engleski

Language Education and Willingness to Communicate: Croatian and American Comparisons

The present paper aims to explore the willingness of multilingual and monolingual university students to communicate in a foreign language taking into consideration the effects of gender and culture. We used McCroskey and Richmond’s (1987) Willingness to Communicate instrument to survey college students in the United States and Croatia. All of the respondents had learned or were learning at least one foreign language at university, and many students were multilingual. Our results do not support the assertion that female students and multilingual students are more willing to communicate in a foreign language. However, US students were more willing to communicate in all contexts and to all receivers. At the conclusion of the paper, we suggest techniques such as group exercises and real-world simulations, use of language learning strategies and student discussions that language trainers may use to create an environment that will improve students' WTC.

foreign languages ; willingness to communicate ; college students ; teaching techniques

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