PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO UZBEK LEARNERS

Termiz Davlat Universiteti Xorijiy filologiya fakulteti Filologiya va tillarni o’qitish: ingliz tili ta’lim yo’nalishi talabasi Abdukarimova Farangiz

Annotatsiya

Mazkur maqolada Oʻzbekiston auditoriyasida ingliz tilini oʻqitish jarayonida uchraydigan asosiy muammolar va ularning samarali yechimlari tahlil qilinadi. Xususan, til muhiti yetishmasligi, grammatika va kommunikativ kompetensiya o‘rtasidagi nomutanosiblik, o‘quvchilarning motivatsiyasi, o‘qituvchilarning kasbiy tayyorgarligi hamda zamonaviy texnologiyalardan foydalanish bilan bog‘liq masalalar yoritiladi. Tadqiqot natijalari ingliz tilini o‘qitish samaradorligini oshirish uchun kommunikativ yondashuv, raqamli texnologiyalar va madaniyatlararo kompetensiyani rivojlantirish muhim ahamiyatga ega ekanligini ko‘rsatadi.

Kalit so‘zlar: English language teaching, EFL, Uzbek learners, communicative competence, language barriers, motivation, educational technology, language acquisition.

Abstract

This article examines the major challenges and possible solutions in teaching English to Uzbek learners. Particular attention is paid to the lack of an authentic language environment, the imbalance between grammatical knowledge and communicative competence, learner motivation, teacher professional development, and the integration of educational technologies. The study highlights that communicative approaches, technology-enhanced learning, and intercultural competence play a significant role in improving English language teaching effectiveness in Uzbekistan.

Keywords: English language teaching, EFL, Uzbek learners, communicative competence, language barriers, motivation, educational technology, language acquisition.

Аннотация

В данной статье рассматриваются основные проблемы и возможные решения в процессе преподавания английского языка узбекским учащимся. Особое внимание уделяется отсутствию естественной языковой среды, несоответствию между грамматическими знаниями и коммуникативной компетенцией, мотивации учащихся, профессиональному развитию преподавателей и использованию современных образовательных технологий. Результаты исследования показывают, что коммуникативный подход, цифровые технологии и развитие межкультурной компетенции способствуют повышению эффективности обучения английскому языку в Узбекистане.

Ключевые слова: преподавание английского языка, EFL, узбекские учащиеся, коммуникативная компетенция, языковые барьеры, мотивация, образовательные технологии, усвоение языка.

English has become one of the most important international languages in the modern world. It serves as a medium of communication in education, science, technology, business, and international relations. Consequently, the demand for English language proficiency has increased significantly in Uzbekistan during the last decade. Government reforms, international cooperation, and educational modernization have further emphasized the importance of English language learning.

Despite these positive developments, teaching English in the Uzbek context continues to face numerous challenges. Many students study English for several years yet struggle to communicate effectively in real-life situations. This issue suggests that successful language learning requires more than memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary. It involves the development of communicative competence, cultural awareness, and practical language skills.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the major difficulties encountered in teaching English to Uzbek learners and to propose practical solutions that can improve the quality of English language education.

Literature Review

Researchers have identified several factors that influence foreign language acquisition. Brown (2007) argues that motivation, exposure, and interaction are essential components of successful language learning. Similarly, Richards and Rodgers (2014) emphasize the importance of communicative language teaching, which focuses on meaningful interaction rather than isolated grammatical instruction.

In the context of Uzbekistan, recent studies indicate that many learners possess theoretical knowledge of English but experience difficulties in speaking and listening. This phenomenon is often associated with teacher-centered instruction, limited exposure to authentic English, and examination-oriented educational practices.

Krashen’s Input Hypothesis highlights the significance of comprehensible input in language acquisition. According to this theory, learners acquire language most effectively when they are exposed to meaningful and understandable language beyond their current level of competence. Therefore, creating opportunities for authentic communication is essential for improving English proficiency.

Contemporary research also stresses the role of technology in language learning. Digital platforms, online resources, language learning applications, and artificial intelligence tools provide learners with greater access to authentic language materials and interactive learning experiences.

