Read the following passage and then answer the questions.

How Nam has improved his English In the first year of lower secondary school, I had some dificulties in learning English. My English pronunciaton was really bad and my English grammar was worse. I did not know how to improve them. I didn’t want my father and mother to know about this. One afternoon after the lesson, my teacher of English told me to wait for her outside the classroom. She took me to the school library and showed me eassettes of pronunciation drills kept in a glass bookcase. She also told me how to use an English – English dictionary to improve my English grammar. “Now I think you know what you should do”, said she. I made much progress and only one year later, I won the first prize in the English Speaking Contest held for secondary school students in my hometown.

What difficulties did Nam have in learning English in the first year?