A Correlative Study Between Senior High School Students’ Willingness To Communicate In English And Anxiety In English Class

English teaching has gradually focused on the development of learners’ comprehensive language use ability and communicative competence.And for this,the learners must be willing to communicate in English first.Maclntyre et al.(1998)considered that to improve learners’ willingness to communicate(WTC)was the primary goal of English teaching.Maclntyre et al.(1998)described WTC in the second language as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a special person or persons,using the second language(L2)”.Learners’ WTC in English directly affects their performance in class and teaching effects.Besides,numerous studies indicate that anxiety in English class has a great impact on students’ language output and L2 WTC(Horwitz et al.1986;Peng 2007).Thus,the investigation of the relationship between senior high school students’ L2 WTC and anxiety in English class remains necessary in terms of developing their communicative competence and enhancing teaching effect.Based on MacIntyre et al.’s(1998)heuristic model of WTC,taking the case of a senior high school in Tianjin,this study attempts to probe into the current situation of senior high school students’ L2 WTC and anxiety in English class as well as their relationship,in order to improve teaching method and stimulate students’ L2 WTC in English class.Research questions are as follows:(1)What is the current situation of senior high school students’ L2 WTC in English class?(2)What is the current picture of senior high school students’ anxiety in English class?(3)What is the relationship between senior high school students’ L2 WTC and anxiety in English class?The present study had 180 students of Grade one from a senior high school in Tianjin as participants,then the author conducted quantitative and qualitative researches through questionnaire and interview.The quantitative data was analyzed by SPSS 22.0,and the interview was transferred and also analyzed.The study indicates that:(1)Senior high school students possess a relatively low level of L2 WTC in English class.Most students are reluctant to communicate with others in English.(2)Senior high school students’ anxiety in English class remains at a high level.Many students in English class would experience communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation.(3)There exists a significantly negative correlation between senior high students’ L2 WTC and anxiety in English class.That means the higher one’s anxiety level in English class is,the lower his L2 WTC is.In addition,communication apprehension can negatively predict students’ L2 WTC in English class to some extent.According to the above results,the present study also provides some suggestions to reduce senior high school students’ anxiety and improve their L2 WTC in English class: students should have confidence in their communicative competency,improve their English proficiency and so on;teachers need to get rid of traditional teaching concepts,change teaching method,pay attention to ways of correction and feedback and so forth.