Addressing English Phobia among the Secondary School Students in the Rural Area of Bangladesh

Abstract

Second / Foreign Language (S/FL) learning efforts always create tremendous mental pressure on the learner. It is never acquired effortlessly like one’s native language. Naturally it creates anxiety among the learners which ultimately causes phobia among those who desire to acquire an S/FL. If learners fail to facilitate this anxiety, it increasingly dominates and creates phobia. When this phobia gets severe, learners ultimately give up S/FL learning pursuit. It is a very common phenomenon in Bangladeshi secondary schools especially in the rural areas when they learn English as a foreign language. This study, therefore, investigates the causes behind English phobia among the students of the rural areas of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Here, through this study, I seek to explore the challenges of our learners and to find a solution to this problem. In order to find out the causes behind English phobia, I have used mixed method research. I have used questionnaires as well as arranged interview with the participants with a view to finding out factors that function as impediments to learning English. The analysis of the data shows that the phobia is caused by students’ lack of motivation, confidence and aptitude resulting from the inefficient teaching methodologies.