Whether Willingness to Communicate (WTC) is a permanent trait or is modified by situational context has previously been investigated in various studies (e.g. Cao & Philp, 2006; Kang, 2005; MacIntyre & Legatto, 2011). However, most research into WTC has been quantitative or conducted in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or Study Abroad situation in countries such as Canada, Japan, Korea and China. This article reports on the qualitative component of an exploratory mixed methods study in a New Zealand (NZ) university with participants who are permanent migrants from Iran. These students completed a questionnaire and participated in further in-depth semi-structured interviews. The article provides an overview of previous research into WTC and motivation in Iran and NZ as the context for these three case studies. In this study, six factors, both trait and situational, were identified as having an effect on these students’ WTC in both countries: self-perceived competence; personality; anxiety; motivation and the importance of English; and the learning context. Finally, this article discusses the contribution of this study to the WTC field of research, identifying the implications of these results for teachers of English in the ESL (English as a Second Language or migrant) context and possible avenues for future research.
This article will discuss recent theories of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and provide an overview of studies into this individual difference which have been conducted in both Iran and New Zealand (NZ). So far few qualitative studies have been carried out into WTC or have used permanent migrants as participants. The article reports on a longitudinal study of the WTC of a group of Iranian migrants to NZ. By means of questionnaires, observations, and individual semi-structured interviews conducted at six-month intervals, case studies of these learners in a NZ university English class were compiled. Their WTC was found to encompass such learner characteristics as confidence, motivation, and personality, and varied from country to country and semester to semester. Finally, this article discusses the contribution of this study to the WTC field of research, identifying the implications of these results for teachers of English in the ESL (English as a Second language/migrant) context and possible avenues for future research.
KEYWORDS:Willingness to communicate, context, anxiety, personality, motivation, case study.
RESUMENEste artículo examina teorías recientes sobre la Disposición a Comunicarse (Willingness to Communicate, WTC) y proporciona una visión general de estudios realizados en Irán y Nueva Zelanda acerca de esta diferencia individual. Hasta la fecha hemos tenido pocos estudios cualitativos realizados sobre la WTC o se han utilizado emigrantes permanentes como participantes. El artículo informa sobre un estudio longitudinal de la WTC de un grupo de emigrantes iraníes en Nueva Zelanda. Los resultados indican que la WTC estaba relacionada con características del aprendiz tales como seguridad en sí mismo, motivación y personalidad, y que variaba de país a país y de semestre a semestre. Al final, el artículo analiza la contribución de este estudio a la investigación en el campo de la WTC e identifica las implicaciones de estos resultados para los profesores en el contexto de ESL (Inglés como Segunda Lengua/emigrantes) además de posibilidades de investigación para el futuro.PALABRAS CLAVE: Disposición a comunicarse, contexto, ansiedad, personalidad, motivación, estudio de casos prácticos.
When we listen to human discourse, we do this in a context which may include the words themselves, tone of voice, stress on words, as well as gestures, visual context, facial expressions and interpersonal distance, which work to produce a multimodal message. The development of listening skills then implies focussing not only on audio input but also on all types of non-verbal input. This article describes a case study of a university listening paper where 12 predominantly English as a second language participants filled out a widely recognised pre and post Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire consisting of 21 questions. Seven additional questions were added to the questionnaires that related to multimodal aspects of listening. Four of the research participants were also involved in in-depth interviews. Findings indicate the following three main themes relating to student perceptions: that metacognitive listening strategies help their listening; that the teacher has an important role in teaching strategies and selecting listening material; and that overall, video material is more useful than audio material alone for the development of listening comprehension.
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