A Study On The Influence Of Perceived Teacher Support On Junior High School Students’ Willingness To Communicate In English In Class

One of the primary goals of EFL instruction in China is now to help students become more communicative in English.Numerous studies have shown that willingness to communicate(WTC)is the primary prerequisite for promoting students’ communicative competence.WTC in a foreign language is affected by various factors and fluctuates with changes in the communicative context and has been a heated topic in foreign language education in recent years.The current studies mainly focus on“individual” factors such as motivation,communicative confidence,anxiety,and personality;and “contextual” factors such as classroom environment,social support,communication frequency,interlocutors,etc.There is less research on paying much attention to teacher support factors.The role of the teacher,as one of the contextual factors on students’ WTC in English in class cannot be ignored.In addition,the main objects of the existing research are mainly college students,and there are fewer studies related to junior high school students’ WTC in foreign languages.In order to comprehensively explore the effect of teacher support on junior high school students’ WTC in English in class,the study was conducted with 252 students in a regular junior high school in Shenzhen,China,using a combination of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.The following research questions are addressed in the current study:(1)What is the status quo of perceived teacher support of junior high school students?(2)What is the status quo of junior high school students’ WTC in English in class?(3)Does perceived teacher support correlate with WTC in English in class? If so,does perceived teacher support work as a predictor of students’ WTC in English in class?Based on data analysis,the following findings have emerged from this study:Firstly,the overall perceived teacher support level of junior high school students is at an upper-moderate level,with the highest level of teacher’s cognitive support,followed by teacher’s autonomy support and teacher’s emotional support.Secondly,Junior high school students’ WTC in English in class is at a moderate level,and the score for meaning-focused activities is lower than form-focused activities.Thirdly,perceived teacher support,including the three dimensions,significantly correlates with WTC in English in class.Both teacher’s emotional support and cognitive support have significant predictive effects on WTC in English in class in junior high school,with teachers’ emotional support being dominant.The teacher’s cognitive support comes second,and the teacher’s autonomy support does not play a predictive role on students’ WTC in English in class.Based on the above findings,the study suggests that middle school students should make good use of teacher support.English teachers should prepare their teaching carefully and make it consistent with students’ cognitive levels.In addition,teachers should take the initiative to build an equal and harmonious teacher-student relationship to promote students’ WTC in English and eventually cultivate their English communicative competence.