Willingness to Communicate in English of Non-English Major University Students in Indonesia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21512/lc.v13i1.5155

Keywords:

Willingness to communicate (WTC), perceived communication competence, communication apprehension, L2 achievement

Abstract

This research was conducted to investigate the willingness to communicate (WTC) of Indonesian learners of English as a second language (L2) at the university level. It was conducted based on several rationales. WTC in L2 was often regarded as the primary goal of language instructions, and there might be various factors influencing WTC in L2 and the two so-called strongest factors, namely learners’ perceived communication competence and communication apprehension, need to be investigated further to find out the degree to which they affected learners’ WTC. Besides, Indonesian learners’ low frequency of English use outside classroom contexts might lead them to be unwilling to make actual communication in English. Through probability random sampling, a total of 276 non-English major university students participated in the study, the data of which were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, correlation and regression, in SPSS 21. This research finds that learners have reported a high level of WTC, their perceived communication competence is found to be a strong predictor of learners’ WTC, communication apprehension is found to be correlated with WTC in just a moderate level, and despite experts’ supports on the importance of WTC in L2 learning, it surprisingly cannot predict learners’ L2 achievement.

 

Dimensions

Plum Analytics

Author Biography

Adaninggar Septi Subekti, Duta Wacana Christian University

Obtaining her M.Sc. in TESOL from University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, the author, who obtained her Bachelor of Education from Sanata Dharma University, currently works as a lecturer at the English Education Department of Duta Wacana Christian University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her research interest includes learners’ individual differences, Global Englishes, language teaching methodologies, and critical literacies and pedagogies in L1 and L2 contexts. Throughout her teaching career, she has taught students from various levels of education, including teaching ESP to Medical students, non-English teachers of High Schools, and university lecturers. Though her specialty is in English teaching, she was once also a teacher of Indonesian language at Arizona State University from 2013 to 2014.

ORCiD ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6641-0307

SCOPUS ID: 57202583019 https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57202583019 

References

Alemi, M., Tajeddin, Z., & Mesbah, Z. (2013). Willingness to communicate in L2 English: Impact of learner variables. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 42–61.

Aydin, S. (2009). Test anxiety among foreign language learners. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 5(1), 127–137.

Baghaei, P. (2011). Validation of a multidimensional scale of willingness to communicate. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Methodology and Evaluation Section of the German Association of Psychology, Bamberg, September 21-23.

Baghaei, P., & Dourakhshan, A. (2012). The relationship between willingness to communicate and success in learning English as a foreign language. Elixir Psychology, 53, 12160–12164.

Baker, S. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2000). The role of gender and immersion in communication and second language orientations. Language Learning, 50(2), 311–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.00119.

Baran-Lucarz, M. (2014). The link between pronunciation anxiety and willingness to communicate in the foreign language classroom: The Polish EFL context. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 70(4), 445–473. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2666.

Barjesteh, H., Vaseghi, R., & Neissi, S. (2012). Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to communicate across different context- and receiver types. International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(1), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v2n1p47.

Basit, T. N. (2010). Conducting research in educational contexts. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Bryman, A. (2012). Social research methods (4th Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cao, Y. (2013). Exploring dynamism in willingness to communicate: A longitudinal case study. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 36(2), 160–176. doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.36.2.03cao.

Cao, Y., & Philp, J. (2006). Interactional context and willingness to communicate: A comparison of behavior in whole class, group and dyadic interaction. System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, 34(4), 480–493.

Clement, R., Baker, S. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2003). Willingness to communicate in a second language: The effects of context, norms, and vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 22(2), 190–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261927X03022002003.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. London: Sage Publications, Inc.

Donovan, L. A., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2009). Age and sex differences in willingness to communicate, communication apprehension, and self-perceived competence. Communication Research Reports, 21(4), 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824090409360006.

Dornyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Fadilah, E. (2018a). Perception, motivation, and communicative self-confidence of Indonesian students on willingness to communicate in L2 using Facebook. JEELS, 5(1), 23–48. doi: https://doi.org/10.30762/jeels.v5i1.562.

Fadilah, E. (2018b). Willingness to communicate from Indonesian learners’ perspective : A dynamic complex system theory. Journal of ELT Research, 3(2), 168–185. https://doi.org/10.22236/JER.

Fallah, N. (2014). Willingness to communicate in English, communication self-confidence, motivation, shyness, and teacher immediacy among Iranian English-major undergraduates: A structural equationmodeling approach. Learning and Individual Differences, 30, 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2013.12.006.

Gol, M., Zand-Moghadam, A., & Karrabi, M. (2014). The construct of willingness to communicate and its relationship with EFL learners’ perceived verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy. Issues in Language Teaching (ILT), 3(1), 135–160.

Gray, D. E. (2014). Doing research in the real world (3rd Ed.). London: Sage Publications, Ltd.

Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1986.tb05256.x.

Kang, S. J. (2005). Dynamic emergence of situational willingness to communicate in a second language. System, 33(2), 277–292. doi: 10.1016/j.system.2004.10.004.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2012). English in ASEAN: Implications for regional multilingualism. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(4), 331–344. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2012.661433.

