Öğrencilerin iletişim kurma isteksizliğine sebep olan etmenlerin araştırılması

The main aim of this thesis is to explore the factors contributing to the university students' unwillingness to communicate in English. For this purpose, a mixed method research design was applied to 100 students at English Language Teaching (ELT) Department selected through the stratified sampling method and 4 instructors who gave lectures to these students. The data were collected from students through a questionnaire including three dimensions which are affective factors, teacher-related factors and environmental factors leading to negative communication behavior. Moreover, an interview was conducted with instructors to gain insight into the reasons underlying students' reluctance to communicate in English. The findings obtained from the questionnaire indicated that environmental factors such as rapport between students and teachers, class size, materials and classroom atmosphere are identified to be the strongest ones leading to the students' reluctance to communicate in English, whereas affective factors including anxiety, shyness, lack of motivation, lack of vocabulary knowledge, lack of self-confidence, fear of being criticized, topic familiarity, peer pressure and fear of making mistakes have the second highest impact on students' negative communication behavior. Lastly, teacher-related factors such as teacher attitudes, teacher behaviors, lack of teacher support, lack of opportunity and the way teacher uses target language and mother tongue can be said to have the lowest effect which keeps students unwilling to speak English during the lesson. Moreover, the results of the interview pointed out that teachers' perceptions of the reasons why students are unwilling to communicate in English are subsumed mostly under both affective factors and teacher-related factors, however, only a few teachers take into consideration the factors in relation to instructional environment to explain the low desire of students to speak. Therefore, to alleviate the negative effects of these factors on students' communication behavior, adjustments should be made by teachers in the classroom based on students' perceptions.