Research Methodology

This study employs a qualitative research methodology based on descriptive and analytical approaches. Relevant academic literature, educational reports, and studies related to English language teaching in EFL contexts were reviewed and analyzed.

The research utilizes:

– Descriptive analysis to identify challenges in English language teaching.

– Comparative analysis to evaluate traditional and modern teaching methods.

– Content analysis of scholarly publications concerning EFL education.

– Interpretive analysis to assess the effectiveness of proposed solutions.

These methods allow for a comprehensive examination of the current state of English language teaching in Uzbekistan.

Lack of an Authentic Language Environment

One of the most significant challenges for Uzbek learners is the absence of a natural English-speaking environment. Unlike learners in English-speaking countries, Uzbek students have limited opportunities to use English outside the classroom.

As a result, learners often develop strong reading and grammar skills while remaining weak in speaking and listening. The limited exposure to authentic language restricts the development of fluency and confidence.

Educational institutions should encourage English-speaking clubs, debate societies, international exchange programs, online communication with native speakers, and extensive use of multimedia resources. Such activities create opportunities for authentic language practice.

Overemphasis on Grammar

Traditional language instruction frequently prioritizes grammatical accuracy over communicative competence. While grammar is important, excessive focus on rules often reduces opportunities for meaningful communication.

Many students can complete grammar exercises successfully but struggle to participate in conversations.

Proposed Solution

Teachers should adopt Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approaches that integrate grammar into real-life communication activities. Role plays, discussions, presentations, and collaborative projects can help learners use language more naturally.

Learner Motivation

Motivation significantly influences language learning outcomes. Some students perceive English as merely a compulsory academic subject rather than a practical skill for future success.

Low motivation often leads to limited participation and poor learning performance.

Proposed Solution

Teachers should connect learning materials with students’ interests, career goals, and real-life experiences. The use of interactive activities, project-based learning, and authentic materials can increase learner engagement.

Teacher Professional Development

The quality of English language education largely depends on teacher competence. Some educators may face difficulties adapting to modern teaching methodologies and technological innovations.

Proposed Solution

Continuous professional development programs, workshops, international training opportunities, and online certification courses should be provided to help teachers improve their pedagogical and technological skills.

Integration of Educational Technology

Although technology offers numerous opportunities for language learning, its implementation remains uneven across educational institutions.

Schools and universities should integrate digital learning platforms, language learning applications, virtual classrooms, artificial intelligence tools, and online assessment systems into English language education.

Teaching English to Uzbek learners presents both challenges and opportunities. The major obstacles include the lack of an authentic language environment, excessive emphasis on grammar, limited learner motivation, insufficient teacher professional development, and uneven integration of educational technologies.

Addressing these challenges requires a shift toward communicative teaching methods, increased use of digital technologies, continuous teacher training, and greater opportunities for authentic language use. By implementing these strategies, educational institutions can significantly improve English language learning outcomes and better prepare students for participation in a globalized world.

References

1. Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Pearson Education.

2. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.

3. Krashen, S. D. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. Longman.

4. Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson.

5. Byram, M. (2021). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence Revisited. Multilingual Matters.

6. Baker, W. (2021). Culture and Identity through English as a Lingua Franca. De Gruyter.

7. Nation, I. S. P. (2018). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press.

8. Thornbury, S. (2017). How to Teach Speaking. Pearson Education.

The Piano

On a trail near a

river crossing

sits an abandoned

piano

Weathered by storms

aged by the sun

leaves crown the

piano

Squirrels scamper and

play and play on

the keys

As covered wagons

roll on past the

piano near the

river crossing

High above the trees

a hawk can be seen

The sounds of the

piano mixing with 

the music of the 

river.

July 26, 2026

Shannon Scoates is a Canadian poet and intuitive writer whose work is rooted in nature, mysticism, and channeled guidance. Influenced by childhood storytellers like Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, as well as poets such as Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, E.E. Cummings, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, and RR Token author Terry Brooks, she began writing at age ten as a way to express emotion and truth. Shannon is also an energy healer trained in Reiki, colour, sound, and vibrational therapy, and she is passionate about helping women find their voice through writing and spiritual connection. A devoted advocate for children’s literature and animal rights, she carries forward the encouragement of her Grampa and Grama, whose spirit continues to guide her creative path. Her first book is currently in development.

