Impact of Teacher-Student Rapport in Learning English at the Tertiary Level in Bangladeshi Context

Impact of Teacher-Student Rapport in Learning English at the Tertiary Level in Bangladeshi Context | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Impact of Teacher-Student Rapport in Learning English at the Tertiary Level in Bangladeshi Context Sadia Tul Farzana, Sukanto Roy This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4577219/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study intends to explore the teacher-student rapport in the Bangladeshi tertiary-level (private universities) ESL (English as a second language) context following a mixed methodology scheme. For managing data of this research, a survey questionnaire has been provided to Bangladeshi private university students, and five one-to-one interview sessions have been arranged with three different private university teachers. In addition, two tertiary-level classrooms have been observed as a part of qualitative data collection. The result of this study suggests that both teachers and students have a positive attitude toward “Rapport,” and it helps language learning in a multidimensional way. Moreover, this study has addressed some challenges with their suggestive solutions in the end. teacher-student rapport language learning tertiary level motivation culture challenges ESL context Introduction Rapport has been the center of interest to psychologists from the initial scientific era, but it has been difficult for them to theorize it productively (Buck, 1990 ). Generally, rapport is the positive and friendly relationships among individuals in each sector, but this general viewpoint of rapport overlooks the vastness of its implications. It requires three engaging components, which are mutual attentiveness, positivity, and coordination between two people, and these three components are associated with different interactive goals and timings (Tickle-Degnen & Rosenthal, 1990 ). In academia, rapport can be considered as the positive and healthy bonding between teacher and student, and a good rapport has multitudes of influences. Through this positive relationship between teacher and student, the student's intrinsic motivation boosts up, which fosters his/her active language learning (Bardorfer & Dolenc, 2022 ), and active learning leads to successful language learning. In addition, a positive relationship with the teacher not only boosts students' motivation but also accelerates their academic achievement (Yunus et al., 2011 ). Furthermore, a good relationship helps to adjust students to the new study environment with a sense of connectedness with the teacher, which has a great impact on diminishing dropout tendencies (Mallik, 2023 ). Positive rapport not only aids in usual classroom settings but also comforts in times of emergency, which was evidently portrayed in the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it is tough to maintain the usual rapport in remote learning, it is also a great scope to implant positivity in students' minds when there remains no ray of hope (Tackie, 2022 ). However, Chickering and Gamson ( 1987 ) provided a blueprint of how fruitful implementation of teaching methods can be infused into tertiary education. They provided seven principles in their proposed framework, which include encouraging contact from both sides in the classroom, developing reciprocal learning ambiance, incorporating active learning techniques, providing instant feedback, accentuating ideal time usage, communicating high expectations for better learning, and respecting the diversity of students. The mentioned notions can be maintained by a combined effort of each individual in the education sector, but teachers and students play the pivotal role here, and they can do it by making positive academic connections between them. As rapport is related to emotion and cognition, it plays a beneficial role in students' academic as well as interpersonal progress. A cognitively developed and confident student can learn any new thing in a better and more productive way than before. Moreover, teachers will also feel motivated when they find the spark in their students. However, when a positive relationship between teacher and student helps in the learning process, the negative relationship between them creates hindrances in a student's academic life by pouring stress, demotivation, and anxiety (Luo et al., 2020 ). Therefore, as rapport is one of the most sensitive aspects that is linked with a plethora of factors in academia, it should be handled with more sensibility and extensive critical exploration should be done on this factor. However, the amount of existing knowledge in teacher-student rapport is affluent in academia, yet in the Bangladeshi context, this field has not been explored much. Hence, the current study intends to explore Bangladeshi private university teachers' and students' perspectives with rapport explicitly. In line with the aforementioned discussion, the overarching goal of this study is to explore Bangladeshi private universities' ESL teachers' and students' insights regarding teacher-student rapport in academia. Moreover, it has also investigated the implications of this relationship in students' English learning process. In line with the goals, the proposed study has responded to the following research questions at the end: 1) What is the probable significance of the teacher-student positive relationships in the Bangladeshi tertiary-level ESL context? 2) How do faculty members maintain good rapport in the classroom? Review of Related Literature In academia, rapport is related to the positive academic connectedness of teachers and students. This connectedness intensifies students' academic performance and motivates teachers to contribute more. However, successful learning occurs when a student cognitively relates the learning materials with his life, and the positive relationship with the teacher helps the student to learn cognitively, which also assists in the effective learning process (Frisby & Martin, 2010 ). Having good relationships with teachers leads students to greater success, and the expectancy of success varies on the basis of the teacher-student relationship (Estepp & Roberts, 2013 ). There are various ways available to build rapport. One of the easiest ways is switching or mixing codes in the classroom. Code-switching or code-mixing helps to alleviate the language gap between teachers and students, and they tend to learn the lesson more engagingly. Moreover, it enhances students' confidence to participate and learn the lesson spontaneously (Ezeh et al., 2022 ). Body language is another crucial factor in terms of teaching effectively in a classroom, so a teacher should be cautious of it because students sometimes become confused with the teacher's improper body language, and that hampers their learning process (Al-Shibel, 2021 ). In addition, by creating humor and fun, teachers can grab students' attention and make the classroom environment amiable as well as productive (Matsumoto et al., 2022 ). However, the concept of rapport is contextualized and culture–oriented. The study of Nikitina and Furuoka ( 2009 ) depicted a cultural point of view on the attributes of a good teacher. In their study, they found that Asian students tended to value teacher's personal and professional qualifications, pushing aside socio-cultural and educational contexts. Moreover, the student participants of this study showed utmost interest in mental support from their teachers. Hence, this finding, to some extent, indicated that Asian students have an emotional gap with their teachers that they want to reduce. Motivation is one of the pivotal factors in terms of learning a new thing as well as a new language. In terms of learning outcomes, it has been found that students have become more influenced by extrinsic motivation than intrinsic one, and the teacher holds a key role in boosting students' extrinsic motivation. When the student has a favorable relationship with the teacher, the motivation level automatically goes up (Yildiz, 2023 ). Moreover, in a language classroom teacher works as a catalyst for learners' language choice and proficiency (Inagaki & Nakaya, 2022 ). Also, the learning of the students can be immediately measured by students' participation or engagement in class, and the teachers' role is paramount in instigating students' engagement in class (Thomas & Nair, 2023 ). Grit is another quality that helps enormously in learning English. The term "grit" refers to firmness and being consistent for a long-term goal (Duckworth et al., 2007 ). Teacher's language is truly climacteric in influencing motivation and grit. A great number of studies have been done on teachers' verbal power. Therefore, by employing the notion of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Fairclough ( 1989 ), Rachmawati ( 2022 ) made a critical exploration of how a teacher's language in the classroom can lead students toward the road to L2 proficiency. She found that the power of words truly had a strong influence on students' cognitive development. However, students with such a mindset have the ability to do better in life, and they are also capable of making strong rapport with teachers (Wu et al., 2022 ). According to Cartee ( 2021 ), an ideal teacher should practice empathy that motivates his/her students in many ways. There might be situations when the student is at a loss, and the empathetic behavior from the teacher in that situation helps him to turn over and get back on track. Most of the time, the faculties remain overburdened with workload, so it is quite tough for them to personally interact with each student. In addition, teachers might go through the "burnout" phase. The American psychiatrist Freudenberger ( 1974 ) at first acknowledged the idea of "burnout." It is a mental condition when a teacher loses his lifeblood due to an excessively stressful work schedule. However, Mahmoodi et al. ( 2022 ) argued that "burnout" was not a prime factor to impede second language learning for their samples; rather, classroom management and teachers' self-confidence led to the ultimate goal of language learning. Furthermore, Santana ( 2019 ) conducted an ethnographic study on two student groups. In this research, the first group used their native language, Spanish, in the classroom, and the other group used English, which was their second language. To explore teacher-student rapport in her study, she used a student-instructor rapport scale (Lammers & Gillaspy, 2013) and found that language was not a barrier in rapport building because a high level of positive rapport was found in the English medium-instructed classroom. So, in contrast to the study of Cartee ( 2021 ), it can be said that if the teacher has the static mindset to build good relationships with students, he/she can do it by any means following different strategies. However, not only teachers but also students face difficulties in building strong academic relationships with their teachers, and one of the reasons for this is being too rigid regarding any task. Sometimes extreme strictness impedes students' creativity and tracks them away from their teachers (Fitzgerald & Hooker, 2022 ). From the aforementioned notions, it can be said that the idea of teacher-student rapport has already been explored extensively but Bangladesh still lags behind in investigating the mindset, procedure, and outcome of rapport in academia and especially in tertiary education. Therefore, this study intends to cover that unexplored area and would like to contribute to the existing body of knowledge at its best. Methodology Research Design This study has been conducted employing a mixed methodology, and the method type was sequential explanatory research (Creswell & Clark, 2018). The researchers prepared a survey questionnaire at first with nineteen questions for student participants. In this questionnaire, three were questions for demographic information, and fifteen were close-ended multiple choice questions, where ten were prepared on the Likert scale. In these questions, students responded in five different expressions with different frequencies from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The remaining five questions have been prepared for collecting nominal responses like yes/no. The researchers then put one open-ended question to get an in-depth idea about the topic. After observing the quantitative data, the authors prepared ten interview questions to conduct interviews with teachers. However, the interview method was semi-structured, and the author added and deducted questions according to the demands of the research. Moreover, to get practical insight, the researchers did two classroom observations as well. Setting and Sampling Procedure The researchers selected the participants through purposive sampling. The questionnaire was to different private universities' students in Bangladesh. Fifty-seven students from seven private universities over the country responded to the survey. On the other hand, the researcher interviewed five teachers from three private universities of Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh. While collecting the data, the researchers followed the sampling instructions of Clarke and Braun ( 2013 ). Moreover, the classroom observations were taken place in two different levels’ English language classrooms which are undergraduate and graduate of a private university in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data Analysis Procedure The authors analyzed the quantitative data descriptively and the qualitative data derived from interviews and classroom observations thematically. Moreover, data derived from an open-ended question of the survey questionnaire has been analyzed descriptively here. After collecting the survey data, the authors divided the questions on the basis of different aspects of rapport and then categorized on different notions under the umbrella of descriptive analysis. For interviews, they conducted, and recorded the responses with the permission of the interviewees at first; then, they heard those interviews and transcribed them using a verbatim process. After that, the researchers critically explored the findings. For classroom observation, the authors observed the classes carefully and jotted down every single detail that could add benefit to the paper. After scrutinizing each collected data critically and thematically, the researchers have reached the probable final destination which the paper intended to represent. However, the whole data analysis procedure followed a rigorous approach of juxtaposing both thematic and descriptive analysis processes because these help to get the essence of the research more accurately. Findings and Analysis Quantitative Data Students responded on a Likert scale about how much rapport they felt with their teacher, whereas the majority of the students responded that they felt a neutral insight regarding their rapport with their teacher. 