On Willingness to Communicate in an Iranian EFL Classroom Context: A multiple case study

Previously WTC was conceived of as a stable characteristic but recently it has been recognized as a dynamic construct (Cao & Philip, [1]; McIntyre & Legatto, [2]). Recently most studies tend toinvestigate situational and contextual nature of WTC, but they were limited to some countries likeCanada, Japan, China, and Australia. This study attempts to explore the dynamic and situational nature of WTC in students in an EFL classroom context through observation and interviews to seewhat individual, situational and linguistic factors affect the nature of this construct. The study alsoattempts to go beyond the student s side and interviews some teachers to investigate their perspective on WTC and explores the way they internalize some methods and strategies to help students enhancetheir level of WTC. Group work, active classroom atmosphere, combination of language learningwith other skills and usefulness of the task are some important themes students found effective in enhancing their willingness to communicate. Teachers also deployed various strategies to help students increase their level of WTC; like creating atmosphere of mutual acceptance, not constantlymonitoring students for mistakes, holding challenging discussion sessions and boosting students autonomy and self-confidence

کلیدواژه ها:

Willingness to communicate ، EFL classroom context ، multiple case study