Abstract

Language is a medium to express feelings and emotions. The English language is taught to college students as a second language to uplift their English skills. The majority of the students of rural areas' colleges are weak in the English language because of unqualified teachers, lack of interest, lack of motivation, parental interest, weak English background, lack of resources, and multilingual classrooms. Social science students studying at rural area colleges perform poorly as compared to students studying at urban colleges. The current study is designed to explore the reasons for low literacy among social science students studying in rural areas of Punjab, Pakistan. In this study, we also investigated the challenges that affect the performance of rural area students in the English language. We designed qualitative and quantitative research by interviewing 36 English language teachers teaching English subjects in rural area colleges. Findings show that student is poor in English from matric class, class is multilingual, Outdated resources, Limited teachers are available, Management has not hired qualified teachers and teachers do not motivate the students. The study suggested that qualified, experienced, and trained teachers should be hired in the colleges, classes should not merge, and multimedia and digital library facilities to teachers and uncrowded classrooms.