43.9% of students chose the number 3 on a 5-numbered scale. However, some students also feel an agreeable rapport, and that is 29.8% of students. 7% of students feel excellent about the rapport they have with their teacher. On the contrary, 14% of students feel they cannot build a good relationship with their teachers, and 5.3% of students feel that they do not even have any sort of good relationship with their teachers. However, the number of neutral students is the highest because, in the Bangladeshi context, the necessity of the teacher-student relationship is yet to be addressed properly. For that reason, they sometimes remain indifferent to developing good professional relationships in academia. In academic relationships, teacher-student communication is a pivotal aspect of gaining academic success. Most of the time, students remain really apathetic to keep communication with their teachers. However, while assessing the mindset of students on teacher-student communication, there again arose a multidimensional ambiance. Among all, 36.8% of students agreed that they regularly consult with their teachers in terms of any study-related confusion. 28.1% said that they are neutral on this idea. 22.8% agreed with the fact that they maintain regular communication with their teachers. However, 12.3% disagreed with the fact that there is constant communication with their teachers for discussing lessons. No student responded to the third option, which says about those who strongly disagree with the statement. Biases in education are one of the most sensitive aspects about which people do not feel free to talk. A teacher can be biased in various respects, like- in terms of grading, behaving, prioritizing, and so on. Taking into consideration such ideas, several questions under the umbrella term “Bias” have been asked. Firstly, the provision of support from the teacher's side has been demonstrated, where 42.1% of students said yes, and 31.6% said maybe. Though the percentage of students with a negative response here is low among the three, which is 26.3%, it consists of a good number of students. So, the problem should be investigated more deeply, and should be alleviated from the root. There was a direct question regarding biases in terms of grading. Here, the responses were again really interesting and heterogeneous. 36.8% of students agreed that their teachers are not biased in terms of grading, 14% of students strongly agreed with this fact, and a vast number of students, 31.6%, were neutral about their feelings. However, here, 12.3% of students believe that their teachers are biased, and 5.3% of students strongly believe this notion. Culture is one of the most crucial issues of any sector. In terms of teaching, a teacher should be first concerned about culture because without keeping in mind this notion, he/she might hurt any student who carries distinctive cultural values. Culture can be about religion, ethnicity, personal beliefs, and so on. However, in the survey, regarding the direct question on cultural viewpoint, 35.1% of students strongly agreed, 29.8% agreed, 24.6% remained neutral, and 10.5% of students disagreed with the fact that their teachers keep in mind the cultural diversities in class. In an academic context, feedback plays the role of lifeblood that helps to improve students' potential in all regards. In the survey, it was asked to the participants whether their teachers gave feedback in a respectful manner or not. However, 63.2% of students agreed with it. 21.1% of students directly responded " no," and 15.8% of students said they were not sure of it. However, when it was the students' turn to say regarding their behavior towards the feedback, 45.6% said they took it positively and strongly agreed with the fact. 28.1% agreed, and 22.8% of students remained neutral. Day by day, the culture of a solely teacher-dependent classroom is being abolished and classrooms are getting student-centric. However, not only the students should be co-operative, but also the teacher should motivate his/her students to make the class lively. When it was asked whether students feel free in terms of class participation or not, 28.1% of students strongly agreed, 33.3% of students agreed, the same number of students were neutral, and 5.3% of students disagreed. However, as the majority of students showed a positive attitude, it is really an outstanding change in the Bangladeshi context. Moreover, the learning outcome is heavily dependent on fearlessly asking any rational question in class for better understanding. In the survey question on this issue, 50.9% of students said they feel free to ask any question in class, 28.1% said they hesitate to do so, and 21.1% said they are not sure of it. So, the response of students is again mixed here. Motivation is one of the prime concerns that has a major impact on learning a different language. A teacher can be a bridge to success by motivating his/her students. Also, he/she can annihilate his/her students' lives by demotivating them. When students have good bonds with their teachers, they feel a strong urge to learn. However, in the question regarding motivation, 61.4% of students strongly believe that their relationship with teachers boosts their motivation, 31.6% generally agreed with this fact, 3.5% of students were neutral, 3.5% of students disagreed, and no one strongly disagreed. Therefore, the majority of the students responded positively here because nobody can deny the fact that motivation is the key to success. When it was asked whether having a good rapport with teachers helps to learn the language effectively or not, 52.6% of students strongly supported the fact, 31.6% of students agreed with it, 12.3% remained neutral, and a small portion of students disagreed. In line with the aforementioned term "Motivation," it can be said that when there is a good understanding between student and teacher, the learning of the students accelerates. Furthermore, when the researcher asked specifically which skill they benefited from their relationship with their faculties, most of the students voted for speaking, and the percentage of them was 54.4%. In addition, 19.3% of students said it is reading, 14% went for writing, and 12.3% said they benefit from listening. However, as the speaking skill is heavily related to motivation and alleviating fear, it is the most inspired skill from a healthy influence between teacher and student. Not only in English learning but also in real-life events, a teacher can motivate his/her students. In this regard, 29.8% of students firmly believe that their teacher helps them attain pragmatic knowledge, and 43.9% of students agreed with this notion. However, 17.5% of students remained neutral, 7% disagreed, and 1.8% of students, that is a number of only one student strongly disagreed with the fact. Hence, most of the students feel that their teachers prepare them not only for the boundaries of the classroom but also for the world stage. Reflection is one of the major aspects of any teacher's professional development. Reflection can be done from various dimensions like teaching strategies, feedback, and assessment strategies. However, when the participants were asked if their teacher maintains the same strategy to teach lessons or uses various ones according to the students' needs, majority of the students (68.4%) positively responded. On the other hand, 28.1% said that they were not sure about it. In the case of negative responses, the percentage is very low here, that is a sum of 3.6%. When it was asked to the students whether their teachers proceeded with the class without making everyone understand the lesson or not, 29.8% of students strongly agreed here that their teachers were well concerned in such aspects, and the same percentage stood for the students who chose the option "agree." On the other hand, 29.8% of students were neutral on this fact. The number of students choosing the options to disagree and strongly disagree is the same, and the percentage stands at 5.3%. The opinion of students regarding this issue was asked because the researcher wanted to assess whether the teachers only reflect their strategies or make sure that everyone understands through it. Qualitative Data Data Derived from Interviews The following themes have emerged after transcribing five teachers' interviews. The teacher-student rapport in Bangladeshi private universities. In Bangladeshi culture, the concept of rapport is quite different from others. However, this concept is modified day by day. As the author took interviews from the teachers of various age groups, she got the chance to explore all floors. However, a senior teacher designated as an associate professor said that during their time, the idea of "Teacher" was really different. They were always portrayed as outrageous beings by society. Though students of that time used to respect their teachers a lot, they felt afraid to build any sort of rapport with their teachers; to be more specific, they did not even think of it. However, nowadays, things are changing; students feel free to talk to their teachers and consult with them; this is how the rapport looks like in present Bangladesh. She then gave reference to Bangladeshi public universities and an overseas university in her statement to make a comparison with the scenario of private universities. In public universities, teachers try to restrain themselves from mixing with students, which is quite tragic. On the other hand, in an overseas university, she witnessed excellent relationships between teachers and students where utmost respect was present, and this respect to some extent is absent in the present Bangladeshi context. However, she also emphasized understanding students' own role of ''studentship'' that will help to build professional and healthy rapport in academia. One young lecturer defined rapport as the positive and productive relationship between teacher and student. It supports a creative, supportive, and respectful classroom environment. However, one of the teachers said that - "if rapport fails, the success of the teacher will also fail." He stated this because rapport helps to understand the classroom lecture properly and productively. If the teacher fails to be an ideal one in the eyes of the students, they will not pay heed to him. This is how the teacher's teaching will go futile. Furthermore, some interesting and enthusiastic insights regarding positive rapport have also been found from another young lecturer from a top private university in Bangladesh. According to her, the top-ranked Bangladeshi private universities are setting benchmarks on emphasizing building rapport. As per tradition, Bangladeshi students remain intimidated by their teachers, which these top institutions are trying to smash down. Moreover, at least 98% of teachers of these universities have foreign degrees. So, these teachers are trying to implant their overseas notions in the Bangladeshi context to make students' academic journey enjoyable. Strategies of building rapport. A senior faculty member of a top private university said- "I try to listen to everything that they say. I try to teach in an effective way. And I also make sure if they have any problem, they can always see me." She also said that she tries to happily respond to them all. She also asserted that "not only the students but also the teachers should respect their students." This is how, by listening, understanding, and respecting, a good rapport can be formed. Another associate professor of a different private university stated that, by being warm and friendly with students, a teacher can easily build rapport with them. In addition, the duty of a teacher is to make the lesson enjoyable. Sometimes, due to listening for long hours in the classroom, the students feel bored. To reduce that boredom, the teacher might crack jokes and make the classroom interesting. According to a third teacher, to build good rapport in the classroom, teachers should not stick to textbooks only; they should also encourage students in class participation. Even in the top private universities of Bangladesh, there are marks for classroom participation, which benefit students' final grades. By doing so, the universities' authorities, to some extent, are indirectly trying to push students to speak and come out of their comfort bubble. This thing helps a lot in building good rapport as well as in raising their motivation level. However, the teacher also stated that she asks questions from a real-life context so that students can relate the classroom lesson to real-life events. Moreover, she gives her students the courage that they will not be judged if they speak up in class. In