Willingness to Communicate in English as a Second Language: A Case Study of Pakistani Undergraduates

Willingness to communicate (WTC) construct plays an important role in second language (L2) teaching and learning. Almost any second language learner is likely to respond to a direct question, but many will not continue or initiate communication. The present study investigates Pakistani undergraduate students' perception of their willingness to initiate communication in English across four types of contexts and three types of receivers. 170 Pakistani undergraduate students participated in this quantitative study. The results reveal that Pakistani college students’ WTC is relatively high. They preferred to initiate talk in English with friends and acquaintances rather than with strangers. Furthermore, they seemed to prefer to initiate communication in private, rather than communicating in front of a large group and public speaking. Pakistani participants were found most willing to communicate in English to a small group of friends, while least willing to give a presentation in English in front of a large group of strangers.