Turkish ELT students' willingness to communicate in English

Year 2014, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 91 - 109, 15.10.2014

Sabriye Şener

Abstract

This paper aims to present the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English of the English Language Teaching Department (ELT) students of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University inside and outside the class. Additionally, the relationships among students’ willingness to communicate in English, their linguistic self-confidence, motivation, attitudes toward international community, and personality will be presented. To this end, quantitative data were gathered from 274 students studying at the department. For the qualitative aspect of the study, the researcher selected 26 students among 274 students who completed the questionnaire. The research study utilized a mixed approach, and the instruments employed in this study included a questionnaire, classroom observations, and interviews. Students’ overall willingness to communicate in English was found to be between moderate and high, and their motivational intensity to be very high both inside and outside. Most of the students seemed to have positive attitudes toward the English language and the cultures of the English speaking countries. Additionally, it was found that self-confidence, attitude toward international community, and motivation showed significant correlations with the WTC in English. There were also significant correlations among self-confidence and learners’ attitude and self-confidence and motivation. It was also found that the most significant predictor on students’ in-class WTC level was self-confidence and that it provided a direct change on their WTC. Besides, it was considered that students' motivation levels, too, partly, had an effect on their WTC in English. 

Keywords

Willingness to communicate, motivation, communication apprehension, individual differences

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