The present study deals with the difficulties the targeted students said they faced
when learning English as a foreign language, and the reasons for these difficulties as
perceived by the learners themselves. It tries to find out whether the problems were due to
such factors as the students’ lack of knowledge of the language rules (e.g., lack of knowledge
of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation rules), lack of motivation for the FL, or lack of
training. It is also interested in whether the students’ course level, sex/gender, and socioeconomic
background had any impact on the way they perceived and coped with their
problems.