The relationship between WTC level and LLS use among Turkish EFL learners

Abstract

Recent investigations in the field of applied linguistics have tended to transfer psychological concepts into second language acquisition. Willingness to communicate, as a psychological concept, has been taken as a research topic in the field. On the other hand, language learning strategy use has been accepted as a notion affecting the success in second/foreign language learning. In this respect, this study investigates the relationship between the levels of Willingness to Communicate inside the Classroom (WTC) and Language Learning Strategy (LLS) use among Turkish university students. 80 first-year university students responded to two questionnaires: WTC questionnaire developed by McIntyre et al (2001) and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), version 5.1 by Oxford (1990). The results of the quantitative analyses, first, revealed that Turkish EFL learners were willing to communicate in the classroom in a range from half of the time to usually willing in both overall mean score and in separate components such as speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Second, the participants were found to be medium strategy users. Finally, correlation analyses showed that there was a significant positive correlation between these two concepts. In specific, certain aspects of the levels of WTC inside classroom matched with certain sub-components of the SILL. After the study, a number of recommendations for language learning and teaching as well as some implications for further research are provided.