Factors contributing to willingness to communicate in English among Thai undergraduate students in the immersion program

Abstract

This present study investigated psychosocial and psychocultural variables influencing Willingness to Communicate in English (L2WTC) and determined the influence of those variables towards L2WTC of Thai undergraduate students in the immersion program. Three hundred and forty-one students in the immersion programs of a Thai public university participated in the study based on the sampling size formula table by Krejcie & Morgan (1970) at 95% level of confidence. Mixed method was employed in this study. The instruments included questionnaire, focus group interview questions, and observation record. This study used purposive sampling procedures to collect quantitative data, and systematic random selection of the participants to collect qualitative data. The quantitative data was collected prior to qualitative data. A one-way ANOVA revealed that the psychosocial variables influencing L2WTC were Communication Apprehension (CA), Introversion, and Instrumental Motivation, while the psychocultural variables were Kwam Kreng Jai (KKJ), Fear of Losing Face (FLF), Unity, and Teacher Status. The present study also found that the participants' L2WTC would behave differently based on the communicational situations that CA, SPCC, KKJ, and TS would influence L2WTC the most in group conversation, instrumental motivation and unity in public conversation, and FLF in dyad conversation. Multiple regression results present that such variables can account for 78% of influencing variables on L2WTC. The highest variables contributing to L2WTC begins with SPCC, FLF, TS and introversion, and CA, respectively. The results of this study can explain the L2WTC contexts of Thai students in immersion programs that teachers, course designers, and scholars can take into account to design effective learning environment for the students to assert their ideas, or speak out where participation of English is required.