Investigating Bangladeshi university students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in English classes through a qualitative study

Abstract

In Bangladesh, learning English starts as a compulsory subject like other core subjects from the very early stage of a learner. However, after spending at least 12 years in learning English, learners’ oral skill is not seen up to the mark while they enter into the university for their tertiary education. Sometimes, they are noticed to have their unwillingness to communicate with others. Hence, the current study aims to see the experiences of Bangladeshi university students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) by employing a multiple case study method. 10 undergraduate students from a private university were interviewed. Apart from semi-structured interview, classroom observations were also carried out for data collection. The obtained data were analysed through the content analysis process. The findings show that students’ earlier experiences of learning English have been positive; however, they see grammar-based English learning as an obstacle in their communication development. It also reveals that learners’ WTC is greatly influenced by classroom environment that enhances or declines learners’ interest to communicate with others. Based on the findings, the study suggests incorporating more drills in English classes by engaging learners with real-life based conversations, dialogues and so forth to enhance learners’ WTC. Hence, learners’ real voice would help the policymakers and language instructors to take the issue into consideration and way-out timely measures. As the study has considered fewer respondents, future studies are expected to shed light on more respondents including the voice of the teachers to have a deeper understanding of the issue.

Linguistic and non-linguistic barriers to English speaking ability among Saudi EFL learners

“…These findings are congruent with the other published studies by Maranatha and Sengkey (2023) that have reported the willingness of students to speak English, is hindered by shyness or the lack of grammatical competence. Nadila et al (2022) asserted that students were reluctant to speak English in routine owing to the factor of fear and shyness. Also, the present study has reported the statistical impact on English speaking capabilities of the students where the lack of confidence and limited vocabulary were found with a statistically significant impact.…”