EFL Education Journal , 9(1), 1-13 ISSN 2827-8402 https://jurnal.unej.ac.id/index.php/EFLEJ 1 FACTORS AFFECTING SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE IN ENGLISH IN THE EFL CLASSROOM Ervin Candra Hari Andika 1) , Aan Erlyana Fardhani 2) , Eka Wahjuningsih 3) (E-mail: ervincandra.h.a@gmail.com) 1,2,3) English Language Education Department Jember University Jl. Kalimantan 37, Jember 68121 Abstract: This study aims at revealing factors affecting senior high school students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in English in the classroom. This study employed a descriptive research design, and was situated in an Indonesian state senior high school in Sumenep, Madura. The data were collected from 57 students by using an adapted questionnaire taken from Riasati & Rahimi (2018), and the result was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the students’ WTC in English in class were affected by both individual and situational factors. The individual factors here include L2 self-confidence, L2 self-perceived communication competence, L2 anxiety, and fear of making mistakes. Meanwhile, the situational factors consist of task types, interlocutors’ effects, topics of discussion, and seating locations. Thus, it was suggested that the English teachers should not only encourage the students’ self-confidence in speaking English, or convince them that making mistakes is part of learning, but also should be careful in deciding the type of task given, topic to be discussed, and even the seating arrangements for their students, since all of these affect the students’ WTC in English in class. Keywords: willingness to communicate; English classroom communication; spoken communication Introduction Willingness to communicate (WTC) in English is crucial for English students in the process of learning the language. It was reported that students’ WTC in English greatly affects their achievement in that target language (Ningsih et al., 2018). Further, MacIntyre et al. (1998) stated that the objective of foreign language learning should be to encourage the students to have a higher degree of WTC in the target language, and to make them get more involved in authentic L2 use. Nevertheless, in EFL classrooms, some students voluntarily speak up while some others are reluctant to speak when they are given the opportunity to use the L2 (Riasati and Rahimi, 2018). Regarding this, MacIntyre (2007) stated that various factors encourage or discourage someone to use the L2 in communication. Hence, English