KAAL AND MAHAKAAL:  A VISION OF TIME AND THE TIMELESS

The ‘Kaal’ represents death, and death is symbolic of mortality. Mortality can be defined only in terms of time. So, ‘kaal’ represents Time. Everything that is born to this earth, – trees, flowers, plants, birds, animals, and men – are mortal as they possess a definite time span. Even if they are not killed, they disappear at the end of their term.  This finitude is contained in the seed itself,  which grows as per its ingrained potential and then, automatically, a moment comes when the decline sets in.  So far as men are concerned, they are governed by their stars, which determine how, what and when of their life work. 

Being a part of the creation, every living entity is subject to Time, but they are unaware of the fact that, in addition to Time,  they are also being simultaneously governed and monitored by a spatial agency which represents the idea of Timelessness.  It is Maha-kaal,  the symbol of deathlessness, immortality and eternity. This SuperTime or Maha-kaal is like a satellite suspended in the cosmic spheres from where it keeps a close watch on the entire universal movement, keenly observing  how the living objects are conducting themselves. 

The ‘Kaal’ 

‘Kaal’ spares none as the  people are trapped in time. Life is a physical  entity which is played like a film in which a director [time] wants to say something, and that said, the film is over.  However, life represents a confusing web of passions.  The protagonists are afraid of temporal authority [courts etc]  but remain only vaguely aware of the presence of an over-lording agency, which is recording their movements.  

The Uninstructed and the Uninitiated

In general, men show scant regard for the spatial agencies, or even gods, and they never fear they might have to encounter hell. It is a strange peculiarity of these times that hell does not scare anybody.  Men create trouble for themselves, because they come to this earth uninstructed and uninitiated. No one reminds them, that they are on a short visa, controlled by time, [kaal], and when their visa is over, they will have to report back. People are blissfully unaware of the fact that their actions are under double check.  They find it all right if they get good education, good job, rich marriage, and good offspring.  But they have no inkling that all their actions are being recorded, and checked for their genuineness, and if they can succeed in this world with smartness, it will be detected by the spatial sleuths of the Maha-Kaal. 

Maha-Kaal

Time that we encounter in our lives is a limited edition of the SuperTime, the Maha-Kaal. The life that we live on this earth is highly constrained.  But, everything that we do, has a parallel shot in divine spheres, where our actions are under constant gaze of the stars.  Maha-Kaal, the Lord of Eternity and Immortality,  who supervises human operations,  is in possession of the records of our previous incarnations too. Lord Shiva, who is  called ‘Maha-Kaal’, is the ‘Destroyer’ in the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.  Maha-kaal, the Timeless agency of God, manages the temporal and spiritual being of creation. He looks over the actions of men,  evaluates their life work, and, with the help of Dharamraj, decides the destiny of man. 

Maha-kaal and Man’s Existential Reality

The earthly existence which is trapped in time [kaal] is full of aberrations, and the temporal courts punish people who act amiss on the basis of physical evidence which is not adequate enough to judge what a man has done,  and what is the extent of his error. Whatever actions they undertake, are just parcels of a larger design which is entirely and absolutely inconceivable.  Maha-Kaal, however, takes into account mna’s DNA, and his past ‘karma’, and finally brings up the truth of his actions before deciding his fate.  Ordinary people, if they fear anything, it is death.  They forget that life is only a small parcel of a larger design and Maha-Kaal is the ultimate arbiter not only of our deeds, past and present.  

DR JERNAIL S ANAND

Dr. Jernail S. Anand, with 200 books to his credit [20 epics] is a Chandigarh-based  polymath, and a vital architect of the 21st century ethical literature whose seminal work ‘Lustus: The Prince of Darkness’ challenges the moral complacency of our era.  Founding President of the International Academy of Ethics, and Laureate of Charter of Morava [Serbia], Seneca [Italy], Franz Kafka [Germany, Ukraine, Czech Rep] and Maxim Gorky [Russia],  his name is inscribed on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He is an Honorary Member of the Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade. Anand has built a poetics that unites ethics, Vedic spirituality, social critique, and the philosophy of meaning. Anand presents an articulated perspective on poetry as an instrument of planetary consciousness. A moral philosopher, professor, and international speaker, Anand has devoted much of his research to the ethical dimension of language, to the responsibility of the individual within a globalised society, and to the relationship between matter, consciousness, and transcendence.

Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com.

Bibliography:

https://sites.google.com/view/bibliography-dr-jernail-singh/home

https://share.google/QtiWrcFr7Sca7v0qC

Just keep quiet, dry your tears and eat the fishcake

I hear my mother’s voice from a happier time

Perhaps childhood

The tears started in childhood

I would cry over everything

My brother has used drugs 

Every single day for the past twenty years

Just keep quiet, Abigail

Keep the peace

Don’t start the Third World War

Just keep quiet

Your father has cancer

Your father is ill

Your father needs peace of mind too

Just keep quiet

As the world falls around you 

Into the quiet deep

Into the lake of darkness

Into the abyss

Into the frozen sea

The Dead Sea

The Strait of Hormuz

Just keep quiet

Please, keep quiet

You don’t have to battle your brother

And win

It is a fight you will never win

You can’t change a drug addict

You can’t force a gambling man to stop gambling

Only the police can interfere with 

A perpetrator of domestic violence

But what can they do about a woman

Sewn up in darkness

But what can they do about a man

Who shows no remorse

There is nothing you can do

You can’t change your brother

You can’t change the situation

You can’t fix him

Just keep the peace

You can’t argue, and you can’t reason

With a drug addict

They think that they are right 

They think that you are wrong

I won’t talk to you, brother,

Leave me alone

Please, don’t talk to me

Live your life

You’ve made your choice

I can’t live your life for you

Sometimes I talk to God

Sometimes I pray

God, can you hear me?

God, are you listening?

Mr Lodewyk says that God 

Is aware of everything

So, Mr Lodewyk, God must be aware of this

The situation that I am in

I ate the fishcake

And it turned into a whale 

Inside my belly

It tastes like paper

Even with sauce

It tastes like paper

Did you know 

That you could 

Swallow your tears?

I look at my mother

Is my mother

The lighthouse 

Or the sea?

Is she the darkness?

Is my father 

The shoreline

Or the rocks?

Is my father, perhaps, the light?

I fight with my brother every single day

I just want to stop fighting with him

Isn’t he tired of fighting

Sometimes I make him a cup of coffee

I pour love and forgiveness into the coffee

I spoon psalms into the coffee

When I place the cup in my brother’s hands

I wait patiently until it begins to sing a hymn

Sometimes I think he is darkness

Sometimes I think he is the light,

Or returning to the light

Sometimes I think he is the lighthouse

Sometimes I think he is the green waters

Of the sea turned into darkness 

Under the moonlight

Sometimes he is the shoreline

Sometimes he is the rocks

Please tell me, what else am I supposed to do?

Dear God, what else am I supposed to do?

Just keep quiet

And knit manifestos 

Into the scarf 

you are making

Knit poetry

Knit sad poems

And love poems

And political poems

For your niece

Pour love and forgiveness 

Into the scarf 

That you are knitting

Maybe if I can’t save my brother

Maybe I can save my niece

I got a telephone call from heaven

I look at the sky, at the clouds, at the coins of rain

Maybe, says my paternal grandmother’s voice

Who had to face addiction with her sons 

And her husband

Alcoholism and drug addiction

Her eldest son was a drug dealer

I keep swallowing my tears

And eating paper

I am so quiet

I am so quiet

I am so quiet

My brother hovers

I go to my room and lie on the bed

And my body turns into the Dead Sea.

Life Never Forgives Those Who Arrive Too Late

Life never forgives those who arrive too late;
Time never turns its hands again.
A single moment left behind
Can echo through a lifetime of regret.

Do not wait for the perfect chance,
For it was never meant to wait for you.
Begin today with courage in your heart—
Tomorrow is a promise never made.

The sun may rise with every dawn,
Yet yesterday’s light will never return.
Opportunity knocks but once;
Not every soul will hear its call.

Let your dreams unfold their wings today,
Do not let fear become your chain.
For life remembers those who dared,
But seldom waits for those who came too late.

