An Investigation Of Chinese EFL Learners' Willingness To Communicate In The Foreign Language Classroom Setting

The present study empirically investigates three related issues on willingness to communicate(WTC) in the Chinese EFL setting: (i) the relationship between Chinese learners' willingness to communicate in English (WTCE) and their self-perceived communicative competence (SPCC), (ii) their participation in English classes and their explanations for their behaviours during the class time, (iii) the extent to which the participants' explanations are compatible with the theory of WTC proposed by Wen & Clement (2003).The SPCC and WTCE of 132 first-year English majors were measured on two questionnaires. Then the classroom behaviours of four participants indicating respectively high and low SPCC and WTCE in two oral English courses were observed for two weeks. This was followed by one-to-one interviews in which each explained why they behaved the way they did during the observed classes. The collected data were then subjected to quantitative and qualitative analyses.The major findings are: (1) the participants generally gave a low assessment of their own communicative competence, both in specific interactive situations and as a whole. Their WTCE was also generally weak. The only exception is their SPCC and WTCE in the situations where strangers (mostly native speakers of English) are involved. They tended to highly assess their communicative competence and exhibit stronger willingness to speak English in such a situation; (2) significant positive correlations were found between SPCC and WTC in English not only in terms of total score, but in terms of nine sub-scales as well. In addition, the strength of correlation appeared to be mediated by the variables of interlocutor and interactive situation; (3) SPCC appeared to be a good predictor of WTC in the actual language classes. The higher the SPCC, the more willingly the learners would take part in the classroom activities that required the use of English; (4) the determinants of WTC in English can be divided into two groups: individual characteristics and situational variables. The influence of the former on WTC during language classes manifested itself in the self-confidence, or lack of it...