Teacher Feedback and Willingness to Communicate
A Qualitative Analysis of First-Year English Undergraduates in Pakistani Universities
Keywords:
Willingness to Communicate, teacher feedback, classroom psychological safety, English as a second language, higher education, corrective feedback, Pakistan,Abstract
Willingness to communicate (WTC) refers to a learner’s readiness to initiate communication when an opportunity arises and is a central construct in second-language acquisition. Teacher feedback may shape this readiness by influencing learners’ confidence, anxiety, and perceptions of classroom safety. This qualitative case study examined how first-year English undergraduates in one public and one private Pakistani university perceived the influence of positive, corrective, and encouraging teacher feedback on their WTC in English. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions with 50 purposively selected students and analysed thematically. Participants generally described positive, effort-focused feedback as supportive of confidence and classroom participation. They described corrective feedback as context dependent: private and sensitively delivered correction was often experienced as helpful, whereas harsh or public correction was associated with embarrassment, anxiety, and withdrawal. Teacher approachability, classroom climate, and peer presence also shaped how feedback was interpreted. The findings indicate that feedback in the studied settings functioned not only as pedagogical information but also as an affective and relational signal. The article recommends feedback practices that preserve accuracy while supporting learners’ psychological safety and communicative risk-taking.
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Data Availability Statement
Data can be made available upon request.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Aqsa Maqsood, Dr. Jabir Hussain, Ahmad Raza (Corresponding Author) (Author)
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