Exploring the experiences of TESL students: motivations, barriers, and learning strategies to improve language proficiency and self-development

Abstract

Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) students must possess both a good command of the English language and strong communication abilities that cut across cultural boundaries. It requires strategies for bridging the gaps in different backgrounds as well as the perseverance to fulfil their duties as future educators. Considering the importance of English communication skills which has been neglected in Malaysian classrooms, this study sought to investigate TESL students’ motivation and barriers to speaking English and their underlying reasons for participating in English communications outside the classroom setting through a phenomenological approach as well as their learning strategies for language proficiency and self-development. A qualitative research design with a phenomenology approach was employed to answer the research questions of the study by interviewing 13 TESL students in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The interview transcripts analysed using NVivo software and thematic analysis revealed some emerging themes related to learning motivation (i.e. language competence, language communication, family influence, inspiring personalities, selfimage, and giving back to the community), learning barriers (i.e. lack of practice, lack of resources, grammatical rules, unmotivated classmates, speaking anxiety, lack of resources, and toxic environment), learning strategies (i.e. audio-visual materials, reading for leisure, note-taking, self-speaking practice, listening to music, teaching and learning, gamification, and football commentaries), and self-development (i.e. self-satisfaction, personal images, professional competence, and community engagement). The current study has significant contributions, especially for English educators, TESL students, academic researchers, and higher education institutions. The findings derived from this study add to the pedagogical knowledge of language learning, particularly in the ESL setting. Ultimately, this study provides several recommendations for improvement of the topic under study and future research agenda.