the classroom, calling students by their names is an excellent approach to building good relationships, and one of the teachers has spoken about it as well. He thinks body language, such as making eye contact, nodding head while listening, smiling, etc., helps a great way to make students comfortable with their teachers. Feedback. Teachers' strategies of giving feedback and students' attitudes towards it speak a lot about the teacher-student relationship. However, different teachers' viewpoints and experiences regarding feedback are explored below- One of the faculty members has given a detailed response to feedback. She tries her best to reach students' peak concerns while giving feedback. That strategy makes them comfortable in her classroom, and they get the proper feedback from her. In addition, it helps them to open up with no hesitation and with less anxiety. Furthermore, she does not follow the same strategy for everyone; rather, she checks their weaknesses and strengths as well as learning styles. At the same time, she focuses on framing her feedback in a positive, constructive manner, even when addressing areas that they need to improve. She also tries to provide them encouragement even if they make any mistake. Another teacher prefers both corrective and summative feedback. He prefers to give detailed feedback to every student after checking the scripts. Though it's very hard for him to check so many scripts and give feedback, he still tries to do so for students' betterment. Moreover, he never found that his students took his feedback negatively. So, this indicates his friendly relationship with his students. On the other hand, a different notion regarding feedback is observed in this statement- "I'm somewhat apprehensive about it because all the students are not eager to learn. So, I think some like it, some don't. This is my observation." This is the statement of a senior teacher who seems to make an open floor for feedback and never bothers whether the students take his feedback negatively or positively. However, an indication of negative rapport is also hidden in his statement because feedback can be considered the foundation of learning, and it helps to improve more and more. When a teacher shows indifference to such a major issue, there surely might be some problems within him, or he is just a victim of the situation. Rapport as an aid in language learning. One of the interviewees believes that when students get a positive learning environment, they feel more motivated and more encouraged in their learning process. In addition, they are likely to attend class regularly and engage in class activities. So, a good rapport can foster friendly and effective communication between teacher and student. In addition, it helps to reduce anxiety, which is one of the major obstacles to learning a new thing. Also, it gives them such confidence that they are less afraid to make mistakes, which is crucial for learning. So, this leads to an increased willingness to participate in the classroom. A good relationship with a student helps a teacher as well. Someone who has a very strong rapport with his/her students can be considered a better-equipped teacher. Additionally, rapport helps teachers to tailor themselves and their teaching methods to suit particular needs. However, all the teachers agreed that good rapport can function as a catalyst in the learning process. Moreover, when there is a good relationship between them, students will pay more attention because they know that the teacher is serious and the teacher cares. In addition, all the teachers stated that they switch codes in the classroom to make students understand the lesson in their mother tongue, which is an excellent example of good rapport. Therefore, a favorable rapport not only helps in the learning process but also improves a student's critical and interpersonal skills. Assessment strategies. Surprise tests are excellent ways to stimulate an inductive way of learning. However, most of the students do not like these surprises. To keep in mind students’ priorities, all the interviewees of this research set aside the surprise tests and notified their students well before any examination. One of the teachers among five used to take surprise quizzes before, but she has now stopped taking them because she feels that if she informs students before any test to get prepared, it will not harm anyone. So, having this notion, she notifies her students that they have plenty of time in hand to prepare for the test. Contextual divergences. In academia, people from different backgrounds and mindsets come under the same roof. So, it is necessary for everyone to respect each other’s beliefs. There might be students from different social and cultural backgrounds in a class that all the teacher participants cautiously keep in mind when they deal with them. Moreover, all of them try to show utmost respect to students from each context. Reflection. To reach the epitome of professionalism, a teacher must reflect upon his or her teaching strategies because different situations demand different tactics. However, while the interviewee teachers were asked about their reflection on strategies, they put forth several viewpoints in their own way. According to one teacher, he goes back and forth in his mind after every class and tries to recall everything in the class. After thinking critically, he then reflects and revises his teaching strategy. Moreover, before starting a new class, he always tries to go back to the previous lesson and asks for feedback from students as well by selecting them randomly. This is all about his reflection mindset. Moreover, another teacher complains that due to having outnumbered students in a class, it is tough to read each student’s mind, so sometimes reflection turns futile. However, among five teachers, four teachers more or less agreed with reflecting and revising teaching strategies. One totally disagreed with the fact that she needs any reflection. Though she has been teaching for more than one era, she never found any necessity to reflect on her thoughts. Behind this confidence, there might be a strong power of making great bonds with students that always work properly, so the teacher does not feel the necessity to revise it. Mental health support. In terms of personal trauma, struggle, and anything regarding mental health, all the teachers agreed that they provided proper support. Moreover, due to any personal issue, if the student can show proper cause, they even give them a chance to sit for an exam again that they missed. However, being a tertiary student, a student should know where to stop, so something too personal can not be shared because, after all, "friendly teachers are not their friends." So, teachers approve or help students with their personal sufferings to a certain level, and they always invite students to share their problems which are hampering their studies, and teachers are always there to help. Challenges of building rapport. In Bangladesh, the condition of classrooms is yet to be improved. Due to the large number of students in a small class, it is quite impossible for teachers to manage classes properly. Moreover, most of the teachers complained that there are almost 30–40 students in a class, so building rapport with each student is nothing but a fallacy. It is totally unattainable for a teacher to personally reach such outnumbered students and build rapport with each of them. However, students should be approachable in such aspects. They should come forward to share their issues. Almost all top private universities in Bangladesh have counseling hours for students, so students should take advantage of this opportunity. They should come and talk about their study-related issues as well as other problems that are shareable with the teacher. However, according to some teachers, students in this context are quite shy and indifferent to building rapport with their teachers, even though most of the students here are not even aware of the term "Rapport." For this reason, they do not approach to create a healthy academic bonding with their teachers. As it was said before, there are too many students in a class to build rapport with each other; if the students do not step forward to make it, this bonding will never happen, and a prime aspect of education will remain in the dark. Student's age can be a hurdle for young teachers to build rapport. At the graduate level, people from distinctive age groups come and attend. So sometimes teachers can not keep pace with their viewpoints and become confused- as per a young lecturer. However, age affects mentality, which sometimes draws boundaries of thought among people of different ages. So, this can also be considered as a challenge of building rapport in Bangladeshi private universities' ESL context. According to a teacher participant, there were some unusual occurrences she had to face, but they usually happened very rarely. Some students, especially male students, tried to take advantage of her politeness, forgot their limits, and behaved awkwardly. She was again and again assured that it happens once in a blue moon. However, two other teachers said that being too friendly sometimes makes them take them for granted to their students. Some students think that friendly teachers are easily accessible, and they can say or do anything with them. For these reasons, sometimes the teachers themselves restrain from becoming so lenient even if they want to be. However, because of a scarce number of students, sometimes other students who really need the teacher's full support become sufferers. Data from Classroom Observation The researchers did an in-field study as well. They observed two classes; one was from an undergraduate level, and another was from a graduate-level classroom. By observing both classes, she got a set of mixed notions. The ideas from classroom observations are thematically analyzed as follows- Teaching style . At the undergraduate level, the classroom that the researchers explored was a basic English writing course's classroom titled "Intermediate Composition." All the students were not from the English department there, though it was an English language class. However, while teaching, the teacher starts from the very basics that a student usually learns at the secondary level of education. Though the topic was an easier one, there was a great effort from the teacher's side to teach the lesson from the root. She at first told her students to brainstorm and then wrote down their ideas on the whiteboard. So, in line with Piaget and Cook ( 1952 ), it can be said that she tried to activate students' schemata, which helps to teach students inductively. After the brainstorming session, she began the actual lesson, writing things on the whiteboard. She jotted down each and every detail of the topic and then handed out a worksheet to the student, which was really easy to solve. As it was an initial-level course, the teacher kept the teaching scheme as easy as possible. However, the teaching style was lively and enjoyable. On the other hand, for the graduate level, the teacher was friendly too but she dealt the students in a more matured manner. The graduate-level course's title was "Topics, Issues & Trends in TESOL-I." This course was basically designed for TESOL students. The classroom environment was quite professional there. In that class, the teacher seemed to provide students with some practical tasks based on their previously taught theories. As TESOL courses are primarily designed for the practical world, there should be practical tasks in the courses. However, the forceful effort was visible from the teacher's side to make students understand their task and it was a group work. Upon finishing the lecture, the teacher called all the students into her office to show a demo of the task. So, all in all, this was an excellent class with a pragmatic teaching method. Classroom environment. At the undergraduate level, the classroom environment was quite light. The teacher was talking in such a sweet manner that it seemed like she was talking with some babies. She was addressing students by their names, which is a great sign of good rapport. She appreciated her students' responses in a sweet manner. Moreover, she often seemed to be switching codes and using Bangla with English. As it is an entry level course, students were not that proficient in English, and she had that in her mind. Moreover, it was witnessed that her way of giving feedback was also impressive. As it was said before, the graduate-level class was more professional. The teacher dealt with the class with the utmost professionalism. She behaved according to the level and age of the students. In addition, she also switched codes but very rarely. The most interesting part was that the teacher knew each and every student's name, which is an excellent example of her rapport with students. Students' behavior. Tragically, there was not much effort from the students' side, unlike the teacher's side at the undergraduate level. It was seen that most of the students at the back were just scrolling their phones and did not even bother to pay heed to their teacher's saying. Contrarily, at the graduate level, students seemed actively engaged in the learning process. The classroom was interactive and lively. The reason for the seriousness of graduate students might be their age and experience. Qualitative Data from Open-ended Questions In the survey questionnaire, there was an open-ended question for students at the end regarding their point of view on the importance of building good rapport. By summing up their responses, it is evident that good rapport is important to foster learning and a positive learning environment at first. Secondly, it helps to boost students’ motivation, and makes them confident. Thirdly, good