Ethereal 

Love should feel like home 

Not a chaos of your peaceful heart,

Keep yourself away from that inconsistent place..

Where there is every chance to get hurt.

At the end of the day 

If your tender heart feel grey,

If we find ourself in an insecured orbit…

It’s not love, nothing much to say.

Love must not be clumsy, it’s a journey..

Through intensity and purity 

Why to walk by the uneven road where 

There is no  trust and  clarity!

Love  must not be playful or superficial 

The journey should be profound and ethereal.

Sumana Bhattacharjee 

09/07/2026

Author’s Bio 

Sumana Bhattacharjee is a bilingual poetry writer from India. She born and brought up in city Kolkata in a family of teachers. From her childhood she has had a keen interest in music, poetry and drama. She is a published poet, and her poems have been published in more than twenty national and international anthologies. She is a regular contributor of ezines like Glomag Raven-Cage Ezines, Spillword.com, and Cultural Reverence. She founded two online literature group, and she is working as an assistant executive editor at Global Nation Newspaper, Bangladesh. She is the peace ambassador of WHMP. She is passionate about poetry, and she thinks this is the only way she can spread her thought around the world.

Militia Vox’s story opens with a kid staring at a piano and deciding she wants in because her best friend is doing it.

“My best friend was playing piano, and I was like, ‘Oh well, I want to play piano too,’” she says. They started together; the friend drifted away. Militia didn’t.

Very quickly, piano stopped being an activity and became a relationship. “Music became a thing that was my best friend,” she remembers. “This is something that I can carry with me forever.”

Her teacher enrolled her in competitive piano guilds without really explaining what that meant. Every year she had to take guild exams, playing for judges who measured everything: dynamics, posture, interpretation.

She accelerated fast. “Next thing I know, I’m winning regional and state competitions, and then like was considered one of the best young pianists in the country,” she says.

But the more she tried to bring herself into the music, the more the classical world pushed back. “Some of the powers that be in the classical circles would say things like, ‘She plays too loudly,’ ‘She bangs on the piano,’” she recalls.

She even got criticized for how she sat: “Sometimes I would side saddle, and they didn’t like that.”

She was already chafing against the idea that her job was to be a polite conduit for “dead composers’ music.”

“I got tired of playing dead composers’ music and not being able to create more,” she says. “When I was trying to bring more of myself to the performance, I was getting marked for it.”

By the time she reached the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the faculty basically admitted she’d outgrown them. “They were like, we have nothing left to teach you, like your art’s already way above what we’re doing here,” she says. So she decided: if they couldn’t teach her, she’d use what she had and make something of her own.

Even before that, she was already staging rebellions. In eighth grade, she put together a performance‑art piece for a talent show, recruiting friends, painting their faces black and white, dressing them in shredded tuxedo jackets, and choreographing a routine to the industrial‑leaning song “Oh Industry” from the movie Beaches.

“I choreographed this piece to it, and I sang, and everybody was like, ‘This is so weird. It’s really good, but it’s so weird,’” she says. That was the moment she started to feel the split: the world wanted her to fit, and she couldn’t.

“I always felt like I was having to fight and rebel,” she says. “This was like my villain arc because I started a strong sense of like, I can’t fit in here, so I’m just gonna go in the other direction. If you guys are gonna make me feel like I’m doing things wrong, I’m just gonna go for it.”

Her childhood environment didn’t offer much in the way of a scene. She grew up in Maryland, “in the middle of like what was a horse farm,” with no musicians around.

Her father, an avid record collector, became her unofficial curator. “He would like send me to my room and be like, ‘You’re Potter, and you’re gonna listen to King Crimson,’” she says. She’d lie on the floor, listening, trying to decode how those songs existed at all. “I’d just try to figure out like how did these people meet each other? How did they write this stuff? How are they putting this? How do they know what sounds to choose? What notes to choose?” she says.

She watched the Grammys and saw a room full of musicians on TV, wondering, “Where are you? Like, I need to be there. How do I do this?”

Her first rock concert was Duran Duran. She was a kid, her parents had to take her, and she spent the show standing on her chair, screaming at the band. “I was screaming at them and embarrassing the hell out of my parents, just screaming at the band, ‘I’m one of you. Take me with you,’” she says.

