C6 - WILINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE

• Willingness to communicate (WTC)


  A concept in applied linguistics that explores the readiness of individuals to engage in communication in a second language (L2)
• WTC (in the past)

  A fixed part of a person's character
• WTC (in the present)

  Dynamic and has both short-term and long-term aspects
• WTC (new definition)

  A person's choice to actively engage in a conversation in a specific situation, which can change depending on who they are talking to, the topic, and the context of the conversation
• English is taught as a subject and not as a language in Pakistan
• English is used as a second language to learn for education, business, travelling and other needs in Pakistan
• Grammar Translation Method (GTM) is still being used in teaching English in Pakistan - one of the many factors that leads to the lack of English language communication skills among Pakistani learners
• Linguists are concerned about the teaching of English in Pakistan - the need to explore how willing are the Pakistani students to communicate in English and factors affecting their communication
• Maclntyre et al.'s model of WTC (1998)

  Integrates psychological, linguistic and communicative variables
• Situational Influences

  • Layer I, Layer II, and Layer III
• Enduring Influences

  • Layer IV, Layer V, and Layer VI
• Research Objective

  To understand whether students who were learning English as a foreign language in the Pakistani context, willing to communicate in English when they had an opportunity and what affect their WTC in English
• Methodology

  • Quantitative in design
  • Statistical analysis of questionnaire results to describe students' perception of their WTC in English across four communication context and three types of receivers
  • Self-completion questionnaire with 12 items from McCroskey (1992) modified according to Pakistani context
• Participants

  • 170 first year college students from a local district of Punjab province in Pakistan
  • 79 males and 87 females
  • Age ranged from 15 to 19 years, average age 17
  • Studied English as a second language for 10 years
• Data Collection Procedure

  1. Data collected in January/February 2015

  2. Permission obtained from head of department

  3. First author visited classrooms with respective teachers to collect data

  4. Purpose of research explained to students in Urdu

  5. Students completed questionnaires with first author present to answer questions

  6. Procedure took 30-40 minutes per class
• Data Analysis

  SPSS (Version 17.00) used to analyse the data