The Correlation Between Speaking Anxiety, Motivation, And Willingness To Communicate (WTC) In Secondary High School

prof. dr. h. ismaun, m.pd.; prof. herri mulyono, ph.d.; prof. dr. gunawan suryoputro, m.hum.;

This study investigates the predictive correlation and relationship of English
willingness to communicate (WTC), motivation, and speaking anxiety among
secondary high school students. The study concludes that speaking anxiety is
negatively correlated with WTC (β = -0.0649 in Model 1; β = -0.07006 in Model
2), indicating that more anxious students are less willing to communicate, but the correlation is not statistically significant. In contrast, motivation is significantly correlated at an extremely high level with WTC (β = 0.3622 in Model 1; β = 0.36556 in Model 2, p < 0.001), suggesting that highly motivated students are more likely to engage in English communication. In addition, the relationship between motivation of students and their willingness to communicate is statistically significant and very strong in support of motivation's role as a predictor of communicative behavior. The analysis of multiple regression shows motivation and speaking anxiety together explain 17.6% of the variation in WTC (R² = 0.176; F = 9.34, p < 0.001), with motivation explaining it more than anxiety. Finally, the study identifies practically significant differences in WTC as per students' motivation and speaking anxiety levels. High motivation students are observed to report higher WTC, while highly anxious students tend to report lower WTC. These findings indicate the necessity of building motivation and controlling speaking anxiety in order to enhance students' communicative engagement in English.