The Effects of Authoritative vs. Facilitative Interventions on EFL Learnersʼ Willingness to Communicate

Subject Areas : Educational Psychology

Mohammad Ali Yaghchi ¹ , Nasser Ghafoori ² , Nesa Nabifar ³

1 - Department of English, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
2 - Department of English, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
3 - Department of English, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

Received: 2016-05-10 Accepted : 2016-09-21 Published : 2016-11-21

Keywords: EFL learners, Willingness to communicate, Authoritative Intervention, Facilitative Intervention,

Abstract :

The present study sought to investigate the effects of employing the intervention provision framework put forward by John Heron, entitled Six-Category Intervention Analysis, on EFL learners' willingness to communicate. This model of intervention provision, having its genesis in clinical supervision, can regulate the verbal behavior and actual sentences used by teachers to intervene in language learning contexts. The Preliminary English Test (PET) as an English language proficiency test was administered to 60 participants. Based on the results obtained, 36 participants were selected and assigned to two groups of 18. The first group was authoritative intervention group in which the teacher suggested what had to be done, provided information, or confronted the learners. The second group was facilitative intervention, in which the teacher drew out ideas, solutions, or self-confidence. The participants in both groups completed Willingness to Communicate questionnaire before and after the treatment, as well as in the follow-up period. The findings indicated that the application of Six-Category Intervention Analysis brought about significant changes in the performance of the facilitative group that outperformed the authoritative intervention group.This research could carry some important implications for all stakeholders in the realm of foreign language teaching

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