Turkish ELT students' willingness to communicate in English

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

References

1. Atay, D., & Kurt, G. (2009). Turkish EFL learners’ willingness to communicate in English. Paper presented at The First International Congress of Educational research: Trends and issues of educational research. Çanakkale: Educational Research Association, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Ministry of National Education.
2. Bektaş, Ç. Y. (2005). Turkish collage students’ willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, the Ohio State University.
3. Cao, Y. (2011). Investigating situational willingness to communicate within second language classrooms from an ecological perspective. System, 39, 468-479.
4. Cao, Y., & Philp, J. (2006). Interactional context and willingness to communicate: A comparison of behavior in whole class, group and dyadic interaction. System, 34, 480– 493.
5. Gardener, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.
6. 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.
7. Jung, M. (2011). Korean EFL university students’ willingness to communicate in English. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Indiana University.
8. Kang, S.J. (2005). Dynamic emergence of situational willingness to communicate in a second

9. language. System, 33, 277–292.
10. Kim, H. J. (2004). The relationship among perceived competence, actual competence and language anxiety: Biases in self-ratings of second language proficiency. Modern English Education, 5, 68-85.
11. Krashen, S. (1982). Principle and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
12. Ligtbrown, P. M., & Spada, N. (1999). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Long, M. H. (1985). Input and second language acquisition theory. In S. Gass., & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House.
14. MacIntyre, P. D. (1994). Variables underlying willingness to communicate: A casual analysis. Communication Research Reports, 11, 135-142.
15. MacIntyre, P. D., Baker, S. C., Clement, R., & Donovan, L. A. (2003). Talking in order to learn: Willingness to communicate and intensive language programs. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 59, 589-607.
16. MacIntyre, P., & Charos, C. (1996). Personality, attitudes, and affect as predictors of second language communication. Journal of Language and social Psychology, 15, 3- 26.
17. MacIntyre,P.D., Clement, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: a situated model of confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal, 82, 545-62.
18. 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.
19. MacIntyre, P. D., MacMaster, K., & Baker, S. C. (2001). The convergence of multiple models of motivation for second language learning: Gardner, Pintrich, Kohl, and McCroskey. In Z. Dörnyei & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Motivation and Second Language Acquisition (pp. 461-492). Honolulu: Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center University of Hawai‟i at M‟anoa.
20. Matsuoka, R. (2006). Japanese college students’ willingness to communicate in English. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University.
21. McCroskey, J. C. (1992). Reliability and validity of the willingness to communicate scale. Communication Quarterly, 40, 16-45.
22. McCroskey, J. C., & Baer, J. E. (1985). Willingness to communicate: The construct and its measurement. Paper presented at the Speech Communication Association convention, Denver, CO.
23. Sun, Y. F. (2008). Motivation to speak: Perception and attitude of non-English major students in Taiwan. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Indiana University.
24. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.) Input in second language acquisition (pp.235-245). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
25. Şener, S. (2014). Willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language among ELT students in Turkey. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Çanakkale: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.
26. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Mass: MIT Press.
27. Wen, W. P., & Clement, R. (2003). Chinese conceptualization of willingness to communicate in ESL. Language Culture and Curriculum, 16, 18-38.
28. Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructivist approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29. Yashima, T. (2002). Willingness to communicate in a second language: The Japanese EFL context. The Modern Language Journal, 86(1), 54-66.
30. Yashima, T., Zenuk-Nishide, L., & Shimizu, K. (2004). The influence of attitudes and effect on willingness to communicate and second language communication. Language Learning 54(1), 119–152.
31. Yu, M. (2009). Willingness to communicate of foreign language learners in a Chinese setting. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Florida State University.