Examining Willingness to Communicate in the English Language Classroom

Abstract

Although graduates are skilled in their fields, many now face problems getting employment relevant to their specialisations. One reason for this is the lack of good communication skills in English, which is now the international business language. Students in higher education institutions need to have a high propensity of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in order to gain fluency in English language skills. WTC is seen as an indicator to measure students’ propensity in learning English effectively. WTC is also said to be related to confidence, which is an essential variable in communication. However, research shows that WTC among undergraduates in Malaysia is low. This paper examines the relationship between WTC and communication confidence (CC, and the relationship between WTC and self-perceived communicative competence among undergraduates in a public university. This study uses survey to collect data on WTC. 187 undergraduates in a public university in Malaysia were involved in this study. These respondents were selected using stratified sampling and systemic random sampling technique. The correlation analysis was done using the Pearson bivariate correlation analysis. The findings showed that WTC was positively correlated with CC and self-perceived communication competence. The findings also revealed that WTC was negatively correlated with communication apprehension. The implications of this study suggest it is necessary to increase students’ WTC as it is related to students’ CC and communication competence. Increasing students’ WTC enhances the effectiveness of English language learning. In the long run this will help with developing a more competent workforce that has effective and relevant communication abilities.