Factors Affecting Willingness to Communicate Among Iranian EFL Learners

Willingness to communicate (WTC) is the notion that given the chance to speak, some foreign language learners grab this chance while some miss it. The degree of WTC in learners is both a traitvariable and a situational variable. Given the role of interaction in language learning, promoting WTC can be a boon to such learners. This study attempted to find the situational factors that affect WTC in the context of English classes in Shiraz University. To this end, 11 students of thatuniversity were interviewed. The researcher asked them to describe their general tendency to communicate in class, the reasons behind it and their own experiences with teachers and classroom procedures. Based on the results of the interviews, teachers can increase their students’ WTC inseveral ways: by making students feel good, creating opportunities to talk, and generatingenthusiasm in the students. Also, activities, groupings, and peers can affect students’ WTC. The findings of this study can have pedagogical implications for foreign language teachers who aim at accelerating the learning of their students

کلیدواژه ها:

Willingness to communicate (WTC) ، teacher behaviour ، classroom procedures