rapport helps to express students' any problem or confusion with their teachers freely and then they are able to get good grades. Fourthly, a good relationship with a teacher helps to build up communication skills. Fifthly, healthy bonding with teachers not only helps in the classroom, but helps in dealing with the real world. However, among all the positive responses, the researcher found a negative reply as well, where the student felt that his bad rapport hampered his grade once, which was really unfortunate. Nonetheless, the overall responses support that a positive rapport between a teacher and a student is essential for providing personalized support according to his/her lacking, which provides an ambiance where the student feels valued and empowered. Discussion The aforementioned analysis initially gave insight into the present consciousness on building rapport in the Bangladeshi context, which was rare before. Though the responses of students were mixed, most of them supported it. The participants of this study depicted the importance of building rapport in their responses. In terms of students' responses, it is evident that the majority of the students know about it and found it heavily useful. On the other hand, lots of students also show less interest or no interest regarding the fact. However, the reason behind their indifference might be their lack of knowledge of it. As Bangladesh had an extremely conservative culture in education earlier, people are still bearing this mindset. Here, one notion can give optimism that this scenario is changing and teachers are becoming interested in building positive rapport with students. The teachers' responses gave extremely hopeful insights. All of them have a positive attitude towards building good rapport. Moreover, some of the teachers completed their studies at public universities, and they also correlated their relationships with their teachers and what they have today with their students. They confidently agreed that private universities are doing great in terms of making good bonds between teachers and students because teachers are friendly here and do not remain so rigid. By analyzing both teachers' and students' attitudes, it can be stated that teachers are more interested in it and appreciate the fact. However, students needed to be more concerned in this case. In addition, the teachers have spoken about maintaining boundaries in rapport, and this is also a crucial aspect. It is a must to keep in mind for students, even if the teacher is friendly, he/she is their teacher, so they should be respectful of that healthy bonding. From the findings of classroom observation, it can be stated that with maturity, students become more respectful to their teachers. Some unusual occurrences were noticed in undergraduate classes. However, the first or second-semester students of bachelor's level are quite young and come with the mindset of their schools and colleges, so by time and seniority, undergraduate students also build a good and respectful bond with their teacher. As this research's core goal was exploring how good rapport influences language learning, all the teachers, along with the lion's share of the students, agreed with the fact that rapport is really effective. It is effective because, at first, it helps to alleviate students' anxiety and increases the urge for learning and motivation. In the realm of Krashen's (1982) affective filter hypothesis, it can be said that when the effect or emotion goes down, the learning rate accelerates, and when the effect goes up, the learning rate goes down. So, in the case of students' learning output, the same thing happened. Positive rapport helps them to cope with any struggling learning context and makes them feel worthy. In addition, this study addressed some challenges as well from both sides. Regarding teachers, they stated about students' unusual behavior and poor classroom organization, which obstructed them in building rapport. Some students feel that the teacher sometimes practices favoritism and remains biased. From the students' responses, it is also evident that some students are unaware of how the rapport works. These inconveniences hamper the ultimate learning of the students, and the teachers also lose motivation for improvement. However, this study supports Vygotsky's (1978) theory of social constructivism here, where the learning environment is heavily influenced by the interaction of the learner and the instructor, and a positive interaction aids enormously in learning outcomes. Therefore, when the teachers or the students face trouble in building a good rapport, the learning rate decelerates. From the discussion section, it is visible that this research suggests that good rapport increases motivation in language learning, which can be related to the study of Yildiz ( 2023 ) and Yunus et al. ( 2011 ). Moreover, it helps students to succeed in life and learn the lesson properly, which is, to some extent, linked to the study of Estepp and Roberts ( 2013 ). In line with Tackie ( 2022 ), rapport also gives mental support when the students need it the most in times of trauma and emergency. However, at the end of the study, two research questions have been properly answered, and both the significance of good rapport and faculty members’ strategies for maintaining it are explored. By keeping in mind the importance of teacher-student good rapport, this study recommends some insights, firstly, the students should be acknowledged with the term "Rapport" and how this can be maintained. Educational institutions can play an influential role in terms of this, and the practice should be started from their primary level of education. The government should arrange training and seminars to recognize the usefulness of it. In addition, teachers should be a bit more patient in this regard. However, by exploring more thoughts with a huge number of participants, more in-depth ideas about teacher-student rapport in the Bangladeshi tertiary-level ESL context can be attained. Conclusion The study focuses on how essential rapport is in Bangladeshi tertiary-level private universities' ESL context. From the whole study, it is evident that good rapport always brings something good and has no drawback; rather, if this culture is fully and properly implanted in Bangladesh, the education sector will go far ahead. Moreover, a teacher-student positive relationship accelerates learning and makes students interested in the lesson. While there are still obstacles like outnumbered students in class or their unprofessional behavior, teachers of private universities are still fighting to make the learning environment better. Educational institutions, as well as the government, should come forward to solve the problems that teachers are facing to make the learning environment smooth for their students. Hence, by solving irrelevant issues, the authority can help teachers implement their knowledge and insight completely for their students' sake. Despite that, some limitations have also been acknowledged for this study. For instance, this research only explored private universities of Bangladeshi tertiary education where public and national universities remained unexplored, so to get a more extensive overview, the unexplored areas should be investigated by future researchers. Moreover, the context here only speaks the voice of two cities in Bangladesh, which also should be broadened for forthcoming studies. Abbreviations ESL English as a second language TESOL Teaching English to speakers of other languages Declarations Acknowledgments The authors are thankful to each stakeholder who contributed to this research. Author Contributions STF collected the data and wrote the manuscript. SR conceptualized, developed the idea, supervised the study, and edited the manuscript. Funding The study received no funding Availability of Data and Materials The datasets used in the current study are available to the corresponding author and will be provided on request. Informed Consent All the participants had to read and sign the Informed Consent Form where they consented to participate in the study and publish the results of the study. Bioethics and Guidelines The protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of North South University following the guidelines of Helsinki. Competing Interest The authors do not have any competing interests Consent for Publication Statement The authors give their consent to publish the paper in Discover Psychology. The data utilized in this study is original and has not been used and published elsewhere. References Al-Shibel, A. G. (2021). Gender differences in classroom interactions and preferences. 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Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Lammers, William J. and Gillaspy, J. Arthur Jr. (2013) "Brief Measure of Student-Instructor Rapport Predicts Student Success in Online Courses," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 7: No. 2, Article 16. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2013.070216 Luo, Y., Deng, Y., & Zhang, H. (2020). The influences of parental emotional warmth on the association between perceived teacher–student relationships and academic stress among middle school students in China. Children and Youth Services Review, 114, 105014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105014 Mahmoodi, M. H., Hosseiniyar, S., & Samoudi, N. (2022). EFL Teachers’ Classroom Management Orientation, Self-Efficacy, Burnout, and Students’ L2 Achievement. Profile Issues in Teachers Professional Development, 24(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.91153 Mallik, B. (2023). Factors Affecting College Teacher-Student Relationship: A Case Study of a Govt College in Bangladesh. Anatolian Journal of Education, 8(2), 161–180. http://dx.doi.org/10.29333/aje.2023.8211a Matsumoto, Y., Lee, J. J., & Kim, E. (2022). “Laughing moments”: the complex negotiation of laughing acts among students and teachers in an English as a second language classroom. Classroom Discourse, 13(1), 32–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2020.1808494 Nikitina, L., & Furuoka, F. (2009). Teacher Student Relationship and the Conceptualization of the “Good Language Teacher”: Does Culture Matter?. Asian EFL Journal, 11(2), 163–187. Piaget, J., & Cook, M. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children (Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 18–1952). New York: International Universities Press. https://doi.org/10.1037/11494-000 Rachmawati, S. A. (2022). Critical discourse analysis of language and power in EFL classroom interaction. Journal of English Teaching, 8(2), 224–232. https://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v8i2.3633 Tackie, H. N. (2022). (Dis)Connected: Establishing Social Presence and Intimacy in Teacher–Student Relationships During Emergency Remote Learning. AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211069525 Thomas, J., & Nair, M. (2023). Investigating teacher influence on student engagement in high schools. The Australian Educational Researcher, 50(3), 661–681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00511-w Tickle-Degnen, L., & Rosenthal, R. (1990). The nature of rapport and its nonverbal correlates. Psychological inquiry, 1(4), 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0104_1 VYGOTSKY, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes (M. Cole, V. Jolm-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjf9vz4 Wu, Y. T., Foong, L. Y. Y., & Alias, N. (2022). Motivation and Grit Affects Undergraduate Students' English Language Performance. European Journal of Educational Research, 11(2), 781–794. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.11.2.781 Yildiz, C. (2023). The Interplay between Turkish EFL Learners' Motivation and Vocabulary Knowledge. International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 15(2), 838–850. Yunus, M. M., Osman, W. S. W., & Ishak, N. M. (2011). Teacher-student relationship factor affecting motivation and academic achievement in ESL classroom. