Students’ Perceptions on the Factors that Influence their Willingness to Orally Communicate in the EFL Classroom

Abstract

This research is about the students’ perceptions on the factors that affect their willingness to orally communicate in the EFL classroom in Ecuadorian high schools. The purpose of this study focuses on the need to determine in what way the student’s willingness to orally communicate is affected by factors such as motivation, proficiency level, personality, and teaching speaking. This research also intends to show if students really consider whether or not these factors influence their learning process and their desire to use the second language for speaking activities in the EFL classroom. The general approach of this study was qualitative and quantitative. The principal sources of data collection were students’ questionnaires and observation sheet. The field research took place in the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. One hundred students from public and private high schools were surveyed and observed. The most relevant finding obtained from this research is that students’ motivation to orally communicate in EFL classroom is related to their type of personality, those who are more extroverts tend to participate more in speaking activities using the target language.