Abstract
The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to use it for meaningful and effective communication both inside and outside the classroom. This paper is devoted to identifying the main communication difficulties faced by EFL students at King Khalid University (KKU) and exploring the reasons that lie behind these difficulties. The paper investigates the participants’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in English when they have an opportunity and highlights the personality traits that affect students’ oral communication in English. To this end, two types of instruments were used: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Both the questionnaire and the interview attempted to measure four types of communicative contexts (public speaking, meetings, group discussions and interpersonal conversations) and three types of interlocutors (strangers, acquaintances and friends). The findings reveal the EFL students’ WTC in English at KKU and how their personality traits affect their WTC. Moreover, the paper suggests some recommendations for overcoming EFL students’ unwillingness to communicate in English.
Highlights
The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to use it for meaningful and effective communication both inside and outside the classroom
This paper poses three primary objectives: (i) to investigate whether EFL students at King Khalid University (KKU) are willing to communicate in English when they have the opportunity, (ii) to explore the personality traits that underlie the lack of WTC in English as a foreign language and (iii) to suggest some recommendations to both teachers and learners to address the problem of unwillingness to communicate among EFL students at KKU
The following portion of this study examines the findings gathered from semi-structured interviews on the students’ opinions concerning WTC across communicative situationand interlocutor types and the effect of personality traits on students’ oral production
Summary
The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to use it for meaningful and effective communication both inside and outside the classroom. The notion of “Willingness to Communicate” (WTC) is a model that integrates psychological, linguistic and communicative variables in order to describe, explain and predict second language (L2) communication. MacIntyre, Baker, Clement, and Donovan (2002) define WTC as a state of readiness to enter a discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons using an L2. Many factors influence Arab EFL learners’ WTC in English, which in turn predicts Arab students’ actual use of the second language. The study aims to explore EFL students’ willingness to communicate in English at King Khalid University and how their personality traits affect their WTC. The following section is a brief review of the relevant literature on WTC and personality traits
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