14)

I have ten books for my class of 70. Sharing becomes difficult…. I can’t manage to write everything on the board…. No manila papers and markers to write some work before class… it is challenging (Teacher 16)

Sharing of book does not help, grouping learners to use one book is even worse because they end up fighting for it. So, we need books…. Many books (Teacher 18)

Poor teacher-pupil ratio

The other challenge was the large number of pupils in the classrooms. Most teachers said that it was difficult to know learning challenges which pupils had because they could not attend to every pupil in class. Some of the responses were.

The high number of pupils…. Plus, time. When you try to attend to individual needs it doesn’t work (Teacher 6)

Large classes make it difficult to help pupils with other languages. I end up just using the common one though not good for others (Teacher 13).

High enrolment levels making it difficult to attend to each one of the pupils (Teacher 14).

Learner centered teaching does not work. I mostly lecture in English and some Bemba and just use question and answer (Teacher 17).

I don’t group my learners because they are many and there is no space in the classroom. Its whole class for me regardless of language barriers (Teacher 18).

The findings on the challenges faced by teachers when teaching English grammar using CLT revealed that most of the learners had problems understanding, reading, and writing English. The other challenges were that some teachers had language barriers because they lacked proficiency in the familiar language and some of the pupils also were not familiar with the local language. Other challenges included lack of teaching and learning materials and large class sizes which made it difficult for them as well as the pupils to effectively teach and learn English grammar.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

There were several challenges which teachers revealed they faced when teaching English Grammar using Communicative Language Teaching approach to grade six multilingual classes. The teachers revealed the challenges during the face-to-face interviews and most of them were confirmed as they were being observed.

Learners’ poor proficiency in English Language

The first challenge that most teachers revealed was that learners had poor proficiency in English language. English is the language of instruction from grade 5 to tertiary education in Zambia and therefore lessons are supposed to be conducted in English according to what the policy stipulates. The Communicative Language teaching approach recommends teaching English using the second language, but the local language can be used judiciously and as the strategic competence also guides the teacher to usual strategies that would enhance the learning of the second language. However, teachers revealed that most of the learners had low command of English language and therefore it was difficult for them to use English throughout the English grammar lessons. In this study the findings from teachers 1,3,10 and 11 revealed that some learners did not understand English while others understood English but couldn’t construct sentences in English and express themselves. It was also revealed by teacher 4, 5 and 6 that some learners were able to read but couldn’t understand what they were reading while others were not able to read and write English. Some teachers attributed this to the fact that most of the learners were used to local language as the language of instruction at lower primary and despite introducing them to English as a language of instruction at grade five they had not yet broken through in grade six (teachers 12 and18).  Teachers added that other factors which contributed to low proficiency levels in English were the locality of the some of the schools such as the rural set up with none or few role models using English around the learners. The findings of the current study were in line with the findings Issa (2016) who reported that the main challenge that affected the implementation of CLT in public schools was the low English proficiency levels of the students especially in grammar which hindered English teachers’ efforts to apply CLT in grammar lessons. Similarly, Chishipula (2016) also found that the disparities in the students’ English proficiency affected the teaching of English grammar using CLT. But the findings by Liu and Deris (2023) whose study was conducted in different cities partially agree with the current study about low English proficiency of learners as a challenge to the teaching of English grammar because one of their findings points to the fact that in some areas it is not a challenge because children are exposed to English at an early stage but in some areas learners come into contact with English at school therefore making it difficult for teachers to engage learners. One of the findings by Makhathini and Mncwango (2020) was that learners hand difficulties in their grammar lessons because they couldn’t translate isiZulu, their first language, into English because they had not yet developed the target language which was English. It can be concluded that low English proficiency levels was a challenge revealed by many teachers during interviews, and it made teaching English grammar difficult because learners were not competent orally thereby making it difficult for teachers to engage them in CLT activities which affected learning.

