Willingness to communicate, interest, motives to communicate with the instructor, and L2 speaking: a focus on the role of age and gender

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how well interest and motives to communicate with the instructor (MCI) predict L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) and L2 speaking among English as a foreign language (EFL) learners, and tested whether these variables predict L2 WTC and speaking differently across different age and sex groups. It also examined whether there are meaningful differences between EFL learners who have a higher level and those who have a lower level of L2 speaking in terms of L2 WTC, interest, and MCI and between male and female learners in their motives to communicate with their English instructors. Some 612 pre-intermediate EFL learners participated in the study. A quantitative method using questionnaires was used to collect the data. The results revealed that (1) interest and MCI made significant contributions to the participants’ L2 WTC and speaking; (2) the variables predicted L2 WTC and speaking differently across different age and sex groups; (3) there were significant differences between the learners in the high L2 speaking group and those in the low L2 speaking group in terms of WTC, interest, and MCI; and (4) male participants reported communicating with their teachers more for the participatory and sycophantic motives than female learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Willingness to communicate
• interest
• motives to communicate with the instructor
• L2 speaking

Acknowledgements

The author is deeply grateful to anonymous reviewers of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching Journal for their invaluable critical comments on earlier drafts of this article. Without their constructive feedback, the paper would not have achieved this level of clarity. Any lack of clarity remains my responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Mohammad Amiryousefi is an Assistant Professor in TEFL at the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Iran. His research interests include SLA, Task Based Language Teaching and Learning, and Computer Assisted Language Learning.