Willingness to Communicate in English among Iranian EFL Students

Abstract

Much has been written on the determinants that can expedite or hinder learners’ willingness to communicate in second and foreign language contexts. Though the literature is abundant with studies on many of these variables, little if any can be found to have targeted EFL students of private institutes in Iran. An effort was made in this study to examine the simultaneous impact of anxiety, self-confidence, communicative competence, and international posture on 194 Iranian EFL students’ willingness to communicate. To this end, a structural equation modeling analysis was used to examine the proposed model of the study. The results revealed that students’ willingness to communicate is directly related to their attitude toward the international community, their perceived linguistic competence and self-confidence. The study concludes with certain pedagogical implications.