Learning EFL by Bengali speaking learners: Major linguistic problems and possible solutions

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: A, Jahangirnagar University (Department of English), language: English, abstract: Abstract The second/foreign language learner usually confronts diverse linguistic problems evidently handicapping and hampering his/her learning and eventually negatively affecting his/her general proficiency in the target language. Both as a learner and a teacher-researcher of English as a foreign language (EFL), I have had first-hand experience and the opportunity to observe that the Bengali speaking learner confronts difficulty in learning English pronunciation, vocabulary items, word formation, sentence construction, and conveying meanings through and/or receiving meanings of words, phrases, clauses, sentences/utterances, discourse, and the like. And such problems obviously seriously retard his/her learning of EFL. Hence, the present writer feels justified in identifying the major linguistic problems the Bengali speaking EFL learner encounters as well as in discovering the causes of the problems. Finally, the writer has made a number of recommendations with a view to addressing and lessening the problems, on the one hand, and ensuring the smooth and optimal learning of EFL on the other. Keywords Bengali speaking EFL learners, linguistic problems, causes & solutions