Willingness to Communicate in English: A Gender Based Study

Abstract

Willingness to communicate in a second or foreign language has a lot to do
with student achievement in second language classrooms. This paper investigates the
willingness of male and female students to communicate in English rather than their
native or national language. Focusing on McIntyre’s model of Willingness to
Communicate in second/foreign languages, the data were collected using questionnaires
from 353 BS final year students of BS (Undergraduate) from a public sector university in
Pakistan. Descriptive analyses show that there are no major differences in the use of
language inside and outside of classroom. Overall, there are no major differences in
willingness to communicate, however, in some situations, boys and girls have arguable
differences and this helps us to understand that while teaching a foreign language
activities should be organized based on different individual variables like gender.