Her parents tried to make her sit down. “I was like, ‘No, no, no! I need to be where they are,’” she remembers. It felt like the old fantasy of running away to join the circus—only her circus was rock. “Same thing,” she says. “Different circus.”

The bridge from classical to rock came through a boyfriend who was putting a band together.

He knew she was an actor and asked, “Can you cry on command?” Then he handed her a line to sing: “It’s kind of like ‘Red Water’ by Type O Negative.” She didn’t know Type O Negative yet. “What’s Type O Negative?” she asked—and then went down the rabbit hole. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is awesome,’” she says.

The band asked her to join. “They were like, ‘Oh, do you want to come be in the band?’ I was like, ‘Be in the band?’ I was like, ‘Yes, you want me to be in your band?’” It blew her mind.

That band became Disciples of Astaroth, a name steeped in occult resonance. They played Boston and sold out every night. “We used to sell out. We played in Boston, and we’d sell out every night that we played,” she says. They played New York once, at the Batcave. The sound was dark, gothic, heavy, and theatrical. It was also deeply intertwined with drag and queer performance.

Disciples of Astaroth was a co‑singer band: Militia and Britt the Other Bully. Britt did drag—specifically “dark drag,” long before the RuPaul era made that aesthetic mainstream. “He did drag. He did like dark drag,” she says. “Way before Sharon Needles and these drag queens from like the RuPaul era.” He performed to Ministry and other industrial and extreme bands. “Belinda Davenport would do her performances to like Deicide,” Militia recalls of another drag queen from Beverly, near Salem.

The beauty‑queen drag performers didn’t always appreciate it. “All the other drag queens were kind of uncomfortable because it was pretty wicked,” she says.

Militia marched in Gay Pride with Britt, did drag performances with him, and shared dressing rooms with trans performers.

“I basically was raised by drag queens when I started,” she says. They taught her the importance of aesthetic and presence. “They showed me like, you know, you have to have a look, you have to have an aesthetic, you have to have something to offer in the performance,” she says. “This is how you do your makeup, like show makeup. This is how you get your glitter to stay on. You should up your look or magnify who you are.”

For her, drag queens and trans people were part of the band ecosystem. “I was so used to incorporating drag queens and trans people into our band situation,” she says. “It was weird for me to find people that didn’t find that normal. Like I was like, why wouldn’t that be normal? They have the most to say.”

After Disciples of Astaroth, she moved to New York and joined a shock‑rock band whose singer was a performance artist.

“We were featured on Real Sex on HBO,” she says. Her mother saw the episode and called her, crying. “She’s like, ‘Oh my God, you guys are on Real Sex, and you guys are like doing all this crazy stuff on stage,’” Militia recalls. Her response was pure: “I was like, ‘Well, what are you doing watching Real Sex, Mom?’”

New York’s underground felt like an extension of the world she already knew. “Performance artists are like, they have something to say,” she says. “In New York, performance art and music is also like sister friends. There’s a lot of performance artists here that are also in bands.”

Drag performers, performance artists, musicians, and trans people overlapped constantly. “They’re like the twinsies,” she says. “A lot of drag performers are also performance artists here.”

Her original band Vulgaris eventually caught the attention of Cleopatra Records. “We made an album and then we got noticed by Cleopatra Records,” she says.

They signed a deal to contribute a song to a Dead Can Dance tribute album. “We have the last track on the Dead Can Dance tribute album,” she says. But the label cut their elaborate intro without asking.

“We had done this very elaborate, like moody intro. They cut the whole thing without asking us,” she says. “We were just like, their mind was blown, and then they like shelved our record.”

The full‑length, Embrace the Empty, was a dark, Type O Negative meets My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult‑style record. “It was very Type O meets like My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult,” she says. It never got the release it deserved.

That experience fed into a strategic shift. Militia is now widely known for her cover work—especially fronting Judas Priestess, the all‑female Judas Priest tribute band—but she’s blunt about why she started doing covers. “I only started doing cover songs because my original music wasn’t getting the attention that I wanted it to,” she says.

Her first original band, Disciples of Astaroth, did get attention and sold out shows, but it was localized. The wider industry didn’t know what to do with her. Covers became a way to get heard, to leverage the power of familiar songs while still bringing her own ferocity and theatricality to the stage.

