Language Centres at a Crossroads

The study aims to discover the extent of country differences in attitudes of students toward English in four distinct countries. Willingness to communicate and the needs to utilize English differ with regard to the situational context, domain as well as culture. However, there is no clear evidence as to how they differ and what contributes to the differences. There might be a wide gap between the European and the Asian contexts regarding the attitude and needs of students toward English. In order to investigate the issue, a questionnaire adapted from Iwamoto (2014) which was developed through multiple studies (McCroskey & Richmond, 1987: MacIntyre & Charos, 1996) was utilized. The questionnaire has 30 items in which willingness to communicate statements are supposed to be assessed by students. Participants answer questions on a 6-point likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Four researchers from the Czech Republic, Japan, the Slovak Republic, and Spain administered the questionnaire submitting it to university students at six universities in the respective countries. More than 600 students participated in the research. The participants majored in various fields of study such as economics, law, natural science, management, mathematics, physics, ICT and business. The participants were students of one Czech university (Charles University), two Japanese universities (Dokkyo University and Tokiwa University), two Slovak universities (Comenius University and the University of Economics in Bratislava), and one Spanish university (the University of Nebrija). The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 22. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and through exploratory factor analysis to discover their categorical features. The results were considered in terms of the geographical backgrounds of the participants. The subject of their study program as well as insights of the researchers were considered. The dimensionality of the 30 items over the four countries was analyzed using Principal axis factor analysis. The scree plot proved that the data were not unidimensional. Based on the plot, four factors were rotated using Promax rotation. All data sets showed four distinct factors. In Japan, self-confidence, positive attitude toward speaking English, speaking nervousness, and willingness to communicate were yielded. In the Slovak Republic, speaking nervousness, willingness to communicate, self-confidence, and motivational intensity were yielded. In the Czech Republic, fear of negative evaluation, motivational intensity, self-confidence, and willingness to communicate were yielded.

Studie čtyř autorů sleduje kulturní a oborovou podmíněnost „ochoty komunikovat" (z angl. willingness to communicate) na vzorku více než 600 univerzitních studentů ze tří evropských a jedné asijské země (Česká republika, Japonsko, Slovensko, Španělsko). K rozboru této podmíněnosti byl využit standardní dotazník čítající 30 položek. Data byla následně statisticky interpretována za použití technik deskriptivní statistiky a faktorové analýzy. Ve všech čtyřech datových souborech analýza odhalila významnou korelaci uvnitř čtyř konceptů, které se ovšem mezi jednotlivými zeměmi lišily. Byla tedy prokázána výrazná kulturní podmíněnost tohoto lingvodidaktického fenoménu. Autoři, univerzitní pedagogové, ve své studii interpretují statistická zjištění na základě rozboru jednotlivých položek a na pozadí oborového zaměření svých studentů.

Helena Šajgalíková is an associate professor at the Faculty of Applied Languages, University of Economics in Bratislava, and the Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava. Currently, she teaches the courses on Communication and Culture, Organizational Cultures and Organizational Cultures – European Features both in Slovak and English. Her research focuses mainly on various cultural aspects of human interactions, primarily in organizational context, namely the culturally conditioned feelings of happiness through different expectations and outcomes of employment of people with different value profiles to culturally conditioned communication, identity, and the role a language plays in communication processes.

Takayuki Nakanishi is a professor at Dokkyo University in Japan. His current research topics include Willingness to Communicate, Language Testing and Extensive Reading. He was a former president of JALT (The Japan Association for Language Teaching) Ibaraki Chapter. His latest articles are entitled: Learner perceptions and attitudes toward learning styles in Japan and Taiwan (Japan Language Testing Association Journal, 2008) and Extensive reading and the effect of shadowing (Reading in a Foreign Language, 2011) and, A meta-analysis of extensive reading research (TESOL Quarterly, 2015). He also co-authored three textbooks of NAN'UN-DO English Vocabulary Series for Academic Purposes (2016).

Martin Mikulas currently works as a senior lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. Currently, he lectures in various language and TEFL methodology courses. Dr. Mikulas does research in Pragmatic Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Morphology and Discourse Analysis and their applications in SLA. He is a member of the executive committee of the UNIcert Language Units in Central Europe and works as a sworn translator of the English language in the Czech Republic and the European Union.