Bangladeshi Undergraduate Students' Failure To Show Expected Competency in L2 Writing

Abstract

Most fresh undergraduate students in Bangladesh fail to show the expected competence in English academic writing, though English is taught as a mandatory subject in Bangladesh from primary to higher secondary level. There have been several research conducted to find the problems students face in learning English writing in the context of Bangladesh. However, there has not been any empirical published work on the problems students face in the early stage of education. There are two very well-known facts that students in Bangladesh tend to memorize and do not want to write on their own (Khan and Akter, 2011). But is no detailed research work has been conducted to find out why students show such behavior. Therefore, this study aimed at i) finding the major problems students face before tertiary level, ii) why students are not interested in academic writing practices, and iii) reasons behind students’ tendency to memorize. The study was completed using mixed method in two phases. The first phase included conducting a survey of students who have freshly completed higher secondary education and have been admitted to universities. The second phase was taking interviews of students to get deeper insights into what students think about several aspects of the teaching techniques that are practiced in our education system. On the basis of their insights and opinions, several reasons have been found that bar their learning process. The problems include the pressure of grades, lack of feedback, motivation, opportunities to practice, and intolerance to errors, all of which indicate an ineffective method of teaching English academic writing practiced at the secondary and higher secondary level.