ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
To Speak or not to Speak? Theoretical Framework of Willingness to Communicate
by
Emina Kahrimanović 1 
1 International Burch University, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
ABSTRACT
The decision of a speaker whether to communicate in a specific situation or not, assuming they have the right to choose, has been identified in the current literature as the speaker's willingness to communicate (WTC). In recent times, with the communication becoming the backbone of successful professional and private lives and the role of world languages ever increasing, the importance of willingness to communicate in one of the world languages (English, French, German, etc.) comes to the fore. Therefore, many authors have embarked on a journey to prove why willingness to communicate shall be put under the spotlight and why should language instructors set the engendering of WTC as one of the main aims of language instruction. Among the abundance of reasons, it is often argued that willingness to communicate may facilitate language learning itself. This paper represents a theoretical framework of research conducted on the subject of willingness to communicate over the past several decades, with emphasis on WTC in language learning.
Keywords: willingness to communicate, unwillingness to communicate, variables influencing WTC
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
Kahrimanović E. (2021). To Speak or not to Speak? Theoretical Framework of Willingness to Communicate, MAP Social Sciences, 1(1), 37-47. doi: https://doi.org/10.53880/2744-2454.2021.1.1.37