Lack of Proficiency in English Language: Understanding the Circumstances among the Military Cadets

Globalisation has driven university students in today’s era to be more proficient in English language. Being proficient in English language is to be considered an advantage for university students to survive in their tertiary level of education, also in reserving work spot in the future. There have been many strategies and tactics employed by educators all around the world to help learners to be more proficient in English language. However, regardless of all the effort, there are still tons of university students who are not quite proficient in English language. Therefore, it is believed that there is a need for us to figure the main circumstances that may lead to the barrier towards good proficiency among learners; university students especially. Hence, a qualitative study using open-ended questionnaire is conducted to investigate the factors and circumstances towards lack of proficiency in English language university students. Twenty two undergraduate students of ESL Learning majoring in Computer Science courses responded to the questionnaire. The findings have shown that there are three main circumstances that they think have made quite of an impact towards their lack of proficiency in English language namely; the struggle of learning English, lack of confidence and low self-esteem and environmental factors. Further discussion and recommendations are discussed in this study.