Quantifying Factors Affecting Willingness to Communicate in English: Understanding Young Learners at Perhentian Island

Abstract

Perhentian Island is a renowned islands by the locals and the tourists around the world. The island receives a high number of tourists every year. The high number of tourism activities has influenced the English communication skills among the locals who are using their own local dialect as a medium of communication. Nevertheless, based on the school yearly assessment, the proficiency among the pupils in the one and only school in Perhentian Island did not show any significant effect. It has brought up the question of how much the tourism activities could influence the English proficiency of the pupils. This research investigated the pupils’ willingness to communicate in English as a Second Language by applying the variables extracted from Theory Reason Action (TRA) and the variables from willingness to communicate (WTC). The respondents involved in this research (N=107) were the pupils at the Perhentian Island. The findings showed that the willingness of communication in L2 has influenced the pupils’ attitude and behavior in using English language during the school hours. The results reveal that perceived attitude is the main factor that influenced pupils’ readiness in Perhentian Island to communicate in English as a second language. The implications of the results and future research directions are also discussed.