Learners’ low classroom participation

The challenge of low English proficiency in the teaching of English grammar using CLT in multilingual classrooms posed another challenge which teacher revealed during interviews as low classroom participation by learners. It was revealed that some learners could only answer questions which required them to provide one word as an answer but only a few pupils could answer if the question required them to construct a sentence (Teacher 6). In their study, Rasheed, Zeeshan, and Zaidi, (2017) found that the students were not participating in the English Language lessons because they lacked the confidence to use English and opted to keep quite to avoid making mistakes. Some learners refused to participate during English lessons because they couldn’t express themselves in English when they were tasked to do some communicative activities and therefore decided to resist participation in the classroom (Issa 2016; Asmari and Radman,2015). Apart from having low proficient in English Teacher 7 added that some pupils had low proficient levels in the dominant local familiar language, and this hindered their participation as well. This led to inactive participation in the classroom because some learners were avoiding making grammatical errors and opted to keep quiet. This posed a challenge because the participation of learners leads to better classroom performance but if pupils are not able to participate, then it is difficult for the teacher to assess how much content they have grasped. Considering how CLT is supposed to be taught, the lack of English proficiency among learners made it difficult for most teachers to effectively utilize CLT activities because learners were not able to understand English and express themselves as expected. But Paudel (2020) added that multilingual classes require skillful teachers who should strive to engage learners in the classroom by using strategies which would link the home language with the second language so that learners are motivated and participate freely.

Teachers’ lack of proficiency in the learners’ dominant local language

The study through interviews also found that some teachers lacked proficiency in the dominant local languages spoken by the learners. This posed a challenge because it was difficult for the teachers to explain difficult concepts in the learners’ local language to help them understand. Learners in the classroom had different linguistic backgrounds and some of the learners did not speak or understand other languages which made it difficult for the teachers to explain certain concepts in a local language to help all learners understand. Teachers also had challenges because they did not know how to speak some languages spoken by some pupils and in some cases the teacher was only able to speak English and his or her first language. Teacher 2 was bilingual and was only able to speak Tumbuka and English fluently. The languages in his class included Bemba, Tonga, English and French. The dominant language was Bemba.  Although he was able to use a few isolated words in it was not enough to guide learners in the classroom during the teaching of English grammar. Teacher 5 and teacher 6 whose first languages was Bemba were fluent in English as well. The class for teacher 5 had Bemba, Lala, Ngoni and Namwanga speaking pupils though the common language was Bemba. It was challenging for the teacher to explain certain concepts to some learners because of the language differences especially to the Namwanga learners. The findings are in line with what Rasheed, Zeeshan, and Zaidi, (2017) found out in their study of female teachers teaching English in multilingual classrooms secondary schools that linguistic diversity posed a challenge to both teachers and pupils and teachers resorted to using codeswitching when teaching. But on the contrary, some studies reported that teachers were finding it difficult to teach using CLT because they had poor oral proficiency level of English (Alexio,2003; Chani,2011).  This shows that even though CLT is used to teach learners the second language, there is need for the teachers to be proficient in the learners’ first language as well as the target language. The use of learners’ languages increases their interest in learning and participation. Without language proficiency in the two languages, it becomes difficult to teach and help learners understand. Some teachers’ negative attitudes towards the use of local languages are tailored towards the monolingual language policy that favours the use of English from grade 5 onwards (Mwanza, 2016). This shows that only learners who were proficient in English benefited during the lesson. The study by Becker’s (2024) revealed that due to some teachers’ lack of proficiency in some students’ languages, their teaching practice was affected, and it was recommended that teachers training programmes should prepare teachers for such occurrences. However, according to Makhathini & Mncwango (2020), apart from the teacher being proficient in most of the learners’ first languages and the target language, the teacher should also be knowledgeable and competent in English grammar.

Lack of teaching and learning materials

It was also found that inadequate and lack of teaching and learning materials was a challenge encountered by teachers as they taught multilingual classrooms. Teaching and learning materials help the teacher to deliver content and supports learning. Teachers failed to implement some activities when teaching English grammar in multilingual classrooms using CLT because schools were not able to provide teaching and learning materials required when using CLT methodology. Teacher 16 and 18 cited few books against a lot of pupils and lack of materials such as manilla paper and markers to prepare activities before class and these were lacking in most schools. The results of the study agree with the findings of Alexio (2003) who found out that lack of teaching materials hindered the effective implementation of CLT by teachers in their classrooms. Though the study by Asmari and Radman (2015) was investigating the challenges that hindered proper implementation of CLT in EFL, they also reported that teachers had no access to CLT materials which resulted in ineffective implementation of CLT in classroom which were learning English as a foreign language. Similarly, Barira et al (2019) who explored various hinderances which affected the effective implementation of CLT by English language teachers also reported the lack of resources like speakers, laptops, textbooks and multimedia among other challenges. Chishipula (2016) study showed that the text-based course books used in the schools under study to teach English Language were pedagogical in nature and no authentic materials were used in all the lessons observed. Equally studies by Makhathini and Mncwango (2020) and Mubita and Mwanza (2020) cited the lack of teaching resources contributing to failure to effectively teach English in bilingual classrooms.

