The phrase 'has difficulty applying' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use this phrase to describe someone who has trouble doing something, or understanding something in particular. For example, "The student has difficulty applying the concepts he learns in math class."
"Senior management told us they are very serious about safety, but we observed that they haven't translated their words into safe working procedures and practices, and they have difficulty applying the lessons learned from refinery to refinery or even from within refineries," said Mr. Michaels, the OSHA administrator.
However, some students were confused about the components of the model and had difficulty applying it to the activity.
However, given the difficulty some students experience with visualizing water level (Liben, Christensen, & Kastens, 2010), students may well have difficulty applying the lesson to visualize an imaginary waterline on topography in the field.
Despite the proven effectiveness of intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), studies indicate that some students only gain shallow knowledge which they then have difficulty applying to new and different problems (Aleven et al. 1999).
Even the Hutchins Commission, which labeled 1940s mass communication as the "most powerful single influence on society," would likely have difficulty applying its requirements to today's media.
Evidence that physicians know the preventive services they should apply, but have difficulty applying them with the appropriate frequency.
In fact, it was anecdotal evidence that students have difficulty applying chemical principles in biological contexts that prompted this study.
Previous research has shown that novices can have difficulty applying the appropriate conceptual knowledge to solve a problem (Chi et al., 1981; Baxter and Glaser, 1998).
Most have difficulty applying these policies to the private sector, where a high proportion of drug sales take place in many countries.
Similarly, data findings in this present study suggest that teens have difficulty applying any negative and/or abusive definitions to their own experience.
