A Correlational Study of Willingness to communicate and English Language Proficiency.

The following correlational study was designed to explore any possible relationship among Willingness to communicate (WTC), communication anxiety (CA), perceived competence (PC) and English language proficiency. The sample comprised of 80 EFL learners, both male and female, majoring in Masters' in English at Education University, Multan. Statistical procedure included Descriptive statistics and A Pearson Product-moment Correlation. All the correlations were found to be significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed). CA was observed as strongly and negatively correlated with WTC and EPT, suggesting that anxious students were relatively less willing to communicate in English language and they showed a tendency to perform poorly on English language proficiency test. These anxious students were also observed to rate themselves to be at a lower perceived competence level. The correlations among WTC, PC and EPT were positive and strong, indicating that the students more willing to communicate, were high achievers on EPT and held a high opinion of their own competence in English language. The study suggests that Pakistani EFL learners are hesitant speakers of English language in most of the social situations and there is a need to reduce their anxiety and enhance their confidence to improve their English language oral skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]