A Case Study on Willingness to Communicate in Learning English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to probe the duality of the notion of willingness to communicate (WTC) – trait-like WTC and situational WTC - inside the classroom in Turkish foreign language (L2) settings along with the factors that affect the participants’ WTC. In order to achieve this aim, a mixed-method research design was adopted by utilizing a WTC scale, classroom observations, and participant interviews consisting of stimulated recall. The sampling group of the study consisted of 10 participants who were enrolled in a preparatory program at a private university in Ankara, Turkey. The participants were selected according to their WTC scores as 5 highest and 5 lowest scorers- among the students who already filled WTC scales. Due to the small number of the sampling, several non-parametric statistical tests were computed. Initially, a Spearman Rank Order Correlation was computed to understand whether there was a match between the participants’ WTC scale scores and real WTC behaviors inside the classroom. The findings indicated that there was a mismatch. This mismatch was corroborated by the qualitative findings of the participant interviews as the qualitative findings indicated that there were three main factors affecting the individuals’ WTC inside the classroom, which were linguistic factors, psychological factors, and situational factors. However, the findings also revealed that these factors affected the participants in combination, and each individual was affected in a unique way. In addition, the findings also indicated that there was statistically a significant difference in the participants’ WTC in pair work and group work.