A Study Of The Correlation Between Foreign Language Enjoyment And Willingness To Communicate In English

With the development of second language acquisition,an upsurge has been raised in the research on the influencing factors of second language acquisition at home and abroad,for example,willingness to communicate(WTC)in a second language.The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School English(2017)emphasizes that great importance should be attached to the usage of a second language and the upgrade of students’ communicative competence.However,the WTC of L2 has been considered as a direct and great impact on communicative competence.In recent years,foreign studies on willingness to communicate tend to be refined and diversified,while domestic studies mainly focus on two aspects: the influencing factors of willingness to communicate L2 and the current situation of willingness to communicate.Most studies are limited to the willingness to communicate itself,while few studies explore the relationship between willingness to communicate in a second language and other factors of second language acquisition.Since positive psychology was introduced into second language acquisition research in 2012,more and more scholars have begun to pay attention to the impact of positive emotions on learners’ second language acquisition,and the most concerned positive emotion is foreign language enjoyment(FLE).FLE can make learners have more positive feelings toward the target language.Recently,researchers at home and abroad have focused on the relationship between FLE and second language achievement,which has shown that FLE can directly predict second language achievement.In addition,many studies have shown that FLE is correlated with WTC in English with a statistical significance level.And this correlation is strong.However,few studies have focused on the relationship between FLE and WTC in English.In order to enrich the previous study findings,this study focuses on the correlation between FLE and WTC in English.This study aims to answer the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of WTC in English and FLE among senior high school students?(2)What is the relationship among the students’ WTC,FLE,and self-rated English proficiency?(3)Are there any differences in WTC in English and FLE concerning the demographic variables,such as gender,age,grade,major,ethnicity and English proficiency,etc.?A mixed design combined with the quantitative questionnaire and the qualitative interview was used to survey 278 students in a senior high school in Kunming.278 students filled out the questionnaire and 7 students were interviewed.SPSS26.0 has been utilized to give some quantitative analyses of the questionnaire data,including the descriptive analysis,the correlation analysis and the independent-samples T test,while a qualitative meaning analysis of the interview data has been conducted.The following conclusions have been drawn:(1)The current situation of WTC in English among senior high school students is at a medium level,indicating most students are not sure of how to make an interaction with others.From the perspective of the internal dimension of WTC in English,the students’ WTC in English with teachers is the lowest,while their WTC to have simple oral communication with the classmates is the highest.As for FLE,the students have a high FLE.Among the internal dimensions,the students’ FLE-teacher is the highest,however,the FLE-atmosphere is the lowest.(2)The students’ FLE is positively related to their WTC with a statistical significance level,and this correlation is strong;the students’ FLE is positively related to the self-rated English proficiency with a statistical significance level,and this correlation is weak;the self-rated English proficiency is positively related to WTC with a statistical significance level,and this correlation is weak.(3)A significant difference exists in the students’ WTC in English in regard to their gender and self-rated English proficiency.To be more specific,there is a significant difference in willingness to communicate with classmates in a relatively easy oral activity(WTC-CE)between the males and the females.The female students are more willing to interact with their classmates in a relatively easy task than the male students in the English class.With regard to self-rated English proficiency,the students with a high-level English proficiency tend to be more willing to communicate in English than the poor-level students.In addition,there is a significant difference in the students’ FLE in terms of their gender,grade,and self-rated English proficiency.Finally,this study contributes to enriching the special research on the correlation between WTC in English and FLE.Additionally,it provides a reference for teachers to understand the current situation of the students’ WTC in English and FLE,and inspires teachers to know the correlation between the two variables,to enhance the students’ WTC of L2 and improve their FLE.