The Significant Role of Willingness to Communicate and Self- Esteem Among EFL Intermediate Learners

Many cognitive, social, and affective factors are seemed to be significant in the second language acquisition process among which willingness to communicate (WTC) and self-esteem take a high consideration. Learners are different depending on their attitudes toward the second language, motivation, age, and personality. They bring their personality differences to the social environment such as a classroom, a meeting, or even a family gathering. Since some of these factors such as WTC and self-esteem play much more fundamental role in entering into a communication or for beginning a connection by means of speech, a review of them seems to be essential. In regard to second language contexts, WTC is described by McIntyre, Clement, Dornyei, and Noels (1998) as a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with specific person or persons using an L2 (p. 547), while self-esteem stresses the learners’ beliefs about his/her capabilities and attributes. The purpose of this study is to review the importance of WTC and self-esteem in language learning. The study can shed light on the significance of these two factors in language learning and have some implications for language learners and teachers

Keywords:

Willingness to communicate , Self-esteem