Willingness to Communicate in English: A Study of Malaysian Pre-Service English Teachers

Yousef, Reem; Jamil, Hazri; Razak, Nordin Abd

doi:10.5539/elt.v6n9p205

Cited by 36 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…To sum up, most of the aforementioned studies focus on determining the types, conceptualisation, impact of WTC construct, and its measurement or factors loadings of WTC in English (e.g., communication anxiety in English, perceived communication competence in English) and students' (high school, undergraduate, trainee teachers) willingness to communicate (WTC) in English in a school, department, faculty, or university (Lahuerta, 2014;Mwalongo, 2016;Peng, 2007;Wen & Clement, 2003;Yashima, 2002;Yousef et al, 2013). These past studies also did not provide an understanding of the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English among the ESL teachers in the Malaysian contexts.…”

Section: Willingness To Communicate (Wtc) In Esl Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Esl Teachers’ Willingness to Communicate in English

2018

Indonesian J. Appl. Linguist

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Willingness to communicate (WTC) as introduced by McCroskey and Bear (1985) has developed and been perceived by many as a critical field. Unfortunately, there is a noticeable gap in research on the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English among ESL teachers in the Malaysian context. This study aims to investigate the ESL teachers' willingness to communicate in English in terms of gender and school locations. The four constructs of communication in WTC are group discussions, interpersonal, public, and talking in meetings. Through both criterion and convenience sampling, 250 ESL teachers from twenty-five schools were chosen for this research. Survey questionnaire with a total of 20 items adopted from McCroskey (1992) was used as the data collection instrument. Findings reveal that ESL teachers' willingness to communicate in English is generally high and that the teachers were more willing to converse and exchange ideas orally in English during the meeting rather than in group or public. Female participants were significantly different in their overall willingness to communicate as they were more willing to communicate in groups and public. The within-group comparison also shows that school locations (urban and rural) affect ESL teachers' willingness to communicate in English. The findings also suggest that schools should encourage more ESL teachers to participate in activities such as debates, drama, public speaking, English language clubs/society, and empower them by providing professional development workshops or training.

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Section: Willingness To Communicate (Wtc) In Esl Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Esl Teachers’ Willingness to Communicate in English

2018

Indonesian J. Appl. Linguist

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“…Lahuerta (2014) Yousef et al (2013) investigated Willingness to Communicate in a Private Malaysian university. The participants were all pre-service teachers from different intakes.…”

Section: Willingness To Communicate (Wtc) In Second Language Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future research was recommended to investigate the relationship between the factors affecting not only the learners' Willingness to Communicate but also the quality of their communication and the potential this participation has for language development need to be investigated. Lahuerta (2014) (Yousef et al, 2013). Yazdi, (2014), studied Willingness to Communicate among four pairs of female Iranian and Malaysian students at a private university in Kuala Lumpur.…”

Section: Willingness To Communicate (Wtc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although, the researcher noted limitations that were due to the small sample size and lack of generalizability of the findings he advised teachers to maximize the time devoted for motivating topics, challenging but manageable activities, switching between group and paired activities and providing sufficient supportive teacher behaviour. Future research was recommended to investigate the relationship between the factors affecting not only the learners' Willingness to Communicate but also the quality of their communication and the potential this participation has for language development need to be investigated.Lahuerta (2014) Yousef et al (2013) investigated Willingness to Communicate in a Private Malaysian university. The participants were all pre-service teachers from different intakes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The quality of English language used by university students attracted many researches in the Malaysian context. Yousef et al (2013) were interested in studying the Malaysian Pre-Service English Teachers' Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in English with a focus on oral communication. They tried to find out about real solutions to motivate oral communication among learners of English as a Second Language (ESL).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Willingness to Communicate in English: Academic Motivation and using English outside the Classroom as Predictors

Youssef

2016

American Journal of Applied Sciences

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Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in English has become a field of interest since the construct was introduced by McCroskey and Baer in 1985. This study, investigated 230 trainee teachers' Willingness to Communicate in English with a focus on their Academic Motivation and Their use of English outside the classroom. Gender, nationality, ethnic group, specialization and years of study at the Faculty of Education were considered while exploring the three mentioned variables. The results of the study revealed that participants preferred to initiate communication in English with friends rather than acquaintances or strangers even though the interview results showed they were willing to communicate in English with strangers more than individual friends or groups of friends from the same ethnic group. The findings indicated that there were significant differences based on gender and nationality in UEC. There were significant differences among participants in WTC and UEC based on their ethnic group and specialization. Participants from different years in the Faculty of Education were significantly different in WTC, AM and UEC. The correlation was positive between WTC and both UEC and AM. The results of regression analysis showed that the most effective determiner of Willingness to Communicate in English is participants "Use of English outside the Classroom. Exposure to the English language from an early age in addition to family support of the use of English shaped the participants" view of the English language and determined their competency. Based on the findings a better understanding of trainee teachers "cognitive abilities, attitudes about self and university, as well as their language skills would help in improving their WTC in English. Changing classroom environment and grouping technique to avoid putting students from the same ethnicity in the same group can ensure that the only language used will be English. Providing opportunities outside the classroom for communicating in English through English language clubs, journeys to English speaking countries, debates, drama, songs and free writing competitions can help them communicate in English away from the stress caused by curriculum based activities linked to credits and grades. Furthermore, communication between faculty and home is important to understand better factors that may affect trainee teachers" Willingness to Communicate in English. (Ida Fatimawati, 2012). Studies on students who were exposed to English for 11 years in primary and secondary schools, showed that they still have difficulties related to language proficiency (Ida Fatimawati, 2012) and their written communication was described to be under satisfactory level (Mahady, 2010). Limited opportunities to use English outside the classroom widened the proficiency gap between students joining tertiary education from urban and rural areas where English is regarded as a foreign language (Gill, 2005). Not apart from that trainee teachers' Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in English is not given...

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