The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Academic Self-schemas and Their Willingness to Communicate

Abstract

This study examined how Iranian EFL learners' level of academic self-schema is related to their willingness to communicate (WTC). To this end, 243 female undergraduate EFL university students from Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch (convenience sampling) completed two questionnaires, namely, a WTC and a researcher-made self-schema questionnaire. The latter questionnaire was developed based on two types of self-schemas, namely, entity and incremental. Entity self-schema regard ability as fixed or unchangeable while incremental self-schema regards it as improvable and changeable in future. Correlation results (r=0.380, p<0.000) indicated a statistically moderate but significant relationship between self-schema and WTC scores. To measure the predictability of WTC scores on the basis of the two levels of self-schema scores, a linear regression was calculated. The entity R value (0.165) illustrates a low correlation between entity self-schema and WTC while the incremental R value (0.516) shows a moderate correlation between the incremental self-schema scores and WTC. It means that 26.6% of the WTC can be predicted by the incremental self-schema scores. The findings of the present study showed that the incremental self-schema can be an important factor in the EFL learners' willingness to communicate because it is related to choices and actions that affect learning.