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 2637–2641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.161 Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Generally, rapport is the positive and friendly relationships among individuals in each sector, but this general viewpoint of rapport overlooks the vastness of its implications. It requires three engaging components, which are mutual attentiveness, positivity, and coordination between two people, and these three components are associated with different interactive goals and timings (Tickle-Degnen \u0026amp; Rosenthal, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1990\u003c/span\u003e). In academia, rapport can be considered as the positive and healthy bonding between teacher and student, and a good rapport has multitudes of influences. Through this positive relationship between teacher and student, the student's intrinsic motivation boosts up, which fosters his/her active language learning (Bardorfer \u0026amp; Dolenc, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), and active learning leads to successful language learning. In addition, a positive relationship with the teacher not only boosts students' motivation but also accelerates their academic achievement (Yunus et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Furthermore, a good relationship helps to adjust students to the new study environment with a sense of connectedness with the teacher, which has a great impact on diminishing dropout tendencies (Mallik, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Positive rapport not only aids in usual classroom settings but also comforts in times of emergency, which was evidently portrayed in the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it is tough to maintain the usual rapport in remote learning, it is also a great scope to implant positivity in students' minds when there remains no ray of hope (Tackie, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). However, Chickering and Gamson (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1987\u003c/span\u003e) provided a blueprint of how fruitful implementation of teaching methods can be infused into tertiary education. They provided seven principles in their proposed framework, which include encouraging contact from both sides in the classroom, developing reciprocal learning ambiance, incorporating active learning techniques, providing instant feedback, accentuating ideal time usage, communicating high expectations for better learning, and respecting the diversity of students. The mentioned notions can be maintained by a combined effort of each individual in the education sector, but teachers and students play the pivotal role here, and they can do it by making positive academic connections between them. As rapport is related to emotion and cognition, it plays a beneficial role in students' academic as well as interpersonal progress. A cognitively developed and confident student can learn any new thing in a better and more productive way than before. Moreover, teachers will also feel motivated when they find the spark in their students. However, when a positive relationship between teacher and student helps in the learning process, the negative relationship between them creates hindrances in a student's academic life by pouring stress, demotivation, and anxiety (Luo et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, as rapport is one of the most sensitive aspects that is linked with a plethora of factors in academia, it should be handled with more sensibility and extensive critical exploration should be done on this factor. However, the amount of existing knowledge in teacher-student rapport is affluent in academia, yet in the Bangladeshi context, this field has not been explored much. Hence, the current study intends to explore Bangladeshi private university teachers' and students' perspectives with rapport explicitly.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn line with the aforementioned discussion, the overarching goal of this study is to explore Bangladeshi private universities' ESL teachers' and students' insights regarding teacher-student rapport in academia. Moreover, it has also investigated the implications of this relationship in students' English learning process. In line with the goals, the proposed study has responded to the following research questions at the end:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1) What is the probable significance of the teacher-student positive relationships in the Bangladeshi tertiary-level ESL context?\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2) How do faculty members maintain good rapport in the classroom?\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Review of Related Literature","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn academia, rapport is related to the positive academic connectedness of teachers and students. This connectedness intensifies students' academic performance and motivates teachers to contribute more. However, successful learning occurs when a student cognitively relates the learning materials with his life, and the positive relationship with the teacher helps the student to learn cognitively, which also assists in the effective learning process (Frisby \u0026amp; Martin, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). Having good relationships with teachers leads students to greater success, and the expectancy of success varies on the basis of the teacher-student relationship (Estepp \u0026amp; Roberts, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). There are various ways available to build rapport. One of the easiest ways is switching or mixing codes in the classroom. Code-switching or code-mixing helps to alleviate the language gap between teachers and students, and they tend to learn the lesson more engagingly. Moreover, it enhances students' confidence to participate and learn the lesson spontaneously (Ezeh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Body language is another crucial factor in terms of teaching effectively in a classroom, so a teacher should be cautious of it because students sometimes become confused with the teacher's improper body language, and that hampers their learning process (Al-Shibel, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, by creating humor and fun, teachers can grab students' attention and make the classroom environment amiable as well as productive (Matsumoto et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). However, the concept of rapport is contextualized and culture\u0026ndash;oriented. The study of Nikitina and Furuoka (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e) depicted a cultural point of view on the attributes of a good teacher. In their study, they found that Asian students tended to value teacher's personal and professional qualifications, pushing aside socio-cultural and educational contexts. Moreover, the student participants of this study showed utmost interest in mental support from their teachers. Hence, this finding, to some extent, indicated that Asian students have an emotional gap with their teachers that they want to reduce.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMotivation is one of the pivotal factors in terms of learning a new thing as well as a new language. In terms of learning outcomes, it has been found that students have become more influenced by extrinsic motivation than intrinsic one, and the teacher holds a key role in boosting students' extrinsic motivation. When the student has a favorable relationship with the teacher, the motivation level automatically goes up (Yildiz, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, in a language classroom teacher works as a catalyst for learners' language choice and proficiency (Inagaki \u0026amp; Nakaya, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Also, the learning of the students can be immediately measured by students' participation or engagement in class, and the teachers' role is paramount in instigating students' engagement in class (Thomas \u0026amp; Nair, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Grit is another quality that helps enormously in learning English. The term \"grit\" refers to firmness and being consistent for a long-term goal (Duckworth et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e). Teacher's language is truly climacteric in influencing motivation and grit. A great number of studies have been done on teachers' verbal power. Therefore, by employing the notion of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Fairclough (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1989\u003c/span\u003e), Rachmawati (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e) made a critical exploration of how a teacher's language in the classroom can lead students toward the road to L2 proficiency. She found that the power of words truly had a strong influence on students' cognitive development. However, students with such a mindset have the ability to do better in life, and they are also capable of making strong rapport with teachers (Wu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). According to Cartee (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e), an ideal teacher should practice empathy that motivates his/her students in many ways. There might be situations when the student is at a loss, and the empathetic behavior from the teacher in that situation helps him to turn over and get back on track.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost of the time, the faculties remain overburdened with workload, so it is quite tough for them to personally interact with each student. In addition, teachers might go through the \"burnout\" phase. The American psychiatrist Freudenberger (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1974\u003c/span\u003e) at first acknowledged the idea of \"burnout.\" It is a mental condition when a teacher loses his lifeblood due to an excessively stressful work schedule. However, Mahmoodi et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e) argued that \"burnout\" was not a prime factor to impede second language learning for their samples; rather, classroom management and teachers' self-confidence led to the ultimate goal of language learning. Furthermore, Santana (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e) conducted an ethnographic study on two student groups. In this research, the first group used their native language, Spanish, in the classroom, and the other group used English, which was their second language. To explore teacher-student rapport in her study, she used a student-instructor rapport scale (Lammers \u0026amp; Gillaspy, 2013) and found that language was not a barrier in rapport building because a high level of positive rapport was found in the English medium-instructed classroom. So, in contrast to the study of Cartee (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e), it can be said that if the teacher has the static mindset to build good relationships with students, he/she can do it by any means following different strategies. However, not only teachers but also students face difficulties in building strong academic relationships with their teachers, and one of the reasons for this is being too rigid regarding any task. Sometimes extreme strictness impedes students' creativity and tracks them away from their teachers (Fitzgerald \u0026amp; Hooker, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the aforementioned notions, it can be said that the idea of teacher-student rapport has already been explored extensively but Bangladesh still lags behind in investigating the mindset, procedure, and outcome of rapport in academia and especially in tertiary education. Therefore, this study intends to cover that unexplored area and would like to contribute to the existing body of knowledge at its best.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eResearch Design\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study has been conducted employing a mixed methodology, and the method type was sequential explanatory research (Creswell \u0026amp; Clark, 2018). The researchers prepared a survey questionnaire at first with nineteen questions for student participants. In this questionnaire, three were questions for demographic information, and fifteen were close-ended multiple choice questions, where ten were prepared on the Likert scale. In these questions, students responded in five different expressions with different frequencies from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The remaining five questions have been prepared for collecting nominal responses like yes/no. The researchers then put one open-ended question to get an in-depth idea about the topic. After observing the quantitative data, the authors prepared ten interview questions to conduct interviews with teachers. However, the interview method was semi-structured, and the author added and deducted questions according to the demands of the research. Moreover, to get practical insight, the researchers did two classroom observations as well.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eSetting and Sampling Procedure\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe researchers selected the participants through purposive sampling. The questionnaire was to different private universities' students in Bangladesh. Fifty-seven students from seven private universities over the country responded to the survey. On the other hand, the researcher interviewed five teachers from three private universities of Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh. While collecting the data, the researchers followed the sampling instructions of Clarke and Braun (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, the classroom observations were taken place in two different levels\u0026rsquo; English language classrooms which are undergraduate and graduate of a private university in Dhaka, Bangladesh.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eData Analysis Procedure\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors analyzed the quantitative data descriptively and the qualitative data derived from interviews and classroom observations thematically. Moreover, data derived from an open-ended question of the survey questionnaire has been analyzed descriptively here. After collecting the survey data, the authors divided the questions on the basis of different aspects of rapport and then categorized on different notions under the umbrella of descriptive analysis. For interviews, they conducted, and recorded the responses with the permission of the interviewees at first; then, they heard those interviews and transcribed them using a verbatim process. After that, the researchers critically explored the findings. For classroom observation, the authors observed the classes carefully and jotted down every single detail that could add benefit to the paper. After scrutinizing each collected data critically and thematically, the researchers have reached the probable final destination which the paper intended to represent. However, the whole data analysis procedure followed a rigorous approach of juxtaposing both thematic and descriptive analysis processes because these help to get the essence of the research more accurately.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFindings and Analysis\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eQuantitative Data\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eStudents responded on a Likert scale about how much rapport they felt with their teacher, whereas the majority of the students responded that they felt a neutral insight regarding their rapport with their teacher. 