Her range—four octaves, with a taste for drama—made her a natural fit for Judas Priestess. She’s done Bowie covers, Tina Turner, Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades,” and more, moving across genres with the same intensity she once brought to Chopin and Liszt. She’s also collaborated with figures like Dee Snider and sang a duet with Rob Halford, the metal god himself, inhabiting the lineage of metal while refusing to be confined by it.

Identity and representation are central to her story. Militia talks openly about being a Black woman in heavy metal, a genre that has long been saturated with toxic masculinity and narrow ideas of who belongs. She’s been told to change her appearance, to tone down, to fit a mold that has nothing to do with her talent.

“Everybody told me ‘I should not be doing that,” she says. “Everybody, literally, family, friends, strangers.” We duet on the Amyl and the Sniffers’ song. “People told me I shouldn’t be doing that..” She says. “I lived it too. I related to it so much.”

Her album Burn My Crosses was misread by some as anti‑Catholic, leading to bans from events and venues.

In reality, it was a response to corruption and hypocrisy she witnessed in Catholic school, where choirs were rigidly controlled and singing pop songs “for fun” was considered disrespectful.

“Anytime I tried to instill an element of fun musically, usually shot down,” she says. She’s been banned multiple times for being outspoken, for refusing to soften her critique, for refusing to pretend that institutions are benign when they’re not.

At the same time, she’s deeply rooted in dark literature and subversive art. She’s a member of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, a detail that fits perfectly with her aesthetic.

She loves Poe, Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, and the whole lineage of artists who turn darkness into revelation. Her upcoming work includes a collaboration with 24‑7 Spyz and a solo album titled For Those Without Shadows, a post‑apocalyptic project that promises to push her themes of identity, survival, and rebellion even further.

Threaded through all of this is a refusal to compromise authenticity. Whether she’s side‑saddling on a piano bench, painting her face black and white for an industrial performance piece, fronting Judas Priestess, marching in Pride with dark drag queens, or being featured on Real Sex, Militia Vox is not interested in shrinking herself to fit anyone’s comfort zone. “If you guys are gonna make me feel like I’m doing things wrong, I’m just gonna go for it,” she said as a teenager—and she never stopped.

Three hours of conversation with her don’t feel like a linear biography so much as a constellation: classical guild exams and King Crimson, Duran Duran and Dead Can Dance, drag queens and Deicide, Cleopatra Records and shelved albums, Catholic school choirs and banned records, Judas Priestess and Tina Turner, Poe societies and post‑apocalyptic visions. What ties it all together is the same line she screamed at Duran Duran as a kid: “I’m one of you. Take me with you.” She wasn’t asking permission. She was announcing a fact.

Militia Vox didn’t simply move from classical piano to metal. She built a life out of refusing to play dead men’s music quietly, out of insisting that drag queens, trans people, Black women, and neurodivergent misfits belong at the center of the stage. She didn’t just find her voice. She forged it, loudly, and never apologized.

About Alex S Johnson:

Dubbed “The Baudelaire of our time” by John Shirley, primary screenwriter of the cult classic horror film The Crow (1994) and songwriter for Blue Oyster Cult, Alex S Johnson is a retired university English professor, author, editor and publisher with Nocturnicorn Books. He has performed spoken word with the likes of Iris Berry (Punk Hostage Press; The Lame Flames, The Ringling Sisters with Pleasant Gehman), Ellyn Maybe (Beyond Baroque; author of The Cowardice of Amnesia as edited by Exene Cervenka of X and published by Henry Rollins of Black Flag and Rollins Band); Danielle Willis, author of the cult classic Dogs in Lingerie (Zeitgeist Press) and Lambda Literary Award-winning author and retired Yale University trained pediatrician/bi rights and disability rights activist Jan Steckel. Other interviews he has done published on Synchronized Chaos, Blue Blood Magazine, Metal Hammer and Zero Tolerance, etc. include Diamanda Galas, Jarboe, Gitane Demone, Rozz Williams, Lemmy Kilmister, Ronnie James Dio and King Diamond. He lives in Carmichael, California with his family.