The Relationship Between Willingness to Communicate and Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners' Oral Performance Under Strategic Planning Condition

1. The Relationship Between Willingness to
Communicate and Iranian Intermediate EFL
Learners` Oral Performance Under Strategic
Planning Condition
Supervisor:
Dr. Saeed Taki
By:
Farhad Mazaheri

2. Introduction
• Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)
▫ Task
▫ Planning
• Oral Performance
▫ Complexity
▫ Accuracy
▫ Fluency
• Willingness to Communicate (WTC)

3. Statement of the Problem
• Importance of Oral Skills
• Oral Production Problematic for EFL Learners
• Task Requirements
▫ Planning
• Individual Factors
▫ WTC

4. Research Questions
• Do Iranian EFL learners produce more complex,
accurate and fluent oral language when they have
the opportunity to plan in advance than when they
have no opportunity?
• Is there a significant relationship between
willingness to communicate and Iranian EFL learners’
oral language production in terms of complexity,
accuracy and fluency under ten-minute pre-task
planning condition?

5. Methodology
• Participants: 30 male and female lower-intermediate
EFL learners at JDI
• Instruments and Materials
▫ OPT: To confirm their homogeneity
▫ WTC Questionnaire
▫ Task: To gage their oral performance
• Procedure

6. Scoring Procedures
• Complexity: the number of s-nodes divided by the
total number of T-units (Foster & Skehan, 1996).
• Fluency: the number of words divided by the total
number of T-units (Skehan, 1996).
• Accuracy: the number of error-free T-units divided
by the total number of T-units (Skehan, 1996).

7. Data Analysis
• The first research question:
▫ t test
• The second research question
▫ Pearson correlation coefficient
▫ Step-wise linear regression

8. Results
• Hypothesis 1: Iranian EFL learners do not produce more complex oral
language production under the implementation variable of pre-task
condition (ten minutes)
• TG Mean = .63; CG Mean = .47

9. • Hypothesis 2: Iranian EFL learners do not produce more accurate oral
production under the implementation variable of pre-task condition (ten
minutes).
• TG Mean = .71; CG Mean = .53

10. • Hypothesis 3: Iranian EFL learners do not produce more fluent oral
production under the implementation variable of pre-task condition (ten
minutes).
• TG Mean = 5.94; CG Mean = 5.32

11. • Hypothesis 4: There is no significant relationship between WTC and
complexity of oral production of Iranian EFL learners under ten-minute
pre-task planning condition.

13. • Hypothesis 5: There is no significant relationship between WTC and
accuracy of oral production of Iranian EFL learners under ten-minute pre-
task planning condition.

14. • Hypothesis 6: There is no significant relationship between WTC and
fluency of oral production of Iranian EFL learners under ten-minute pre-
task planning condition.

15. Discussion and Conclusion
• The Impact of the Pre-task Planning on Iranian Oral
Production
▫ Planning was conducive to CAF
• Results lend support to:
▫ Tuan & Storch (2007)
▫ Mochizuki and Ortega (2008), Nassaji and Tian (2010)
▫ Skehan (1999) and Storch (2005)

16. Discussion and Conclusion Contd.
• WTC and Iranian EFL learners’ CAF Under Ten-Minute
Pre-task Planning Condition
▫ WTC had significant positive relationships with CAF
measures
• The results of the study corroborated the findings of:
▫ Yashima (2002); Peng & Woodrow (2010)
▫ Birjandi, & Amiri (2011); Peng (2007); Weaver (2004)

17. Pedagogical Implications
• The results of the study boil down to the conclusion
that allowing ample preparation time would
engender improved CAF.
• In order to promote the CAF of EFL learners,
practitioners might, among other thing, opt for
augmenting their WTC.

18. Limitations of the Study
• Thirty students took part in this study; larger
samples, accordingly, more representative of the
larger population may yield more conclusive results.
• This amalgamation of process and activities to be
performed in the classroom will definitely require a
seasoned teacher not every naïve one could do the
job.
• Last but not least, another limitation is pertinent to
the experimental conditions themselves which may
naturally exert some restrictions .

19. Suggestions for Further Research
• Further research could be a need to investigate the
correlation between the same factors under other
implementation variables such as careful online planning and
pressured online planning as well as other variations of pre-
task planning. Another further point is to study the
correlation of other individual differences (anxiety,
motivation, working memory and aptitude) and planning
condition.
• This study was essentially a laboratory-based study without
considering the qualitative dimensions of task performance. It
is a necessity for mixed-method research studies which make
it possible for both inter-learners as well as intra-learner
variants. Findings obtained from such studies could be more
easily brought down to the context of L2 classroom.

20. Thank you