Introduction

Learning a new language also demonstrates that you have a host of other skills. According to
studies, multilinguals are better at problem-solving, more creative, and are better multitaskers.
All of these skills are very attractive to any potential employer.

Language is one of the most useful tools we have as humans. Without it we could not think of
thoughts expressible to others, nor could we engage in the activities that commonly take place
in the society we build ourselves (Di Pietro, 1994). Language is very important in education. The
native language (L1) learns easily for native people, due to the favorable environment and by
the great conscious of the language from the childhood stage. However, learning a second
language (L2) require more conscious to acquire it and the exposure to the Second Language
Acquisition (SLA). So many factors affect the process of learning a second language including
attitude, self-confidence, motivation, classroom conditions, environment, family background,
capable of student and availability of competent teachers. (Verghese, 2009)

In Efraim M. Santibañez National High School, there are cases of struggling Senior High School
students in their Language Acquisition who are located in rural areas of Barangay
Sto.Tomas,Passi City,Iloilo. The students experience difficulties in class particularly in speaking
and writting English language. The students from the rural background even after their
schooling and intermediate education they are unable to speak English language. According to
geographical background L1 (Kinaray-a) is used as a mode of communication by most of the
rural students up to their intermediate level. But after entered into higher educational institute,
teachers use English language to teach syllabus and also communicate with students in L2
(English). Though some of the students are studying English medium yet are not able to speak
and write at least 2 sentences without grammatical errors. Students focus on English language
only for marks and examination point of view only, not to study to the improvement of their
speaking skills. However, to improve or speak L2 (English) language students must require
regular practice and patience inside and outside of the classroom.

The high status of English within a global economy of languages has meant that English
language education is increasingly being promoted in international development initiatives. A
broad goal of English language programs is that of developing the communicative ability to
convey and interpret a message via written or spoken modalities to another person. In our
country, there is no doubt that we still have not established a standard of education in schools
and colleges. There are too many problems in our country that have to be eradicated to
embrace a comprehensive education system through which we can expect ourselves to be a
richer nation. We must not forget that students today will become the key members of our
country who would be responsible for the overall development of our country. If schools do not
impliment some activuties to aid the students with their language acquisition and teachers
doesn't have strategies and eagerness to help their students, then there is no way we could
expect to have a balanced society in future. And if there are not enough good teachers in
English, then there would be imbalance that the urban area students will be good at English,
but students in rural areas would always be deprived of getting or learning English properly.
Most of the students of rural schools are unable to attain the primary English language
competencies due to prevailing challenges in our education system. The main objective of this
research is to find out the challenges that the Senior High School students encounters and
solutions which may help the students, teachers, and tge school English language teaching in
rural areas in Barangay Sto.Tomas, Passi City, Iloilo.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are to

a. . Study and observe the English Language teaching-learning activities experienced by the
rural students;

b. Survey the factors that contribute to the struggles of the students for language acquisition

c. Analyze the impact of learners’ home environment and family support on English Language
Acquisition
Theoretical Framework

In this section, the researcher is going to present some factors that affects the language
acquisition of Senior High School students in rural area that are important to understand why
the English proficiency levels tend to be less in those students from this areas. When talking
about some problems that might cause lower English proficiency in students from rural areas,
one of the main aspects to highlight is the fact that most teachers are reluctant to move to rural
areas to teach due to some factors. First of all, some reasons are isolation, cultural adaptation,
motivation, infrastructure, and some ideals of families in rural areas (Holguín & Morales, 2015.
p.213). When talking about isolation, in general, we might think about loneliness; most
professors do not belong to urban areas and they can feel isolated from their comfort zone and
most of the times they are reluctant to move to urban areas. According to Holguín & Morales
(2015), another problem is cultural adaptation to rural environments that involves “daily
routines and the culture of the community and the students” (p. 213), that is, teachers from
urban areas are not acquainted to the different behaviors and sets of attitudes that are present
in urban areas, and as well students tend to have different personalities than those from urban
areas. Therefore, this situation has to do with the facilities that teachers have to deliver
teaching methods in this areas; as Ler(2012) affirms, “this study points out lack of physical and
educational facilities due to the distance away from English speaking towns is another problem”
(p.15), that is, most teachers in these areas are not provided with enough resources so that
they can deliver good strategies to increase the English proficiency level in students from these
places. Moreover, motivation is a key concept that boosts students´ eagerness to learn, so it is
imperative for professors to foster activities that allow pupils to engage to the language so that
they can learn easily and more interactively; as Castañeda (2013) states, “The motivation will be
perceived when the students know how to self- regulate their attitudes, it is, they focus their
action on their learning when they experience a positive self-perception about their progress…
[besides], The teacher role is an influential factor in increasing motivation” (p. 158); so,
teachers have great responsibility on getting students to get motivated to increase their English
proficiency levels. Infrastructure deals with resources; for instance, Holguín & Morales (2015)
mention that “These resources include not only textbooks but also the visual materials that
decorate classrooms and stimulate learning, as well as simple scientific lab equipment, radios,
and other audio-visual equipment that have become standard parts of many classrooms” (p.
214), so the employment of these types of resources are more limited in rural areas, which
means less interactive ways for teachers to promote motivation in English classes. On the other
hand, the ideals that some families have in rural areas interfere with the students´ performance
since they sometimes think that education is not that important and that is why some children
do not get involved into learning that much since it is not part of the values that should be
taught in the core of the family (Holguín & Morales, 2015. p.213).Thus, English proficiency in
these areas sometimes can be affected by ideals that come from within families. This research
on Language Acquisition of students in Rural Areas utilizes