Abstract:

One of the main goals of L2 teaching is to prepare students for real/authentic communication. Despite the communicative approach and individual approach to learners, language teachers often encounter students' unwillingness to participate in communication with them. This article provides information on research into the students´ willingness to communicate during lessons in L2 at the university level. The aim of the project was to obtain feedback from students about the extent to which they are willing to communicate in L2 in the classroom, and what motives they give for communicating with a teacher. Further if focused on foreign language anxiety that students may feel during the teaching of L2. We investigated whether students were willing to communicate during lessons in L2, how their level of willingness changed concerning particular language skills. According to MacIntyre (1998) variables that influence the willingness to communicate are divided into situational variables (e.g. school class climate) and the pupil's characteristics (e.g. communication anxiety, self-assessment of one's communication competence or attitude to the subject). We were concerned about communication in L2 and communication barriers, e.g. anxiety, fear of mistakes. The fear of communicating in a foreign language is defined as the learner's fear and negative feelings caused by learning and communicating in a foreign language in the classroom environment. This concept consists of communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative feedback (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986). Furthermore, we focused specifically on communication between a teacher and a student and the reported reasons for communication. Martin et al. (1999) described five reasons for communication with a teacher in class (relationship, practical, participatory, apology and servility reasons). The research was conducted based on a mixed design research methodology. The questionnaire survey, which provided background for a qualitative part, was followed by semi-structured interviews with students. In the qualitative part of the research data were obtained from 238 questionnaires containing three scales, i.e. Willingness to communicate in English lessons, Foreign language anxiety scale and Motives for communication with a teacher in the classroom. Interviews with selected students and a subsequent content analysis provided more detailed information on the individual needs of students to communicate in the classroom with a teacher, students´ attitudes to L2 communication and communication barriers. It also contributed to the understanding of the students´ concept of classroom communication. The research results indicate a difference in the reported level of willingness to communicate between individual students' language skills. Students reported communication for practical reasons as the most frequent reason for communication with a teacher. Approximately the same number of students reported a low level of foreign language anxiety (26%) and a high level of foreign language anxiety (21%).

Keywords:

Higher education, L2, willingness to communicate, foreign language anxiety, motives to communicate.