Exploring English Speaking Problems of Secondary School Students in Bangladesh (Published)
This research paper attempts to find out the problems of speaking English among secondary level students. The students of secondary school, who have been studying English for 6 years, are encountering hundreds of problems and challenges to speak in English inside and outside of the classroom. The main purpose of the study was exploring the core reasons and gaps that are working against students’ speaking skills and practices. To collect the data the researchers used mixed method approaches (qualitative and quantitative) for the study. Semi structured questionnaires were used for students and teachers’ interviews and survey questionnaires were used for students to quantify the students’ speaking skills and problems. The selected institutes were Bangla medium secondary institutes in a rural area and the participants were Bengali native speakers. The findings of the study which stand in the way of speaking English are teachers’ negligence to teach speaking, teachers’ disability to teach speaking, subject unrelated teachers, classrooms are fully teacher-centered and materials are only reading and writing based.
Keywords: negligence of speaking, secondary level, speaking approaches, speaking problems