The Relationship Between Iranian EFL Learners’ International Posture and Willingness to Communicate Across High Versus Low English Proficiency Levels

The study attempted to investigate the relationship between male Iranian EFL learners’ international posture (IP) and willingness to communicate (WTC) across two proficiency levels. The study was carried out with 106 participants from selected universities in Tabriz and Sarab, Northwest Iran, who were divided into two groups of high and low proficiency based on a Preliminary English Test (PET). The data were collected by the administration of WTC Scale (McCroskey & Richmond, 1990) and IP questionnaire (Yashima, 2000). The collected data were analyzed through Pearson correlation and independent samples t-test. The results showed that there was positive correlation between WTC and IP in the high-proficiency group while the correlation in the low proficiency-group was not statistically significant. It was also found that high proficiency learners had higher levels of both IP and WTC compared to their lower level counterparts. The findings of the study offer pedagogical implications for EFL learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.