Iranian Bilingual EFL Learners’ Willingness to Communicate across Gender

Abstract

Interactive versatility in the global community is a vital skill that must be catered for particularly in EFL contexts where learners strive to achieve native like competence in order to enter the international market and compete with the numerous rivals who are flooding the job market. This competence, however, grows gradually during years of attending language classes and through participation in communicative activities for which willingness to community (WTC) is essential and may be impacted by individual differences like gender and linguistic background. The main question addressed in the present study is the extent to which Iranian EFL learners may differ significantly in their WTC with respect to gender. To serve the purpose of the study, a random sample of 250 male and female bilingual Turkish-speaking EFL learners were recruited from three language institutes in Tabriz, Iran. They were asked to complete the WTC questionnaire to find out the level of their WTC. The independent samples t-test analysis of the findings revealed low levels of WTC for both groups with males reporting significantly higher WTC. The findings support sociocultural, psychological, and sociolinguistic variations that can lead to gender differences and will be discussed.