چكيده
Several studies have been done about willingness to communicate (WTC) and bilingualism considering a variety of variables like motivation, aptitude, learning strategy, working memory and personality as MacIntyre et al. (1998) stated in his model. In this connection, many researchers have attempted to discover, inter alia, the relationship of the WTC and different factors assumed to contribute to success in second language acquisition (SLA). To add to the available body of research findings in this area of investigation, the present comparative correlational study aimed at exploring the association between WTC and individualsʹ speaking style among monolingual and bilingual EFL learners in Iran. To this end, 50 Iranian monolingual EFL learners and 50 Persian-Turkish bilingual EFL learners of varying levels of proficiency were randomly recruited; they were both males and females with different learning experience backgrounds in EFL. A modified version of a self report questionnaire with two sections was provided. The first five statements were adapted from Kormos (1999), the aim of which was to investigate whether learners attribute more importance to the precise and accurate expression of their thoughts than to the fluent and quick delivery of their message, and whether they are bothered by making mistakes in their speech. The second section with 20 statements with 5-point Likert scale was adapted from a reliable questionnaire (Simic,2014) which are related to factors that may affect students’ Willingness to Communicate. The participants were offered factors that can influence one’s Willingness to Communicate in class. Based on the findings of this study, there was a significant difference between monolingual EFL learners and bilingual EFL learners in terms of WTC and speaking style. Specifically, the results revealed that fluency-centeredness rather than accuracy-centeredness as speaking style and bilingualism positively relate to WTC. Based on the outcomes, it seems plausible to point that in a multilingual context EFL learners are more eager to communicate in an L2. The findings are of theoretical and pedagogical significance for SLA.
