Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 21 Issue 4

Table 7: Students’ frequency of facing problems with regard to English reading skills Sub skills Number Mean Std. Deviation Valid Missing Understanding the main idea of a context 100 0 3.76 0.95 Comprehending the purpose and attitude of the writer 100 0 3.70 0.91 Transforming information to graphs/charts/pictures/ maps/tables/diagram 100 0 3.83 0.89 Summarizing a text 100 0 3.35 0.90 Predicting a text 100 0 4.24 0.95 Skimming & Scanning a text 100 0 3.90 0.97 Ability to read quickly 100 0 3.74 0.93 The results in Table-7 show that among the problems regarding reading skills, ‘Predicting a text’ has the highest mean (4.24) while ‘Summarizing a text’ has the lowest mean (3.35). The results reveal that students face the most difficulty in talking in predicting a text where they face the least problem in summarizing a text. Table 8: Students’ frequency of facing problems with regard to English writing skills Sub skills Number Mean Std. Deviation Valid Missing Spelling correctly 100 0 4.12 0.91 Using appropriate word order 100 0 3.70 0.89 Using proper punctuation 100 0 3.13 0.93 Using correct vocabulary and grammar 100 0 4.44 0.97 Writing thesis statement, topic sentence, supporting details 100 0 4.21 0.95 Developing ideas and Joining sentences 100 0 3.51 0.91 Using cohesion and coherence 100 0 3.55 0.88 Writing at an efficient rate 100 0 4.60 0.95 The results in Table-8 show that among the problems regarding writing skills, ‘Writing at an efficient rate’ has the highest mean (4.60) while ‘Using proper punctuation’ has the lowest mean (3.13). The results reveal that students face the most difficulty in writing at an efficient rate where they face the least problem in using proper punctuation. V. C onclusions and R ecommendations Although most of the non-English departments, both in public and private universities in Bangladesh, conduct the English language course to improve the English language skills of the students, the usefulness of these English courses hinders due to several factors. This study tries to find out these factors which create obstacle in learning the English language skills properly of the non-English department students. Moreover, the results and recommendations of this study will assist the teachers to guide the students in a proper engaging way as well as the syllabus design and assessment committees will be benefited to form an effective and practical syllabus for the students of non-English departments by evaluating this paper. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations have been made: Firstly, the students of the non-English departments face the most difficulty in productive skills (Speaking and Writing) compared to receptive skills (Listening and Reading). Due to lack of practice and opportunity, non-English department students feel less enthusiasm to develop their productive skills. Therefore, it is much needed to create more opportunities inside and outside the classroom to develop productive skills along with the receptive skills of the non-English department students. Secondly, most of the English language courses offered to the non-English department students are for the only a semester (which is 4 to 6 months). This Volume XXI Issue IV Version I 51 ( G ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - © 2021 Global Journals Year 2021 Exploring the Difficulties Encountered by the Non-English Department Students in Learning the English Language: A Study on the Tertiary Level of Education in Bangladesh