The Problems Students Face in Developing Writing Skill: A Study at Tertiary Level in Bangladesh

Abstract

The paper explores the problems that students generally face in academic writing at the Higher Secondary level. The focus is mainly on the present condition of their writing skill in English and the reasons behind their inability to write properly. For this, data and information have been collected from students and teachers of different colleges through questionnaire. Moreover, some conventional and new topics have been also provided for writing compositions for the purpose of finding out the common errors they make in their writing which helped to get an overall idea about their writing capability. The data reveals that most of the students are not in the habit of practicing free-hand writing; instead they are mainly dependent on guidebooks for memorizing answers and the teachers also lack proper training to instruct them to develop their writing skill in a systematic way. Lack of proper guidelines and practice, lack of skilled teachers, conventional question patterns and evaluation - all are mainly responsible for the poor performance in writing of the students. The recommendations finally may help to take proper initiatives with a view to developing their writing skill.