Exploring the Relationship between Willingness to Communicate in English, and Social/Cultural Capital among Iranian Undergraduate English Majors

Abstract

Previous research into willingness to communicate in a second language (L2WTC) has focused primarily on its psychological aspects, and its socio-cultural nature is under explored. Framed with a socio-cultural perspective on second language learning, this study examined the relationship between L2 willingness to communicate, social/cultural capital and its five underlying factors including cultural competence, social competence, social solidarity, literacy, and extraversion in the Iranian EFL context. To this end , the Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ) by Pishghadam, Noghani, and Zabihi (2011) and WTC questionnaire by MacIntyre, Baker, Clément, and Conrad (2001) were administered to a sample of 312 English-major students from three universities in Iran. The Pearson product-moment correlation showed the existence of highly significant correlations between all five factors of SCCQ and learners' L2WTC. Moreover, results from the regression analysis revealed that cultural competence and literacy were the best predictors of WTC. The implications of the study are discussed.