Given that communication is the ultimate goal of language classes and that humanistic psychology ‎esteems education as a means of improving the quality of life, in this study, we intended to juxtapose ‎the two views, coining a new form of feedback, called life feedback, to address the extent to which ‎the proposed feedback is able to raise willingness to communicate (WTC) in language learners. In so ‎doing, 20 language teachers along with their 324 students took part in the study. Adopting a mixed-‎methods approach, in the qualitative phase, we observed 30 minutes of discussion in the language ‎classes. Based on the type of feedback (i.e., life or linguistic) the teachers gave to their learners, we ‎categorized them into life teachers and linguistic teachers. As for the quantitative phase, WTC ‎questionnaire was administered to the learners. To analyze the data, an independent samples t-test ‎was run. The overall results indicated that the teachers who mainly provided their learners with life ‎feedback, in comparison with those who made more use of linguistic feedback, could better foster ‎learners’ WTC. The concept was discussed and implications were provided for the language education ‎context.‎

Keywords