Challenges in Speaking English: Perceptions of Tertiary Level Students in Bangladesh

Abstract

English is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum of Bangladesh and students have to study English for twelve years. Even after twelve years of learning English, most of the students lack proficiency in speaking English. Often it can be seen that tertiary level students struggle while speaking in English in classrooms. Therefore, the research intends to find out the challenges that the learners face in speaking English in the Bangladeshi tertiary level classrooms. This paper investigates the existing challenges in spoken English inside the classrooms. With this purpose, the researcher has taken interviews of some university students. Students who were fresher in universities and took basic courses of English were selected for the interview. In total, twenty four students were selected basing on opportunity sampling from three different private universities of Bangladesh. Interview questions for the students were made following previous interview protocol of related studies. Interview questions were translated into Bangla and interviews were conducted in Bangla. After a thorough analysis in qualitative method, recommendations have been provided for the learners and teachers. Upon analysis of the obtained data, the research findings indicate that insufficient vocabulary, lack of supportive environment, lack of self-confidence, nervousness, shyness, insufficient knowledge of sentence formation are some of the major challenges in speaking English encountered by tertiary level students in Bangladesh. The investigation concluded with a couple of recommendations for new measures, which ideally will refresh the teaching of speaking skill in private universities with far more prominent extension and achievement.