Psychological Barriers to English Communication in EFL Classrooms: A Study of Undergraduate WTC at NUST, Pakistan

https://doi.org/10.55966/assaj.2025.4.1.043

Abstract

This paper presents a research on the psychological factors of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in English among undergraduate students during the teacher-student communication in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. Although language proficiency is adequate, a lot of students exhibit reluctance to oral participation as a result of affective barriers. The study embraced the mixed-methods design that allowed gathering quantitative data using surveys (n = 276) and qualitative data via semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The results indicate that language anxiety is the greatest impediment with two-thirds of the respondents (68 percent) expressing moderate and high anxiety during English speaking. Some of the contributing factors are the fear of judgment, accent shaming and grammatical inaccuracies. Moreover, self-efficacy was also identified as a strong predictor of WTC (r = 0.72, p < 0.01), which is a manifestation of the gap between the perceived and real linguistic skills. The classroom climate and teacher behavior were also of importance, students were found to work better with collaborative and supportive teaching methods and the WTC was 40 percent higher under such methods than under authoritarian methods. The participation was also moderated by peer influence especially in the collectivistic environment, spontaneous speech was repelled by fear of peer judgment. Nevertheless, the interactive pedagogical methods, including task-based learning, role-plays, and formative feedback, were revealed to minimize anxiety rates and increase communicative confidence in the long run. Students who were always involved in such activities showed a 25 percentage increase in WTC. The research finds out that linguistic competence is frequently trumped by such psychological constructs as anxiety, self-perception and motivation in students in shaping their communication behavior. It suggests that the teacher should train, have peers and technology integration to support a more emotional and interesting learning environment. These conclusions provide an overall guideline to the redesign of English language pedagogy, especially in multilingual and culturally diverse environments.

Keywords: Willingness to Communicate (WTC), Language Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, Teacher-Student Interaction, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), Classroom Climate, Peer Influence, Task-Based Learning, Motivation, Psychological Barriers