"At school, I feel interrogated": Differences in willingness to communicate in Iranian schools and private English institutes

• Published in: System (Linköping) Vol. 124; p. 103392
• Main Authors: Shirazizadeh, Mohsen, Mirhosseini, Seyyed-Abdolhamid, Jagiri, Shahnaz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2024
• Subjects: English language teaching; Iranian language institutes; Language learners; Qualitative EFL research; Willingness to communicate; Qualitative EFL research; Iranian language institutes; Language learners; Willingness to communicate; English language teaching
• ISSN: 0346-251X; 1879-3282
• DOI: 10.1016/j.system.2024.103392

This qualitative study explored the underlying forces that shape Iranian EFL learners’ second language willingness to communicate (L2WTC) in two distinct contexts of public schools and private English institutes. To this end, we collected several bodies of data from both contexts and analyzed them through a grounded theoretical approach. The three major themes that emerged from data analysis were learner, teacher, and context issues, each bearing different weights and manifesting distinctively in the two contexts. Our findings confirm that both interpersonal and intrapersonal variations in L2WTC are subject to inter-contextual variation, making the prediction of L2WTC a challenge for both teachers and researchers. The study concludes by discussing the insights that can be gained from our findings for better understanding the dynamic and context-sensitive nature of L2WTC.