Teacher to pupil ratio

The other challenge which teacher revealed was the teacher – pupil ratio. Most of the grade six classes had a high number of pupils. Teacher 9 had 72 pupils while teacher 15 had 70 pupils. Such high enrolment levels made it difficult for the teachers to successfully teach English grammar using CLT because most of the CLT activities demanded active engagement of the pupils through discussions, role play, information gap (Richards and Rodgers, 1986) and the teacher’s role was that of a facilitator and a guide. But high number of pupils made it difficult for teachers to engage the learners in most of the activities and they revealed that they also failed to attend to individual problems some learners were facing such as language barriers it required a lot of time. Large classes meant a lot of languages in the classroom and most teachers revealed that it was challenging to consider all the languages, and some teachers ended up just using the most common language disadvantaging those who couldn’t understand it. Teacher 7 also revealed that due to large classes, it was difficult to use learner centered methods a characteristic of CLT and they ended up lecturing and using question and answer technique and when using groupwork, they did not consider the rules concerning the number of pupils per group which according to the expertise theory, most of them used structured practice which does not take individual skill attainment into consideration. Some teachers also revealed that they did not bother about the linguistic barriers in their classes because of the numbers (Teacher 13 and 18). The study findings agree with the findings of Coskun (2011) and Chani (2011) who reported that large classes proved to be a challenge in the implementation of CLT because there was no individual attention given to learners and it was difficult to engage learners in CLT activities. Nam (2023) reported that large class sizes affected the classroom arrangement which was not conducive for CLT and therefore the implementation of CLT was not done according to the lead down principles. Time factor to involve learners in communicative activities was affected by the number of pupils in the classes (Omondi, Barasa and Omulando, 2014). Because of large classes, adjusting furniture to accommodate CLT activities becomes a challenge and there is little space for the teacher to move around and guide learners which limits the learning goes.

Learners’ linguistic diversities in the classrooms

The other challenge that teachers brought out that some teachers considered the linguistic diversities in their classes as a challenge. This Teacher 7 revealed that when she used English throughout the English grammar lesson, some learners could not understand but the use of the common local language also disadvantaged other learners who were not familiar with it especially those whose first language was Tonga. This made it difficult to give attention to multilingualism in the classroom and therefore teachers considered multilingualism as a problem. Teacher 11 also revealed that there were some learners who couldn’t embrace other languages and opted to communicate among themselves using the same language which became a barrier to the teacher to facilitate learning. According to the expertise theory teachers should have knowledge about their learners and characteristics and have the skill of approaching teaching in different situations as well as use strategies that can help achieve the set objectives. Although the study by Omondi, Barasa and Omulando (2014) focused on the teaching of listening and speaking using CLT, they also reported that it was difficult to use CLT because of language problems and failure to pronounce words correctly by learners. The study by Paudel (2020) also revealed that teachers were facing an obstacle of diverse linguistic backgrounds to teach English in their classes as most of the time learners were found talking in their own languages instead of using English. Therefore, multilingualism was considered a problem and not embraced as expected. The findings of Madonsela (2014) were that the use of a foreign language in the classroom by a teacher causes mental strain on the learners because it becomes difficult for them to communicate thereby compromising learning. This is because the language used is new to them and if they are expected to use it without any reference to their familiar language, then it would have an impact on their mental state. To embrace the linguistic diversities in the classroom, it was found out that translanguaging practices such as translation were utilized in lessons by teachers to enable learners to grasp the concepts of a particular topic (Nyimbili and Mwanza, 2021). The use of translanguaging in classes with diverse languages helps learners to achieve more in terms of learning because they can relate and understand concepts in their languages therefore attaining the intended concepts (Nyimbili and Mwanza, 2020).

CONCLUSION

The study revealed that teachers experienced challenges when teaching English grammar grade to grade six learners in primary schools using CLT. The challenges affected both the teachers and the learners which lead to hinderances in the implementation of grammar lessons. Although the language of instruction for grade six learners is English, it has been shown that for learning to be effective there is need to use the learners local language to explain difficult concepts to them.

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