43.9% of students chose the number 3 on a 5-numbered scale. However, some students also feel an agreeable rapport, and that is 29.8% of students. 7% of students feel excellent about the rapport they have with their teacher. On the contrary, 14% of students feel they cannot build a good relationship with their teachers, and 5.3% of students feel that they do not even have any sort of good relationship with their teachers. However, the number of neutral students is the highest because, in the Bangladeshi context, the necessity of the teacher-student relationship is yet to be addressed properly. For that reason, they sometimes remain indifferent to developing good professional relationships in academia.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn academic relationships, teacher-student communication is a pivotal aspect of gaining academic success. Most of the time, students remain really apathetic to keep communication with their teachers. However, while assessing the mindset of students on teacher-student communication, there again arose a multidimensional ambiance. Among all, 36.8% of students agreed that they regularly consult with their teachers in terms of any study-related confusion. 28.1% said that they are neutral on this idea. 22.8% agreed with the fact that they maintain regular communication with their teachers. However, 12.3% disagreed with the fact that there is constant communication with their teachers for discussing lessons. No student responded to the third option, which says about those who strongly disagree with the statement.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBiases in education are one of the most sensitive aspects about which people do not feel free to talk. A teacher can be biased in various respects, like- in terms of grading, behaving, prioritizing, and so on. Taking into consideration such ideas, several questions under the umbrella term \u0026ldquo;Bias\u0026rdquo; have been asked.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFirstly, the provision of support from the teacher's side has been demonstrated, where 42.1% of students said yes, and 31.6% said maybe. Though the percentage of students with a negative response here is low among the three, which is 26.3%, it consists of a good number of students. So, the problem should be investigated more deeply, and should be alleviated from the root.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere was a direct question regarding biases in terms of grading. Here, the responses were again really interesting and heterogeneous. 36.8% of students agreed that their teachers are not biased in terms of grading, 14% of students strongly agreed with this fact, and a vast number of students, 31.6%, were neutral about their feelings. However, here, 12.3% of students believe that their teachers are biased, and 5.3% of students strongly believe this notion.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCulture is one of the most crucial issues of any sector. In terms of teaching, a teacher should be first concerned about culture because without keeping in mind this notion, he/she might hurt any student who carries distinctive cultural values. Culture can be about religion, ethnicity, personal beliefs, and so on. However, in the survey, regarding the direct question on cultural viewpoint, 35.1% of students strongly agreed, 29.8% agreed, 24.6% remained neutral, and 10.5% of students disagreed with the fact that their teachers keep in mind the cultural diversities in class.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn an academic context, feedback plays the role of lifeblood that helps to improve students' potential in all regards. In the survey, it was asked to the participants whether their teachers gave feedback in a respectful manner or not. However, 63.2% of students agreed with it. 21.1% of students directly responded \" no,\" and 15.8% of students said they were not sure of it. However, when it was the students' turn to say regarding their behavior towards the feedback, 45.6% said they took it positively and strongly agreed with the fact. 28.1% agreed, and 22.8% of students remained neutral.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDay by day, the culture of a solely teacher-dependent classroom is being abolished and classrooms are getting student-centric. However, not only the students should be co-operative, but also the teacher should motivate his/her students to make the class lively. When it was asked whether students feel free in terms of class participation or not, 28.1% of students strongly agreed, 33.3% of students agreed, the same number of students were neutral, and 5.3% of students disagreed. However, as the majority of students showed a positive attitude, it is really an outstanding change in the Bangladeshi context. Moreover, the learning outcome is heavily dependent on fearlessly asking any rational question in class for better understanding. In the survey question on this issue, 50.9% of students said they feel free to ask any question in class, 28.1% said they hesitate to do so, and 21.1% said they are not sure of it. So, the response of students is again mixed here.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMotivation is one of the prime concerns that has a major impact on learning a different language. A teacher can be a bridge to success by motivating his/her students. Also, he/she can annihilate his/her students' lives by demotivating them. When students have good bonds with their teachers, they feel a strong urge to learn. However, in the question regarding motivation, 61.4% of students strongly believe that their relationship with teachers boosts their motivation, 31.6% generally agreed with this fact, 3.5% of students were neutral, 3.5% of students disagreed, and no one strongly disagreed. Therefore, the majority of the students responded positively here because nobody can deny the fact that motivation is the key to success.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen it was asked whether having a good rapport with teachers helps to learn the language effectively or not, 52.6% of students strongly supported the fact, 31.6% of students agreed with it, 12.3% remained neutral, and a small portion of students disagreed. In line with the aforementioned term \"Motivation,\" it can be said that when there is a good understanding between student and teacher, the learning of the students accelerates. Furthermore, when the researcher asked specifically which skill they benefited from their relationship with their faculties, most of the students voted for speaking, and the percentage of them was 54.4%. In addition, 19.3% of students said it is reading, 14% went for writing, and 12.3% said they benefit from listening. However, as the speaking skill is heavily related to motivation and alleviating fear, it is the most inspired skill from a healthy influence between teacher and student.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNot only in English learning but also in real-life events, a teacher can motivate his/her students. In this regard, 29.8% of students firmly believe that their teacher helps them attain pragmatic knowledge, and 43.9% of students agreed with this notion. However, 17.5% of students remained neutral, 7% disagreed, and 1.8% of students, that is a number of only one student strongly disagreed with the fact. Hence, most of the students feel that their teachers prepare them not only for the boundaries of the classroom but also for the world stage.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReflection is one of the major aspects of any teacher's professional development. Reflection can be done from various dimensions like teaching strategies, feedback, and assessment strategies. However, when the participants were asked if their teacher maintains the same strategy to teach lessons or uses various ones according to the students' needs, majority of the students (68.4%) positively responded. On the other hand, 28.1% said that they were not sure about it. In the case of negative responses, the percentage is very low here, that is a sum of 3.6%.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen it was asked to the students whether their teachers proceeded with the class without making everyone understand the lesson or not, 29.8% of students strongly agreed here that their teachers were well concerned in such aspects, and the same percentage stood for the students who chose the option \"agree.\" On the other hand, 29.8% of students were neutral on this fact. The number of students choosing the options to disagree and strongly disagree is the same, and the percentage stands at 5.3%. The opinion of students regarding this issue was asked because the researcher wanted to assess whether the teachers only reflect their strategies or make sure that everyone understands through it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eQualitative Data\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eData Derived from Interviews\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe following themes have emerged after transcribing five teachers' interviews.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe teacher-student rapport in Bangladeshi private universities.\u003c/b\u003e In Bangladeshi culture, the concept of rapport is quite different from others. However, this concept is modified day by day. As the author took interviews from the teachers of various age groups, she got the chance to explore all floors. However, a senior teacher designated as an associate professor said that during their time, the idea of \"Teacher\" was really different. They were always portrayed as outrageous beings by society. Though students of that time used to respect their teachers a lot, they felt afraid to build any sort of rapport with their teachers; to be more specific, they did not even think of it. However, nowadays, things are changing; students feel free to talk to their teachers and consult with them; this is how the rapport looks like in present Bangladesh. She then gave reference to Bangladeshi public universities and an overseas university in her statement to make a comparison with the scenario of private universities. In public universities, teachers try to restrain themselves from mixing with students, which is quite tragic. On the other hand, in an overseas university, she witnessed excellent relationships between teachers and students where utmost respect was present, and this respect to some extent is absent in the present Bangladeshi context. However, she also emphasized understanding students' own role of ''studentship'' that will help to build professional and healthy rapport in academia.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne young lecturer defined rapport as the positive and productive relationship between teacher and student. It supports a creative, supportive, and respectful classroom environment. However, one of the teachers said that - \"if rapport fails, the success of the teacher will also fail.\" He stated this because rapport helps to understand the classroom lecture properly and productively. If the teacher fails to be an ideal one in the eyes of the students, they will not pay heed to him. This is how the teacher's teaching will go futile.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, some interesting and enthusiastic insights regarding positive rapport have also been found from another young lecturer from a top private university in Bangladesh. According to her, the top-ranked Bangladeshi private universities are setting benchmarks on emphasizing building rapport. As per tradition, Bangladeshi students remain intimidated by their teachers, which these top institutions are trying to smash down. Moreover, at least 98% of teachers of these universities have foreign degrees. So, these teachers are trying to implant their overseas notions in the Bangladeshi context to make students' academic journey enjoyable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eStrategies of building rapport.\u003c/b\u003e A senior faculty member of a top private university said- \"I try to listen to everything that they say. I try to teach in an effective way. And I also make sure if they have any problem, they can always see me.\" She also said that she tries to happily respond to them all. She also asserted that \"not only the students but also the teachers should respect their students.\" This is how, by listening, understanding, and respecting, a good rapport can be formed.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother associate professor of a different private university stated that, by being warm and friendly with students, a teacher can easily build rapport with them. In addition, the duty of a teacher is to make the lesson enjoyable. Sometimes, due to listening for long hours in the classroom, the students feel bored. To reduce that boredom, the teacher might crack jokes and make the classroom interesting.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAccording to a third teacher, to build good rapport in the classroom, teachers should not stick to textbooks only; they should also encourage students in class participation. Even in the top private universities of Bangladesh, there are marks for classroom participation, which benefit students' final grades. By doing so, the universities' authorities, to some extent, are indirectly trying to push students to speak and come out of their comfort bubble. This thing helps a lot in building good rapport as well as in raising their motivation level. However, the teacher also stated that she asks questions from a real-life context so that students can relate the classroom lesson to real-life events. Moreover, she gives her students the courage that they will not be judged if they speak up in class.