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What Does Students’ Willingness to Communicate or Reticence Signify to Teachers?

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New Perspectives on Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

Abstract

Though the literature on teachers’ perceptions and students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) has expanded, less is documented on what students’ willingness to communicate or reticence signifies to teachers. This paper is an attempt to understand how teachers make sense of learners’ WTC and reticence and explain the causes of WTC and reticence. Drawing on the attribution theory, this qualitative study explored the perceptions of six purposively selected Iranian English teachers at a private language school. Semi-structured interviews were the main instrument for data collection. Thematic analysis showed that all the teacher participants held a negative view of the reticent students. They attributed reticence to more student internal causes within the student’s control and willingness to communicate to more external, teacher controllable causes. The findings have implications on teacher education in the Iranian as well as similar English language contexts.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Dr. Tan Kok Eng for their constructive feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Negah Allahyar

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  1. Negah Allahyar
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Correspondence to Negah Allahyar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

    Nourollah Zarrinabadi

  2. Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Poland

    Mirosław Pawlak

Appendix: Interview Questions

Appendix: Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    From your perspective, what is ‘willingness to communicate’?

  2. 2.

    From your perspective, what is ‘reticence’?

  3. 3.

    Do you think that students are willing to talk or are reticent in your classroom? If so, how do you know?

  4. 4.

    What are the main reasons that some students are reticent in general and in your class?

  5. 5.

    Which students would you say are the “best” students? What is it about them that makes you think they are good students?

  6. 6.

    How do you get the required output you expect?

  7. 7.

    How you realize your lesson has gone poorly? Probing questions:

    • Do you only think of interaction frequency as a sign of WTC? How about interaction quality?

    • Can you explain more about these non verbal aspects?

    • Is L1 in conversation a sign of reticence? Why?

  8. 8.

    Can you explain more about autonomy and its relation to WTC?

  9. 9.

    How can teachers maintain their students’ WTC?

  10. 10.

    Can you explain more how the learning environment contributes to students’ WTC?

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Allahyar, N. (2021). What Does Students’ Willingness to Communicate or Reticence Signify to Teachers?. In: Zarrinabadi, N., Pawlak, M. (eds) New Perspectives on Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67634-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67634-6_6

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-67634-6

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