EFL students’ WTC across communicative situations in an instructional context: a quantitative study with focus on a public university in Ethiopia

Abstract Despite its crucial importance and being a topical issue in the current SLA research, EFL students’ WTC has received little attention in the Ethiopian educational context. The current study therefore aimed to explore EFL students’ WTC across communicative situations in an Ethiopian higher education instructional context. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from a randomly selected sample of 258 first-year EFL students taking “Communicative English skills” courses in Werabe University, one of the public universities in Ethiopia. The data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the target students’ WTC varies across communicative situations. While Topic enticement , Off-instruction communication and Integrative orientation were found triggering students’ WTC, low perceived competence, communication anxiety, low learning responsibility, and classroom conditions (in part) were found hampering the students’ WTC in the class. The finding is believed to be useful reference especially for teachers to help achieve the desired goal of ESL/EFL instruction.