Factors Affecting ESL Students' Willingness to Communicate in English Classroom Discussions and Their Use of Linguistic Strategies

Maryam Jahedi,Lilliati Ismail

doi:10.13189/ujer.2020.080808

Abstract

In the past few years, the importance of willingness to communicate (WTC) has received greater attention among scholars in the field as it has generally been found that WTC is closely related to the development of linguistic competence. This study employed the WTC Model (MacIntyre et al., 1998) and Halliday's (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics to examine Malaysian students' WTC behavior through the analysis of classroom observations, journal entries and interview data. Thematic analysis was used to identify the situational factors affecting students' WTC in classroom discussion interactions. Moreover, linguistic analysis of the data concentrated on interpersonal meaning of tenor to find out how students' WTC was realized and how role relations were established among them through mood patterns and speech functions. The study found the major factors that increased the students' WTC in the classroom discussions including topics of interest, relevance of the topic to one's experience, teaching method, the relationship with peers, etc. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the students' WTC was realized linguistically through the predominant use of declarative and interrogative discourse. Moreover, students tended to react more through supporting moves rather than confronting moves which showed a cooperative and positive atmosphere in the classroom. It can be concluded that students' WTC in a particular situation is related to certain factors that promote their behavioral WTC to be manifested through language.

Highlights

Over the past few years, the importance of willingness to communicate (WTC) in the second language (L2) has been given particular importance and studies have tried to find ways to promote learners’ WTC, especially in classroom interactions
To identify the mood patterns and the role of the students participating in classroom discussion interactions, the researchers collated and interpreted the results of the analysis of the observation transcripts of three discussion sessions, IV, X, and XI
Since this study utilized non-randomized sampling and it is concerned only with the classroom discussion interactions, the findings of the study cannot be generalized to other contexts

Summary

Introduction

Over the past few years, the importance of willingness to communicate (WTC) in the second language (L2) has been given particular importance and studies have tried to find ways to promote learners’ WTC, especially in classroom interactions. There is a concern for the students who are unwilling to communicate in the L2 (MacIntyre, & Doucett, 2010) since lack of English proficiency can put them at a disadvantage in the job market (Nair et al, 2012). The use of certain linguistic means and strategies contribute to students’ WTC in the English language classroom which can increase their English proficiency level (Nakatani, 2006), research on WTC from the linguistic point of view is scarce. Understanding the linguistic choices made by students to manifest their WTC can help English learners to “utilize their existing

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