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the classroom, calling students by their names is an excellent approach to building good relationships, and one of the teachers has spoken about it as well. He thinks body language, such as making eye contact, nodding head while listening, smiling, etc., helps a great way to make students comfortable with their teachers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eFeedback.\u003c/b\u003e Teachers' strategies of giving feedback and students' attitudes towards it speak a lot about the teacher-student relationship. However, different teachers' viewpoints and experiences regarding feedback are explored below-\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne of the faculty members has given a detailed response to feedback. She tries her best to reach students' peak concerns while giving feedback. That strategy makes them comfortable in her classroom, and they get the proper feedback from her. In addition, it helps them to open up with no hesitation and with less anxiety. Furthermore, she does not follow the same strategy for everyone; rather, she checks their weaknesses and strengths as well as learning styles. At the same time, she focuses on framing her feedback in a positive, constructive manner, even when addressing areas that they need to improve. She also tries to provide them encouragement even if they make any mistake.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother teacher prefers both corrective and summative feedback. He prefers to give detailed feedback to every student after checking the scripts. Though it's very hard for him to check so many scripts and give feedback, he still tries to do so for students' betterment. Moreover, he never found that his students took his feedback negatively. So, this indicates his friendly relationship with his students. On the other hand, a different notion regarding feedback is observed in this statement- \"I'm somewhat apprehensive about it because all the students are not eager to learn. So, I think some like it, some don't. This is my observation.\" This is the statement of a senior teacher who seems to make an open floor for feedback and never bothers whether the students take his feedback negatively or positively. However, an indication of negative rapport is also hidden in his statement because feedback can be considered the foundation of learning, and it helps to improve more and more. When a teacher shows indifference to such a major issue, there surely might be some problems within him, or he is just a victim of the situation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRapport as an aid in language learning.\u003c/b\u003e One of the interviewees believes that when students get a positive learning environment, they feel more motivated and more encouraged in their learning process. In addition, they are likely to attend class regularly and engage in class activities. So, a good rapport can foster friendly and effective communication between teacher and student. In addition, it helps to reduce anxiety, which is one of the major obstacles to learning a new thing. Also, it gives them such confidence that they are less afraid to make mistakes, which is crucial for learning. So, this leads to an increased willingness to participate in the classroom. A good relationship with a student helps a teacher as well. Someone who has a very strong rapport with his/her students can be considered a better-equipped teacher. Additionally, rapport helps teachers to tailor themselves and their teaching methods to suit particular needs. However, all the teachers agreed that good rapport can function as a catalyst in the learning process. Moreover, when there is a good relationship between them, students will pay more attention because they know that the teacher is serious and the teacher cares. In addition, all the teachers stated that they switch codes in the classroom to make students understand the lesson in their mother tongue, which is an excellent example of good rapport. Therefore, a favorable rapport not only helps in the learning process but also improves a student's critical and interpersonal skills.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eAssessment strategies.\u003c/b\u003e Surprise tests are excellent ways to stimulate an inductive way of learning. However, most of the students do not like these surprises. To keep in mind students\u0026rsquo; priorities, all the interviewees of this research set aside the surprise tests and notified their students well before any examination. One of the teachers among five used to take surprise quizzes before, but she has now stopped taking them because she feels that if she informs students before any test to get prepared, it will not harm anyone. So, having this notion, she notifies her students that they have plenty of time in hand to prepare for the test.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eContextual divergences.\u003c/b\u003e In academia, people from different backgrounds and mindsets come under the same roof. So, it is necessary for everyone to respect each other\u0026rsquo;s beliefs. There might be students from different social and cultural backgrounds in a class that all the teacher participants cautiously keep in mind when they deal with them. Moreover, all of them try to show utmost respect to students from each context.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eReflection.\u003c/b\u003e To reach the epitome of professionalism, a teacher must reflect upon his or her teaching strategies because different situations demand different tactics. However, while the interviewee teachers were asked about their reflection on strategies, they put forth several viewpoints in their own way. According to one teacher, he goes back and forth in his mind after every class and tries to recall everything in the class. After thinking critically, he then reflects and revises his teaching strategy. Moreover, before starting a new class, he always tries to go back to the previous lesson and asks for feedback from students as well by selecting them randomly. This is all about his reflection mindset. Moreover, another teacher complains that due to having outnumbered students in a class, it is tough to read each student\u0026rsquo;s mind, so sometimes reflection turns futile. However, among five teachers, four teachers more or less agreed with reflecting and revising teaching strategies. One totally disagreed with the fact that she needs any reflection. Though she has been teaching for more than one era, she never found any necessity to reflect on her thoughts. Behind this confidence, there might be a strong power of making great bonds with students that always work properly, so the teacher does not feel the necessity to revise it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eMental health support.\u003c/b\u003e In terms of personal trauma, struggle, and anything regarding mental health, all the teachers agreed that they provided proper support. Moreover, due to any personal issue, if the student can show proper cause, they even give them a chance to sit for an exam again that they missed. However, being a tertiary student, a student should know where to stop, so something too personal can not be shared because, after all, \"friendly teachers are not their friends.\" So, teachers approve or help students with their personal sufferings to a certain level, and they always invite students to share their problems which are hampering their studies, and teachers are always there to help.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eChallenges of building rapport.\u003c/b\u003e In Bangladesh, the condition of classrooms is yet to be improved. Due to the large number of students in a small class, it is quite impossible for teachers to manage classes properly. Moreover, most of the teachers complained that there are almost 30\u0026ndash;40 students in a class, so building rapport with each student is nothing but a fallacy. It is totally unattainable for a teacher to personally reach such outnumbered students and build rapport with each of them. However, students should be approachable in such aspects. They should come forward to share their issues. Almost all top private universities in Bangladesh have counseling hours for students, so students should take advantage of this opportunity. They should come and talk about their study-related issues as well as other problems that are shareable with the teacher.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e However, according to some teachers, students in this context are quite shy and indifferent to building rapport with their teachers, even though most of the students here are not even aware of the term \"Rapport.\" For this reason, they do not approach to create a healthy academic bonding with their teachers. As it was said before, there are too many students in a class to build rapport with each other; if the students do not step forward to make it, this bonding will never happen, and a prime aspect of education will remain in the dark.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStudent's age can be a hurdle for young teachers to build rapport. At the graduate level, people from distinctive age groups come and attend. So sometimes teachers can not keep pace with their viewpoints and become confused- as per a young lecturer. However, age affects mentality, which sometimes draws boundaries of thought among people of different ages. So, this can also be considered as a challenge of building rapport in Bangladeshi private universities' ESL context.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAccording to a teacher participant, there were some unusual occurrences she had to face, but they usually happened very rarely. Some students, especially male students, tried to take advantage of her politeness, forgot their limits, and behaved awkwardly. She was again and again assured that it happens once in a blue moon. However, two other teachers said that being too friendly sometimes makes them take them for granted to their students. Some students think that friendly teachers are easily accessible, and they can say or do anything with them. For these reasons, sometimes the teachers themselves restrain from becoming so lenient even if they want to be. However, because of a scarce number of students, sometimes other students who really need the teacher's full support become sufferers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eData from Classroom Observation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe researchers did an in-field study as well. They observed two classes; one was from an undergraduate level, and another was from a graduate-level classroom. By observing both classes, she got a set of mixed notions. The ideas from classroom observations are thematically analyzed as follows-\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTeaching style\u003c/b\u003e. At the undergraduate level, the classroom that the researchers explored was a basic English writing course's classroom titled \"Intermediate Composition.\" All the students were not from the English department there, though it was an English language class. However, while teaching, the teacher starts from the very basics that a student usually learns at the secondary level of education. Though the topic was an easier one, there was a great effort from the teacher's side to teach the lesson from the root. She at first told her students to brainstorm and then wrote down their ideas on the whiteboard. So, in line with Piaget and Cook (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1952\u003c/span\u003e), it can be said that she tried to activate students' schemata, which helps to teach students inductively. After the brainstorming session, she began the actual lesson, writing things on the whiteboard. She jotted down each and every detail of the topic and then handed out a worksheet to the student, which was really easy to solve. As it was an initial-level course, the teacher kept the teaching scheme as easy as possible. However, the teaching style was lively and enjoyable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, for the graduate level, the teacher was friendly too but she dealt the students in a more matured manner. The graduate-level course's title was \"Topics, Issues \u0026amp; Trends in TESOL-I.\" This course was basically designed for TESOL students. The classroom environment was quite professional there. In that class, the teacher seemed to provide students with some practical tasks based on their previously taught theories. As TESOL courses are primarily designed for the practical world, there should be practical tasks in the courses. However, the forceful effort was visible from the teacher's side to make students understand their task and it was a group work. Upon finishing the lecture, the teacher called all the students into her office to show a demo of the task. So, all in all, this was an excellent class with a pragmatic teaching method.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eClassroom environment.\u003c/b\u003e At the undergraduate level, the classroom environment was quite light. The teacher was talking in such a sweet manner that it seemed like she was talking with some babies. She was addressing students by their names, which is a great sign of good rapport. She appreciated her students' responses in a sweet manner. Moreover, she often seemed to be switching codes and using Bangla with English. As it is an entry level course, students were not that proficient in English, and she had that in her mind. Moreover, it was witnessed that her way of giving feedback was also impressive.