Examining EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Strategies for Fostering Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in Online Classes

Communicating in the target language is a significant element contributing to success in language acquisition (Swain and Lapkin 1995). Authentic use of L2 is an important part of language teaching and learning with the objective of promoting learners’ communicative competence. Teachers’ role is very important here as their interventions can boost learners’ desire to communicate at a specific moment. In online classes in English institutes, teachers provide the students with authentic material, but without any good results. Therefore, this study aims to examine Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of strategies to foster a willingness to communicate with learners in online classes. The participants of this study were 38 teachers from an English Language institute in Yazd, Iran. The data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively. Five teachers were interviewed about their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of fostering WTC in online classes. The results revealed that the motivational strategies employed by the teachers helped foster WTC in the online classes, followed by teacher immediacy. In addition, the findings of the qualitative part also confirmed the results. Teachers have a vital role in provoking a positive atmosphere and encouraging the learners to participate in communications.