"Study on the Willingness to Communicate in Korean Language Learners: Focusing on Differences by Language Area, Nationality, Korean Language Proficiency, and Study Abroad Type"

This study investigates the willingness to communicate among Korean language learners and analyzes its current state to provide a foundational study on communication willingness of foreign learners in Korea. The subjects of this study included 511 Korean language learners studying in Korea; the largest group among the language trainees were Mongolian speakers, while Chinese speakers represented the largest group among undergraduate students. Generally, the language trainees tended to rate their Korean language abilities more highly than the institutional evaluations indicated; however, the undergraduate students evaluated their Korean language abilities somewhat lower than what was indicated in their objective assessments. The communication willingness measurement tool used in the study was adapted from the scale of MacIntyre et al. (2001), and the data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. The results indicate that while the learners recognized the importance of communication, their willingness to communicate was relatively low. The highest communication willingness was observed in the listening domain, while the writing domain exhibited the lowest willingness. Differences in communication willingness was noted based on nationality, with Mongolian learners exhibiting high verbal and non-verbal communication willingness, while Chinese learners exhibited low communication willingness in the domain of writing. Analysis based on Korean language proficiency also showed that beginner learners exhibited the highest communication willingness in the domains of listening and reading. Finally, the language trainees displayed higher speaking and integrated speaking-listening willingness than the undergraduate and graduate students. These results suggest that communication willingness varies according to the type of study abroad experience.