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs it was said before, the graduate-level class was more professional. The teacher dealt with the class with the utmost professionalism. She behaved according to the level and age of the students. In addition, she also switched codes but very rarely. The most interesting part was that the teacher knew each and every student's name, which is an excellent example of her rapport with students.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eStudents' behavior.\u003c/b\u003e Tragically, there was not much effort from the students' side, unlike the teacher's side at the undergraduate level. It was seen that most of the students at the back were just scrolling their phones and did not even bother to pay heed to their teacher's saying.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eContrarily, at the graduate level, students seemed actively engaged in the learning process. The classroom was interactive and lively. The reason for the seriousness of graduate students might be their age and experience.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eQualitative Data from Open-ended Questions\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the survey questionnaire, there was an open-ended question for students at the end regarding their point of view on the importance of building good rapport. By summing up their responses, it is evident that good rapport is important to foster learning and a positive learning environment at first. Secondly, it helps to boost students\u0026rsquo; motivation, and makes them confident. Thirdly, good rapport helps to express students' any problem or confusion with their teachers freely and then they are able to get good grades. Fourthly, a good relationship with a teacher helps to build up communication skills. Fifthly, healthy bonding with teachers not only helps in the classroom, but helps in dealing with the real world. However, among all the positive responses, the researcher found a negative reply as well, where the student felt that his bad rapport hampered his grade once, which was really unfortunate. Nonetheless, the overall responses support that a positive rapport between a teacher and a student is essential for providing personalized support according to his/her lacking, which provides an ambiance where the student feels valued and empowered.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe aforementioned analysis initially gave insight into the present consciousness on building rapport in the Bangladeshi context, which was rare before. Though the responses of students were mixed, most of them supported it. The participants of this study depicted the importance of building rapport in their responses. In terms of students' responses, it is evident that the majority of the students know about it and found it heavily useful. On the other hand, lots of students also show less interest or no interest regarding the fact. However, the reason behind their indifference might be their lack of knowledge of it. As Bangladesh had an extremely conservative culture in education earlier, people are still bearing this mindset. Here, one notion can give optimism that this scenario is changing and teachers are becoming interested in building positive rapport with students.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe teachers' responses gave extremely hopeful insights. All of them have a positive attitude towards building good rapport. Moreover, some of the teachers completed their studies at public universities, and they also correlated their relationships with their teachers and what they have today with their students. They confidently agreed that private universities are doing great in terms of making good bonds between teachers and students because teachers are friendly here and do not remain so rigid. By analyzing both teachers' and students' attitudes, it can be stated that teachers are more interested in it and appreciate the fact. However, students needed to be more concerned in this case. In addition, the teachers have spoken about maintaining boundaries in rapport, and this is also a crucial aspect. It is a must to keep in mind for students, even if the teacher is friendly, he/she is their teacher, so they should be respectful of that healthy bonding.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the findings of classroom observation, it can be stated that with maturity, students become more respectful to their teachers. Some unusual occurrences were noticed in undergraduate classes. However, the first or second-semester students of bachelor's level are quite young and come with the mindset of their schools and colleges, so by time and seniority, undergraduate students also build a good and respectful bond with their teacher.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e As this research's core goal was exploring how good rapport influences language learning, all the teachers, along with the lion's share of the students, agreed with the fact that rapport is really effective. It is effective because, at first, it helps to alleviate students' anxiety and increases the urge for learning and motivation. In the realm of Krashen's (1982) affective filter hypothesis, it can be said that when the effect or emotion goes down, the learning rate accelerates, and when the effect goes up, the learning rate goes down. So, in the case of students' learning output, the same thing happened. Positive rapport helps them to cope with any struggling learning context and makes them feel worthy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition, this study addressed some challenges as well from both sides. Regarding teachers, they stated about students' unusual behavior and poor classroom organization, which obstructed them in building rapport. Some students feel that the teacher sometimes practices favoritism and remains biased. From the students' responses, it is also evident that some students are unaware of how the rapport works. These inconveniences hamper the ultimate learning of the students, and the teachers also lose motivation for improvement. However, this study supports Vygotsky's (1978) theory of social constructivism here, where the learning environment is heavily influenced by the interaction of the learner and the instructor, and a positive interaction aids enormously in learning outcomes. Therefore, when the teachers or the students face trouble in building a good rapport, the learning rate decelerates.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the \u003cspan refid=\"Sec13\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003ediscussion\u003c/span\u003e section, it is visible that this research suggests that good rapport increases motivation in language learning, which can be related to the study of Yildiz (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) and Yunus et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, it helps students to succeed in life and learn the lesson properly, which is, to some extent, linked to the study of Estepp and Roberts (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). In line with Tackie (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), rapport also gives mental support when the students need it the most in times of trauma and emergency. However, at the end of the study, two research questions have been properly answered, and both the significance of good rapport and faculty members\u0026rsquo; strategies for maintaining it are explored.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBy keeping in mind the importance of teacher-student good rapport, this study recommends some insights, firstly, the students should be acknowledged with the term \"Rapport\" and how this can be maintained. Educational institutions can play an influential role in terms of this, and the practice should be started from their primary level of education. The government should arrange training and seminars to recognize the usefulness of it. In addition, teachers should be a bit more patient in this regard. However, by exploring more thoughts with a huge number of participants, more in-depth ideas about teacher-student rapport in the Bangladeshi tertiary-level ESL context can be attained.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe study focuses on how essential rapport is in Bangladeshi tertiary-level private universities' ESL context. From the whole study, it is evident that good rapport always brings something good and has no drawback; rather, if this culture is fully and properly implanted in Bangladesh, the education sector will go far ahead. Moreover, a teacher-student positive relationship accelerates learning and makes students interested in the lesson. While there are still obstacles like outnumbered students in class or their unprofessional behavior, teachers of private universities are still fighting to make the learning environment better. Educational institutions, as well as the government, should come forward to solve the problems that teachers are facing to make the learning environment smooth for their students. Hence, by solving irrelevant issues, the authority can help teachers implement their knowledge and insight completely for their students' sake.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite that, some limitations have also been acknowledged for this study. For instance, this research only explored private universities of Bangladeshi tertiary education where public and national universities remained unexplored, so to get a more extensive overview, the unexplored areas should be investigated by future researchers. Moreover, the context here only speaks the voice of two cities in Bangladesh, which also should be broadened for forthcoming studies.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Abbreviations","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionList\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eESL\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnglish as a second language\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eTESOL\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTeaching English to speakers of other languages\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors are thankful to each stakeholder who contributed to this research.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor Contributions\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSTF collected the data and wrote the manuscript.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSR conceptualized, developed the idea, supervised the study, and edited the manuscript.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe study received no funding\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailability of Data and Materials\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe datasets used in the current study are available to the corresponding author and will be provided on request.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInformed Consent\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll the participants had to read and sign the Informed Consent Form where they consented to participate in the study and publish the results of the study.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBioethics and Guidelines\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of North South University following the guidelines of Helsinki.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting Interest\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors do not have any competing interests\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConsent for Publication Statement\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors give their consent to publish the paper in Discover Psychology. 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Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 2637\u0026ndash;2641. \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.161\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.161\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"teacher-student rapport, language learning, tertiary level, motivation, culture, challenges, ESL context","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4577219/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4577219/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis study intends to explore the teacher-student rapport in the Bangladeshi tertiary-level (private universities) ESL (English as a second language) context following a mixed methodology scheme. For managing data of this research, a survey questionnaire has been provided to Bangladeshi private university students, and five one-to-one interview sessions have been arranged with three different private university teachers. In addition, two tertiary-level classrooms have been observed as a part of qualitative data collection. The result of this study suggests that both teachers and students have a positive attitude toward \u0026ldquo;Rapport,\u0026rdquo; and it helps language learning in a multidimensional way. Moreover, this study has addressed some challenges with their suggestive solutions in the end.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Impact of Teacher-Student Rapport in Learning English at the Tertiary Level in Bangladeshi Context","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-08-08 19:37:02","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4577219/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"c4410e57-45d4-473f-9c59-7c4694804ce4","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 8th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-10-15T05:39:04+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-08-08 19:37:02","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4577219","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4577219","identity":"rs-4577219","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}