Producing Publishable Research Papers: Challenges and Strategies among Tertiary EFL Students

Abstract

Student-generated research papers, modeled on journal articles, are a relatively recent development at the tertiary EFL context in Bangladesh. The study identifies challenges encountered by student researchers and derives expert insights from experienced researchers on generating internationally publishable papers by EFL students. Consequently, the study employs a mixed method approach by merging quantitative data obtained through online survey forms from 640 students, and qualitative data collected through interviews with five tertiary level teachers and a focus group discussion with ten student researchers. The study exhibits the most problematic areas, including topic selection, research gap, literature review, data collection, analysis, and methodology; contrarily, the least problematic areas including discussion, conclusion, and following grammar and mechanics. However, the study reveals discrepancies in what students think to be the most difficult and where they have issues writing in reality. Furthermore, to ensure student-generated papers are more polished and suitable for publication internationally, certain steps have been identified for self-enhancement of students as researchers as well as systemic development at a broader level.