Ethiopian EFL Students’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and the Factors Associated With It in Oral Communicative English Classes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1732Keywords:
Classroom Environment, Ethiopian EFL Students’ Willingness to communicate, Motivation, Personality, Self-confidenceAbstract
Communication, particularly verbal communication, is central to the development of a desired competence in a second or foreign language. Approaches such as communicative language teaching (CLT) in second language acquisition emphasize practical use of the target language for effective learning/acquisition. However, despite the necessity of using a target language to learn it, it has been a common phenomenon to observe most learners exhibiting passiveness, reticence, and unwillingness to participate in oral communicative opportunities in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. This study therefore explored EFL students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in oral communicative English classes together with the factors underlying with it in the Ethiopian higher education context. To this end, primary quantitative data were collected from a randomly selected sample of 450 EFL students taking oral communicative English courses followed by qualitative data from a sample of fifteen students selected again randomly to triangulate the results from the quantitative data. The results revealed that the target students had in general a low level of WTC in oral communicative English classes, and their WTC was affected by both psychological and contextual factors such as self-confidence, motivation, personality, language learning orientation and classroom environments. The findings indicate that EFL students’ WTC is a crucial component to increase students’ participation in oral communicative English classes by raising their self-confidence, motivation and awareness of language learning orientations, coupled with facilitating the language learning environment. It is therefore suggested that WTC needs to be given special consideration while designing and preparing ELT materials, and during instructions as well.
Downloads
References
Aronin, L. (2015). Current Multilingualism and new dwvwlopments in Multilingualism Research. In P. S. Jorda & L. P. Falomire (Eds.), Language and Using Multiple Languages. Current Findings from Research on Multilingualism. (pp. 1 - 28). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Aubrey, S. (2011). Facilitating Interaction in East Asian EFL Classrooms: Increasing Studentsʼ Willingness to Communicate. Language Education in Asia, 2(2), 237-245. https://doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/11/V2/I2/A06/Aubrey
Ayers-Glassey, S., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2019). Measuring willingness to communicate in first and additional languages: An annotated bibliography. Unpublished manuscript). Cape Breton University. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351034784-21
Baghaei, P., Dourakhshan, A., & Salavati, O. (2012). The relationship between willingness to communicate and success in learning English as a foreign language. MJAL, 4(2), 53-67.
Barjesteh, H., Vaseghi, R., & Neissi, S. (2012). Iranian EFL learners' willingness to communicate across different context-and receiver-types. International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(1), 47. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v2n1p47
Bektas-Cetinkaya, Y. (2009). College students' willingness to communicate in English: Turkish context. VDM Publishing.
Bergil, A. S. (2016). The influence of willingness to communicate on overall speaking skills among EFL learners. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 232, 177-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.043
Bernales, C. (2016). Towards a comprehensive concept of willingness to communicate: Learners' predicted and self-reported participation in the foreign language classroom. System, 56, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.11.002
Bukhari, S. F., Cheng, X., & Khan, S. A. (2015). Willingness to Communicate in English as a Second Language: A Case Study of Pakistani Undergraduates. Journal of education and practice, 6(29), 39-44.
Cameron, D. (2013). Willingness to communicate in English as a second language as a stable trait or context-influenced variable: Case studies of Iranian migrants to New Zealand. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 36(2), 177-196. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.36.2.04cam
Cameron, D. (2020). An ecological investigation of the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English of adult migrant learners from Iran in a New Zealand tertiary classroom Auckland University of Technology].
Cao, Y. (2009). Understanding the notion of interdependence, and the dynamics of willingness to communicate ResearchSpace@ Auckland].
Cao, Y. (2011). Investigating situational willingness to communicate within second language classrooms from an ecological perspective. System, 39(4), 468-479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.10.016
Cao, Y., & Philp, J. (2006). Interactional context and willingness to communicate: A comparison of behavior in whole class, group and dyadic interaction. System, 34(4), 480-493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2006.05.002
Cetinkaya, Y. B. (2005). Turkish college students' willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language The Ohio State University].
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (1996). Cultures of learning: Language classrooms in China. Society and the language classroom, 169(206), 42.
Dawson, H. C., & Phelan, M. (2016). Language files : materials for an introduction to language and linguistics. The Ohio State University Press. https://doi.org/10.26818/9780814252703
de Zarobe, L. R., & de Zarobe, Y. R. (2015). New Perspectives on Multilingualism and L2 Acquisition: An Introduction. . International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(4), 393 - 403. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2015.1071021
Doe, T. (2014). Willingness to communicate and group cohesion. In N. Sonda & A. Krause (Eds.), JALT 2013 Conference Proceedings. JALT.
Dorman, J. P., Fisher, D. L., & Waldrip, B. G. (2006). Classroom Environment, Students' Perceptions of Assessment, Academic Efficacy and Attitude to Science: A LISREL Analysis In Contemporary Approaches to Research on Learning Environment (pp. 1-28). WorldViews. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812774651_0001
Dörnyei, Z., & Kormos, J. (2000). The role of individual and social variables in oral task performance. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 275-300. https://doi.org/10.1177/136216880000400305
Dornyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). The psychology of the language learner revisited. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315779553
Elwood, J. A. (2011). Enriching structural models of L2 willingness to communicate: The role of personality, ego permeability, and perceived distance. Temple University.
