Examination of the interrelationship of trainee teachers' L2 communication orientations and their academic success

Abstract

One of the major problems for many second/foreign language learners is conducting pragmatic communication in the target language. This chapter examined the relationship between the fourth year trainee teachers' communication orientations in English-willingness to communicate (L2 WTC), communication apprehension (L2 CA), and self-perceived communication competence (L2 SPCC)-and their academic success in their undergraduate study (Grade Point Average (GPA) scores of the first three years in their program). 152 trainee teachers studying at the English Language Teacher Training degree programs of two universities in Turkey and Cyprus participated in this chapter. Three measures were employed in the process of data collection: Willingness to Communicate (WTC), Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24), and Self-Perceived Communication Competence (SPCC). Pearson Correlation was used in the data analyses to examine any correlation and relationship between various communication orientations and academic success. The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant correlation between academic success and any of the communication orientations in either of the groups. It was also observed that L2 WTC, L2 CA and L2 SPCC were significantly correlated with each other in both groups at .05 level. The strongest relationship was found between L2 SPCC and L2 CA (r= -.649). L2 SPCC and L2 WTC were positively and significantly correlated (r= .556). These findings were parallel to some other studies in similar contexts (Çetinkaya, 2005; Yüksel and Yu, 2008). Moreover, correlations of communication orientations between two groups from two different universities were parallel. Findings of the study also revealed that L2 CA was negatively and significantly correlated with L2 WTC and L2 SPCC (r= -.44) at .05 level, in other words, students with high level of communication anxiety tended to perceive themselves less competent in L2 communication, and hence had low willingness to communicate. The lack of correlation between academic success and communication orientations was quite surprising. This might be due the nature of the variable (i.e., academic success) we chose. Students might be academically successful without communicating often because of the educational system. Academic success in Turkish university system usually depends on the written exams (midterms and finals) that mostly require students write essays or answer multiple-choice test questions. This leaves little or no room for any motivation towards communication in the target language. © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.