EFL Learners' Willingness to Communicate: The Interplay between Language Learning Anxiety and Language Proficiency

Since willingness to communicate (WTC) model integrates psychological, linguistic, and communicative variables to predict L2 communication, and a few number of studies have tested the model with EFL students, the current study is an attempt to shed light on the examination of Iranian EFL university students' WTC and its interaction with their language anxiety and language proficiency. By helping the students to decrease language anxiety and increase a willingness to use the L2 inside and outside the classroom, we direct the focus of language teaching away from merely linguistic and structural competence to authentic communication. The purpose of this study is to understand whether WTC model could explain the relationships between psychological and linguistic variables in Iranian context to predict students' WTC. Forty nine university students participated in this study, they took TOEFL first and then filled out two questionnaires of WTC. For data analysis, Repeated Measures ANOVA and Spearman correlation were run and the results have revealed that Iranian university students' WTC is directly related to their language proficiency but not language anxiety. Therefore, linguistic variables appear to be more predictive of WTC for Iranians, and language instructors should work on their students' English proficiency.