Abstract Having good listening comprehension ability has always been important for L2 learners, especially for high school and university students. Naturally, studying the variables which might improve our understanding of this skill is academically crucial. Therefore, this path analysis study was designed to examine the interrelationship between Iranian EFL learners’ goal orientation, willingness to communicate, listening anxiety, and listening comprehension. To this end, 200 EFL learners, selected based on convenience sampling method from private institutes in Kerman and Hamadan were asked to complete the Goal Orientation Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie 1991), Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire (Cao & Philip, 2006), Listening Anxiety Questionnaire (Kim, 2000) and the listening section of the IELTS exam. After data collection, the hypothesized model was tested through AMOSE program. The results revealed that goal orientation, willingness to communicate, and listening anxiety were significantly associated with listening comprehension. Also, it was found that, among subcategories of goal orientation, only mastery goal orientation predicted listening comprehension. Similarly, among components of WTC, WTC in public and WTC in group were found to be predictors of listening comprehension. It is hoped that the proposed model will help EFL teachers, learners, textbook writers, and syllabus designers increase their understanding of the factors affecting listening comprehension skill.
