Abstract

FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' LEARNINGAND ACQUISITION OF COMMUNICATION SKILLSIN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Gaikwad Rajabhau Ramrao

Volume: 4 Issue: 2 2014

Abstract:

English, which is defined as an international language, is used by more than two and a half billion people (Strevens, 1992) as a first, second, or foreign language for communication purposes. Consequently, the purpose of teaching English has shifted from the mastery of structure to the ability to use the language for communicative purposes. Thus, the issues of whether learners would communicate in English when they had the chance and what would affect their willingness to communicate gain importance. Recently, a "Willingness to Communicate" (WTC) model was developed by McIntyre et al. (1998) to explain and predict second language communication. The objective of the present study was to examine whether college students who were learning English as a foreign language in the Indian context were willing to communicate when they had an opportunity and whether the WTC model explained the relations among social-psychological, linguistic and communication variables in this context. The present study was a hybrid design that combined both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis procedures. First, a questionnaire was administered to 356 randomly selected college students in Country. Then, interviews were conducted with 15 randomly selected students who had already answered the questionnaire. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis was conducted to examine the interrelations among students' willingness to communicate in English, their language learning motivation, communication anxiety, perceived communication competence, attitude toward the international community, and personality. Qualitative interviews were utilized to extend and elaborate these quantitative results.

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