Classroom Interaction and EFL Students’ Willingness to Communicate

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the correlation between classroom interaction and willingness to communicate (WTC) of 120 third- and fourth-year undergraduate EFL students from the University of Thi-Qar and Imam Al-Kadhim College (IKC), Thi-Qar Departments, Iraq. The sample was balanced by institution and gender. There were 60 students from each institution (30 males and 30 females).  A quantitative correlational cross-sectional design was used. Classroom interaction was measured by 11 Likert-type items that tapped learner-instructor and learner-learner interaction and WTC was measured by 10 classroom-oriented items. Results showed that the level of classroom interaction was moderate (M = 3.35, SD = 0.52) and the level of WTC was moderate-to-high (M = 3.51, SD = 0.61). The two measures showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha= .887 for classroom interaction and .916 for WTC). The results of Pearson correlation analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between overall classroom interaction and WTC, r(118) =.424, p <.001. The simple regression showed that classroom interaction accounted for 18.0% of the variance in WTC, R2 = .180, F (1,118) = 25.84, p < .001. In the two-predictor model, learner-instructor interaction was a significant predictor of WTC (beta =.412, p =.003), but learner-learner interaction was not significant when controlling for learner-instructor interaction (beta =.025, p =.858). The results demonstrate the significance of supportive, participation-oriented teacher-student interaction in promoting students' willingness to communicate in English in Iraqi university EFL classrooms.