Fostering Non-English Major Undergraduate Students’ Writing Skill: A Study in Cumilla Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, English is taught as a compulsory course from class one till class 12. Still, the undergraduate students of Bangladesh cannot convey their thoughts in English. Students who come from the Bangla medium and pursue study at Tertiary level in non-English major subjects, they face enormous difficulties in their academic writing class. The present study aims to explore the writing problems of non-English major undergraduate students at Tertiary Level in Bangladesh. The study was conducted on 120 non-English major undergraduate students from different departments studying at Comilla University, Britannia University and National University. The study also has 30 teachers as participants. In this paper, the mixed approach method has been used, and data have been collected through questionnaires. Based on the data analysis, it’s perceived that Bangladeshi universities do not have well-integrated syllabus on academic writing to provide the chance of fair practice of writing skill in the classroom. This study also explores the importance of error analysis and error feedback, through which the teacher can motivate students to improve their writing. Besides, a few recommendations are provided to overcome writing problems.

Keywords: Non-English major undergraduate students, writing problems, grammatical, spelling errors, feedback, English course, Tertiary level.

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/69-06

Publication date:June 30th 2020