Exploring Bangladeshi learners’ lived experiences of studying French in a foreign language context: A phenomenological study

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore learners’ experiences of studying in the newly introduced Bachelor in French Language and Culture (BFLC) programme at the Institute of Modern Languages, University of Dhaka to determine both positive aspects and shortcomings of the programme. The identification of the existing challenges will play a significant role in overcoming them and thus ensuring the quality of teaching/learning of the BFLC programme. A semistructured interview guide was used to collect data from a purposeful sample of 7 participants. The findings were analysed following a qualitative data analysis method to identify the emergent themes. The findings demonstrate that the merits of the course are agreeable class size, the prospect of employment opportunities at the end of successful completion of the programme, engaging in co-curricular activities, and easy access to friendly and cooperative teachers. On the other hand, major challenges of the programme identified through the analysis of the qualitative data are lack of properly developed syllabus and curriculum, lack of proper use of educational technology, teacher’s irregularity in teaching a class, use of poor methods and approaches of teaching.