The Relationship between Willingness to Communicate in English and Psychological Adjustment of Iraqi EFL Learners

Abstract

The current research aims to examine the willingness to communicate and psychological adjustment of Iraqi EFL undergraduate students. To achieve the main aim, a sample of 100 male and female Iraqis’ undergraduate students studying English as a foreign language was chosen randomly from two different public colleges in Baghdad city for the academic year 2023-2024. Two scales have five Likert alternatives of 17 and 16 items developed by McCroskey & Richmond (1990) and Wais (2010), respectively were administered to the research sample to collect the needed data. The results revealed that Iraqi EFL undergraduate students have a willingness to communicate in the English language. Iraqi EFL undergraduate students have a good level of psychological adjustment. There is no statistically significant difference in the willingness to communicate between male and female students. There is no significant difference in psychological adjustment between male and female students, as for students’ willingness to communicate and psychological adjustment relationship, a positive correlation is proved. It implies that the more psychological adjustment a student experiences in the learning environment, the more students have a willingness to communicate in the English language. The researcher recommended creating a very encouraging educational environment would motivate language learners to communicate more.