Toward the Role of Iranian EFL Learners’ Academic Engagement and Their Tolerance of Ambiguity in Predicting EFL Learners’ Willingness to Communicate

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of English Language, Shah.C., Islamic Azad University, Shahreza, Iran

Abstract

Academic engagement, tolerance of ambiguity, and willingness to communicate are each recognized as important contributors to second-language learning as they are correlated with many individuals, cognitive, meta-cognitive, and social constructs, yet their combined influence is not well understood from a pedagogical perspective in the Iranian EFL context. This study investigates how academic engagement and tolerance of ambiguity jointly predict Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to communicate. Using a quantitative design, data were collected from 273 Iranian EFL learners using three validated instruments: the Academic Engagement Scale, the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale, and the Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire. Pearson correlation analyses revealed positive relationships among the three constructs. Multiple regression analysis indicated that academic engagement and tolerance of ambiguity together explained 35% of the variance in WTC. These findings underscore the meaningful roles of engagement and ambiguity tolerance in second-language development. The paper closes with recommendations for EFL instructors, learners, and materials designers.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of Mazandaran. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

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  • Receive Date: 31 January 2026
  • Revise Date: 12 April 2026
  • Accept Date: 18 April 2026
  • First Publish Date: 30 April 2026
  • Publish Date: 30 April 2026

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