Failing courses with English (5)
I believe the answer is:
lapse
'failing' is the definition.
(a moral failing)
'courses with english' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'english' could be 'e' (abbreviation as in OED) and 'e' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'laps' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lapse that I've seen before include "Brief decline from high standards" , "Fault" , "Pass into disuse" , "Careless mistake" , "Loss (in concentration, say?)" .)