MacIntyre, P. D., Burns, C., & Jessome, A. (2011). Ambivalence about communicating in a second language: A qualitative study of French immersion students’ willingness to communicate. The Modern Language Journal, 95(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2010.01141.x.

MacIntyre, P. D., Clement, R., Dornyei, Z., & Noels, K. A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2 : A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal, 82(4), 545–562.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Doucette, J. (2010). Willingness to communicate and action control. System, 38(2), 161–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.12.013.

Matsuka, R. (2004). Willingness to communicate among Japanese college students. In Proceedings of the 9th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics. Chonan, Republic of Korea. pp. 151-159.

Matsuoka, R., Matsumoto, K., Poole, G., & Matsuoka, M. (2014). Japanese university students ’ willingness to communicate in English : The serendipitous effect of oral presentations. Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics 18(1), 193–218.

Modirkhameneh, S., & Firouzmand, A. (2014). Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to communicate and language learning orientations. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 1134–1139. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.526.

Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A., & Pawlak, M. (2016). Designing a tool for measuring the interrelationships between L2 WTC, confidence, beliefs, motivation, and context. In M. Pawlak (Ed.), Classroom-oriented research: reconciling theory and practice (pp. 19–38). Basel,

Switzerland: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30373-4.

Ningsih, S. K., Narahara, S., & Mulyono, H. (2018). An exploration of factors contributing to student’ unwillingness to communicate in a foreign language across Indonesian secondary schools. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), 811–824. doi: 10.12973/iji.2018.11451a.

Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.

Osterman, G. L. (2014). Experiences of Japanese university students’ willingness to speak English in class: A multiple case study. SAGE Open, 4(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014543779.

Oz, H. (2014). Big five personality traits and willingness to communicate among foreign language learners in Turkey. Social Behavior and Personality, 42(9), 1473–1482. doi: https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2014.42.9.1473.

Oz, H. (2016). Role of the ideal L2 self in predicting willingness to communicate of EFL students. In I. H. Mirici, I. H. Erten, & H. Oz (Eds.), Research Papers on Teaching English as an Additional Language (pp. 163–182). Rijeka: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka.

Oz, H., Demirezen, M., & Pourfeiz, J. (2015). Willingness to communicate of EFL learners in Turkish context. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 269–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.12.009.

Peng, J. E. (2016). The context-sensitivity of self-concept and willingness to communicate in the Chinese EFL classroom: A case study. In J. King (Ed.), The dynamic interplay between context and the language learner. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Peng, J. E., & Woodrow, L. J. (2010). Willingness to communicate in English: A model in the Chinese EFL classroom context. Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies, 60(4), 834–876. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00576.x.

Rastegar, M., & Karami, M. (2015). On the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety, willingness to communicate, and scholastic success among Iranian EFL learners. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(11), 2387–2394. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0511.25.

Rostami, G., Kashanian, V., & Gholami, H. (2016). The Relationship between Language Proficiency and Willingness to Communicate in English in an Iranian EFL Context. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 3(2), 166–176.

Sa’adah, L., Nurkamto, J., & Suparno, S. (2018). Oral corrective feedback: Exploring the relationship between teacher’s strategy and students’ willingness to communicate. Studies in ENglish Language and Education, 5(2), 240–252. doi: 10.24815/siele.v5i2.11532.

Shao, S., Yu, W., & Ji, Z. (2013). An exploration of Chinese EFL students’ emotional intelligence and foreign language anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 97(4), 917–926. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12042.x.

Subekti, A. S. (2018a). An exploration of foreign language anxiety in the Indonesian university context: Learners’ and teachers’ voices. TEFLIN Journal, 29(2), 219–244.

Subekti, A. S. (2018b). Investigating the relationship between foreign language anxiety and oral performance of non-English major university students in Indonesia. Dinamika Ilmu, 18(1), 15–35. doi: 10.21093/di.v18i1.880.

Walliman, N. (2011). Research methods: The basics. New York: Routledge.

Watanabe, M. (2013). Willingness to communicate and Japanese high school English learners. JALT Journal, 35(2), 153–171.

Yashima, T. (2002). Willingness to communicate in a second language: The Japanese EFL context. The Modern Language Journal, 86(1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00136.

Yashima, T. (2012). Willingness to communicate: Momentary volition that results in L2 behaviour. In S. Mercer, S. Ryan, & M. Williams (Eds.), Psychology for language learning: Insights from research, theory, and practice (pp. 119–135). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ymeri, M. (2016). The impact of gender and second language proficiency on willingness to communicate in the upper secondary schools of Gjilan town- Kosovo. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 103–119. doi-http://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2016.s21.103119

Zarrinabadi, N., & Abdi, R. (2011). Willingness to communicate and language learning orientations in Iranian EFL context. International Education Studies, 4(4), 206–214. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v4n4p206.

Downloads

Published

2019-04-15
Abstract 1647  .
PDF downloaded 632  .