Willingness to Communicate (WTC), is defined as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2” (MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément
& Noels, 1998: 547). Dewaele and Dewalea (2018) define WTC as being “influenced by a complex interplay of interacting learner-internal variables (including sociobiographical, emotional and macro intergroup variables) and learner-external variables (i.e. teacher-centred) in the foreign language classroom. Macintyre et al., in their 1998 study, sought answers to the question of ‘Why do some students seek, while others avoid, second language (L2) communication? (2018:1). Following the recognition of language anxiety as a separate construct (Horwitz et al., 1986), researchers have a clearer view of the “definition, reasons and effects of it” (Kayaoglu and Saglamel, 2013). Lack of WTC is an ongoing issue in classrooms across the globe and particularly in Hungary. This could predominantly be down to the general education system and frontal, didactic teaching methodologies used in the broader academic subjects. In the majority of classes students are required to sit, listen and learn and then they enter the language classroom and they are then expected to participate and interact. McCroskey and Baer (1985) conceptualized WTC as “the probability of engaging in communication when free to choose to do so” but how much choice or how many chances are they given to engage in ‘real’ language use? Another considerable factor is the assessment system in Hungary, which places a huge amount of pressure on learners with anything less than a five (the top grade on a scale of 1-5, equivalent to an A grade in the UK system) considered as almost a failure. In their 2013 study of Turkish learners of English (Kayaoglu and Saglamel, 2013) discovered that the main reasons behind their learners’ language anxiety were:
• linguistic difficulties
• lack of sufficient vocabulary
• a poor command of grammar rules and pronunciation difficulties
• cognitive challenges
• fear of failure (failure in communication, failing in exams, making mistakes, failing in front of others),
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• lack of self-esteem,
• lack of information in the L1
• the role of the teachers
• competitiveness.
Macintyre et al. (1998:3) posit that WTC is not a personality trait, also apparent in the L1 however, should be considered “a situational variable with both transient and enduring influences”, which can be attributed to the fact that lack of WTC is often prominent in a variety of classroom situations, and can manifest itself in any situational context (group discussions) but not always at the individual level (when giving a presentation or answering a direct question) and vice versa.
In their 2018 study Dewaele and Dewaele discovered that, in English secondary school students studying French, German and Spanish, the “strongest predictors of WTC were FL classroom anxiety, frequent FL use by the teacher, a positive attitude towards the FL (a neglected macro intergroup dimension)”. If this is truly the case then the question of frequent use of the FL as an attributing factor is substantiated by the insistence of NESTs (native English speaking teachers) and I personally have often been told by students that they prefer to speak in front of NNESTs (non- native English speaking teachers) than NESTs. Thus, with NESTs learners feel as if they are in some ways inferior or are constantly being judged and yet with NNESTs they feel they are constantly being appraised. The anxious learner may be recalling previous learning experiences, where they were indeed in these situations and these have formed a state of learner training. The major threat of lack of WTC is that it could be misconstrued as a form of disengagement on the part of the learner, thus resulting in reduced motivation for peers and the teachers.
Although native speakerism is not a focus of this research, it is pertinent to bring it in here as the overarching desired goal of reaching native like English can often make learners feel anxious and that anything below that could be considered as ‘not good enough’. As Braine (2005) points out “NNESTs teachers were generally regarded as unequal in knowledge and performance to NESTs”. Despite Medgyes’ (1992,1994) pioneering work, describing the struggle of NNESTs for ‘visibility and due recognition and opening up the “can of worms”
(Medgyes, 2013,1983) debate, which still rages today. Sylvana Richardson’s IATEFL plenary talk entitled the Native Factor (2016), posited that the ‘native speaker model’ is still alive and
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well’ in Hungary and as long as schools employ NESTs and insist that they are better placed to teach communication classes, this pressure will not abide.
In Saint Léger and Storch’s 2008 study of French secondary school learners, they found that language anxiety was also attributed to:
• vocabulary and fluency
• students feeling ‘exposed’
• classroom perceived as a competitive and threatening environment (: 12).
Similarly to the above French and Turkish studies, in the study of thirty secondary school Indian learners of English, Ansari (2015) found that their language anxiety and lack of WTC was attributed to the following factors:
• fear of negative evaluation from their peers
• perception of low ability in relation to their peers
He also states that “speaking anxiety is a counter-productive phenomenon” in the language classroom.
In order to truly conceptualise WTC, one must take into consideration that communicative competence does not ensure ‘spontaneous sustained use of the L2’ (Macintyre et al. 1998) and although anxiety arousal is more likely in speaking situations (Hewitt & Stephenson, 2012;
Von Wörde, 1998), a proposed acceptance of WTC not only being connected to spoken production but also “ to influence other modes of production, such as writing and comprehension of both spoken and written language”(ibid. 1998) would be a welcome addition to curriculum planning.
There is hope that the ELF (English as a lingua franca) movement will slowly eradicate this line of thinking, especially with the work of the British Council on promoting ELF through, many channels, Davies and Patsko’s (2013) four pointers on EFL pronunciation modifications:
1) Most consonant sounds
2) Appropriate consonant cluster simplification 3) Vowel length distinctions
4) Nuclear stress
and Marek Kiczkowiak’s blog (https://www.teacherpreneur.ca/blog/MarekKiczkowiak) which sends out monthly updates and posts on tips for teaching ELF to language teachers
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worldwide, we may well see an end to the native speaker like conundrum, lifting the pressure on language teachers and learners alike.