Fallah, N. (2014). Willingness to communicate in English, communication self-confidence, motivation, shyness and teacher immediacy among Iranian English-major undergraduates: A structural equation modeling approach. Learning and Individual Differences, 30, 140-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2013.12.006
Fatemi, A. H., Khajavy, G. H., Ghonsooly, B., & Choi, C. W. (2016). Willingness to Communicate in English: A Microsystem Model in the Iranian EFL Classroom Context. Y TESOL QUARTERLY
Field, A. (2014). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (4th ed.). SAGE Publications LTD.
Fu, L., Wang, F. L., & Wang, Y. (2012). The Research on Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Students’ EFL Study. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3(1), 112-117. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.3.1.112-117
Ghonsooly, B., Khajavy, G. H., & Asadpour, S. F. (2012). Willingness to communicate in English among Iranian non-English major university students. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31(2), 197–211. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X12438538
Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological assessment, 4(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26
Hashimoto, Y. (2002). Motivation and willingness to communicate as predictors of reported L2 use: The Japanese ESL context. University of Hawai'I Second Langauge Studies Paper 20 (2).
Henry, A., Thorsen, C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2024). Willingness to communicate in a multilingual context: part one, a time-serial study of developmental dynamics. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(4), 937-956. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1931248
Ho, R. (2014). Handbook of Univariate and Multivariate Data Analysis with IBM SPSS. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15605
Jackson, J., & Liu, M. (2008). An Exploration of Chinese EFL Learners’ Unwillingness to Communicate and Foreign Language Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 92(i), 71–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2008.00687.x
Kang, S.-J. (2005). Dynamic emergence of situational willingness to communicate in a second language. System, 33(2), 277-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2004.10.004
Karnchanachari, S. (2019). An investigation into learners’ willingness to communicate in English in the classroom: A study of Thai EFL students in the Thai and international programs. REFLections, 26(2), 83-106. https://doi.org/10.61508/refl.v26i2.241757
Khatib, M., & Nourzadeh, S. (2015). Development and validation of an instructional willingness to communicate questionnaire. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(3), 266-283. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2014.914523
Kim, S. J. (2004). Exploring willingness to communicate (WTC) in English among Korean EFL (English as a foreign language) students in Korea: WTC as a predictor of success in second language acquisition. The Ohio State University.
Krosnick, J. A., & Presser, S. (2010). Question and Questionnaire Design. In Handbook of Survey Research (2nd ed.). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Kunnan, A. J. (1998). An introduction to structural equation modelling for language assessment research. Language Testing, 15(3), 295-332. https://doi.org/10.1177/026553229801500302
Lahuerta, A. C. (2014). Factors affecting willingness to communicate in a Spanish university context. International Journal of English Studies, 14(2), 39-55. https://doi.org/10.6018/j.193611
Larsen–Freeman, D. (2007). Reflecting on the cognitive–social debate in second language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 91, 773-787. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00668.x
Léger, D., & Storch, N. (2009). Learners’ perceptions and attitudes: Implications for willingness to communicate in an L2 classroom. System, 37(2), 269-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.01.001
Liu, J. (2002). Negotiating silence in American classrooms: Three Chinese cases. Language and Inter cultural Communication, 2(1), 37-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708470208668074
Liu, M. (2005). Reticence in Oral English Language Classrooms: A Case Study in China. TESL Reporter, 38(1), 1-16.
Liu, M., & Jackson, J. (2009). Reticence in Chinese EFL students at varied proficiency levels. TESL Canada Journal, 65-81. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v26i2.415
Ma, H., Ismail, L., Noordin, N., & Razali, A. B. (2023). Bibliometric analysis of willingness to communicate in the English as a second language (ESL) context. Humanities and Social Sciences Communicatoion 10(702). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02109-8
MacIntyre, P. D., & Baker, S. C. (2003). Talking in Order to Learn: Willingness to Communicate and Intensive Language Programs. Canadian Modern Language Review, 59(4), 589-608. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.59.4.589
MacIntyre, P. D., Baker, S. C., Clément, R., & Conrod, S. (2001). Willingness to communicate, social support, and language-learning orientations of immersion students. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23(3), 369-388. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263101003035
MacIntyre, P. D., Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal, 82(4), 545-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1998.tb05543.x
MacIntyre, P. D., & Legatto, J. J. (2011). A dynamic system approach to willingness to communicate: Developing an idiodynamic method to capture rapidly changing affect. Applied Linguistics, 32(2), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amq037
McCroskey, J. C., & McCroskey, L. L. (2013). Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC). Measurement Instrument Database for the Social Science. Retrieved April 8, 2021 from www.midss.ie
McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (1990). Willingness to communicate: A cognitive view. Journal of Social Behavior and personality, 5(2), 19.
McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (1991). Quiet children and the classroom teacher. ERIC.
Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A., & Pawlak, M. (2014). Fluctuations in learners’ willingness to communicate during communicative task performance: Conditions and tendencies. Research in Language, 12(3), 245-260. https://doi.org/10.2478/rela-2014-0019
Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A., & Pawlak, M. (2016). Designing a tool for measuring the interrelationships between L2 WTC and confidence, beliefs, motivation, and context. In M. Pawlak (Ed.), Classroom-oriented research (pp. 19-37). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30373-4_2
Nagy, B., & Nikolov, M. (2007). A qualitative inquiry into Hungarian English majors’ willingness to communicate in English: Classroom perspectives. Uprt, 16(3), 149-168.
Nazari, A., & Allahyar, N. (2012). Grammar teaching revisited: EFL teachers between grammar abstinence and formal grammar teaching. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(2), 73-87. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2012v37n2.6
Pattapong, K. (2010). Willingness to communicate in a second language: A qualitative study of issues affecting Thai EFL learners from students' and teachers' point of view.
Peng, J. (2014). Willingness to communicate in the Chinese EFL university classroom. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783091560
Peng, J. E. (2007). Willingness to communicate in an L2 and integrative motivation among college students in an intensive English language program in China. University of Sydney papers in TESOL, 2(1), 33-59.
Peng, J. E., & Woodrow, L. (2010). Willingness to communicate in English: A model in the Chinese EFL classroom context. Language Learning, 60(4), 834-876. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00576.x
Rao, Z. (1996). Reconciling communicative approaches to the teaching of English with traditional Chinese methods. Research in the Teaching o f English, 30, 458-471. https://doi.org/10.58680/rte199615304
Riasati, M. J. (2012). EFL learners’ perception of factors influencing willingness to speak English in language classrooms: A qualitative study. World Applied Sciences Journal, 17(10), 1287-1297.
Riazi, A., & Riasati, M. J. (2008). Language learning styles preferences: a student case study of Shiraz EFL institutes. Iranian EFL Journal, 1, 156-182.
Ryan, S. (2009). 6. Self and Identity in L2 Motivation in Japan: The Ideal L2 Self and Japanese Learners of English. In Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 120-143). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847691293-007
Sapir, E. (1921). Language. Harcourt Brace
Seliger, H. W., & Shohamy, E. (1989). Second language research methods. Oxford University Press.
Shumin, K. (2002). Factors to consider: Developing adult EFL students’ speaking abilities. Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice, 12, 204-211. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667190.028
Skehan, P. (1989). Language testing part II. Language Teaching, 22(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800005346
Suksawas, W. (2011). A sociocultural study of EFL learners' willingness to communicate.
Swain, M. (2000). The Output Hypothesis and beyond Mediating Acqusition through Collaborative Dialogue. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning (pp. 97-114). Oxford University Press.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Pearson Education.
Tsui, A. B. (1996). Reticence and Anxiety in Second Language Learning. Voices From the Language Classroom.
Tuyen, L. V., & Loan, T. T. (2019). Factors Affecting EFL Students’ Willingness to Communicate in Speaking Classes at the Vietnamese Tertiary Level. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS), 4(2). https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.4.2.10
Waluyo, B. (2020). Thai EFL Learners’ WTC in English: Effects Of ICT Support, Learning Orientation, and Cultural Perception Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies 20(2), 477-514.
Welesilassie, M. W., & Nikolov, M. (2024). The relationship among EFL learners’ motivational self-system, willingness to communicate, and self-assessed proficiency at an Ethiopian preparatory high school. Heliyon, 10(e24171). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24171
Wen, W.-P., & Clément, R. (2003). A Chinese conceptualisation of willingness to communicate in ESL. Language culture and curriculum, 16(1), 18-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310308666654
Yashima, T. (2002). Willingness to communicate in a second language: The Japanese EFL context. The Modern Language Journal, 86(1), 54-66. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00136
Yashima, T., Ikeda, M., & Nakahira, S. (2016). Talk and silence in an EFL classroom: Interplay of learners and context. In The dynamic interplay between context and the language learner (pp. 104-126). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137457134_7
Yashima, T., Zenuk‐Nishide, L., & Shimizu, K. (2004). The influence of attitudes and affect on willingness to communicate and second language communication. Language Learning, 54(1), 119-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00250.x
Yu, M. (2008). Willingness to communicate of foreign language learners in a Chinese setting Florida State University]. Tallahassee.
Zarrinabadi, N. (2014). Communicating in a second language: Investigating the effect of teacher on learners' willingness to communicate. System, 42, 288-295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.12.014
Zarrinabadi, N., & Abdi, R. (2011). Willingness to Communicate and Language Learning Orientations in Iranian EFL Context. International Education Studies, 4(4), 206-214. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v4n4p206
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
| Article metrics | |
|---|---|
| Abstract views | |
| Galley vies | |
| PDF Views | |
| HTML views | |
| Other views | |
