Students´ motivation and attitude towards foreign language classroom communication
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Classroom communication and interaction play a vital part in second language acquisition (Hymes 1971; Swain 1985). By creating opportunities for authentic communication, the students´ interaction language learning is supported (Ellis et al. 1994; Kuhl et al. 2003). It is Willingness to Communicate (WTC) that describes the intention of a person to communicate with others if given the opportunity. So far not many studies have examined the role of the learner´s perceptions of classroom interaction and the role of classroom communication from the point of view of a learner. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the perception of classroom interaction in the target language students´ willingness to communicate in the class, and their motivation to get involved in the classroom interaction. The qualitative data were gathered at the end of a semester by the form of semi-structured interviews with selected students. The students were selected based on their performance and interaction during the lesson by their teachers and the interview was conducted by a researcher, not the teacher. They were the extreme examples of both students who participated actively in the class and students who were inactive during the lessons (n=9). Throughout the analysis based on open coding several relevant areas emerged, particularly students´ unwillingness to communicate, teaching methods, motives for learning, and motives for classroom communication in connection with the role of a teacher. The fear of making mistakes followed by negative feedback can be named as the most significant obstacles in classroom communication as reported by the respondents. On the other hand, factors supporting the willingness of students to participate in classroom communication are e.g. student´s personal interest in the topic of communication, perceived support either from the teacher or the class, or the student´s self-confidence in being prepared for the interaction. |
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