A Study On The Dynamic Changes Of Chinese University Students’ Willingness To Communicate

As one of the hot issues in the field of second language(L2)acquisition,Willingness to Communicate(WTC)can help learners achieve the development and acquisition of the L2 ability through activating the learner’s internal language learning motivation.Learners’ intrinsic language learning motivation may instigate their language communication behavior,thus promoting the learners’ L2 development and acquisition.This research began from the perspective of learners’ willingness to communicate in L2 and took 460 non-English major university students from one university in Jiangsu province as the research participants.Then the research was based on the model of willingness to communicate in L2(Yashima,2002),and the questionnaire survey method was adopted through the online platform Questionnaire Star.What’s more,the research deployed the structural equation modeling approach to analyze the data of a large-scale questionnaire to investigate the constructs of Chinese learners’ willingness to communicate in English.The correlations between different variables of Chinese university students’ willingness to communicate in English,as well as the developing trajectory of the inter-variable relationship,were explored.On top of that,the Chinese model of the willingness to communicate in L2 and the Japanese model were compared to represent the discrepancy.The present research is guided by the following three questions:(1)What are the correlations between WTC of Chinese university students with their international posture,L2 learning motivation,L2 communicative confidence and L2 proficiency?(2)What are the dynamic changes of Chinese university students’ English WTC in different grades?(3)Taking WTC of Chinese university students and that of Japanese university students as an example,how does a multilingual environment affect WTC in L2?Based on the theory of willingness to communicate and Dynamic System Theory,the collected questionnaire-data on Chinese university learners’ willingness to communicate in English were analyzed through the structural equation modeling and the result findings were obtained as follows:(1)The correlations between WTC of Chinese university students with the factors were as follows: firstly,international posture exerted a huge and direct impact on WTC.Secondly,international posture made a significant influence on L2 learning motivation while a positive correlation between Chinese university students’ learning interest and learning motivation could be identified.Thirdly,L2 learning motivation,L2 communicative confidence and L2 proficiency all affected Chinese university students’ WTC in English.However,very little influence of L2 proficiency was identified on WTC.(2)The dynamic changes of Chinese university students’ English willingness to communicate in different grades were as follows: on the one hand,on the whole,Chinese university students’ communicative confidence in L2 made no significant impact on their willingness to communicate in L2.However,on the other hand,different intra-variable correlations in the model of Chinese university students’ willingness to communicate were disclosed among different grades.Firstly,the freshmen’ international posture had a more prominent impact on their WTC in English and their English language proficiency was negatively correlated with their communication confidence in English.Secondly,the sophomores’ international posture,particularly reflected in their interest in international affairs,impacted significantly on their English-learning motivation.Thirdly,compared with those underclass students,the junior students had the strongest confidence in English communication,thus their English-language communicative confidence showed the most significant impact on their communicative willingness in English.(3)The multilingual environment had the following effects on learners’ willingness to communicate in L2.Took the willingness to communicate of Chinese university students and that of the Japanese university students as an example,both similarities and discrepancies were identified between the Chinese model of the willingness to communicate in L2 and the Japanese model.On the one hand,Chinese and Japanese university students’ international posture affected their motivation to learn English,as well as their willingness to communicate in English;on the other hand,both Chinese and Japanese university students’ English proficiency had little influence on their willingness to communicate in English.As for the impact of international posture on WTC,a more significant and direct influence was identified in the Chinese model.It can be seen that the multilingual learning environment makes the different willingness to communicate in L2.These research findings can provide some insightful pedagogical implications.Firstly,given the importance of students’ international posture,English education in universities and universities should target at enhancing learners’ international awareness and outlook.Secondly,Chinese learners’ unwillingness to communicate or the lack of confidence resulting from the Confucious culture should be fully considered.Thirdly,the contents of the English instruction and the in-class activities should be properly designed in order to widen students’ international horizons and boost students’ WTC in L2 and L2 confidence.Furthermore,the development of the English curriculum syllabus,as well as the English teaching materials design,should take the learners’ international posture into account as well.The significant inter-correlation between Chinese university students’ international posture,their L2 learning motivation,their L2 confidence and WTC,indicated that contemporary Chinese university students are empowered with an acute sense of international responsibility and involvement.More opportunities and channels should be provided by the universities or the educational organizations concerned.Apart from the pedagogical significance,the present study is also of theoretical significance.The comparisons between Chinese and Japanese university learners’ willingness to communicate in English can fill in the gap of the lack of Chinese evidence in the current research of willingness to communicate in L2.