“I’m Happy to Speak with My Accent”: Does Language Attitude Influence Willingness to Communicate?

Abstract

Scholarship on students’ language attitudes toward their non-native English accent with respect to their willingness to communicate (WTC) has remained relatively underexplored, especially in the Thai context. Recognizing this gap, this paper examined Thai university students’ language attitudes toward their Thai English accent and their WTC. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the study adopted a language attitudes questionnaire and interview questions as research instruments. A total of 30 first-year education students, majoring in English at a Thai autonomous public university, were selected to participate in the study. The quantitative data was collected from the pre-, mid-, and post-surveys, and it was analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Interview responses were examined through content analysis. The findings showed no significant differences across variables. However, the relationship between the two variables analyzed using bivariate correlations showed significant differences in the pre- and post-surveys. Interestingly, the qualitative data revealed positive perceptions toward the language attitude and WTC. It indicated that participants are willing to speak with their Thai English accent in various situations. The outcomes of this study have pedagogical implications and outline further avenues of research.