A Comparative Study Of English And Non-English Major Students' Willingness To Communicate

As a new affective variable in the field of second language acquisition, the study of willingness to communicate has attracted widespread attention since1990s. MacIntyre (1998) and other scholars clearly proposed that the chief goal of second language instruction is to cultivate talents who not only possess the communicative competence but also make friendly communication with individuals who come from different cultural and national backgrounds in the authentic context. In China, English is a foreign language. Although both English and non-English major learn English in the classroom-based context, they were different in the learning motivation, learning objectives, teaching requirement, class hours and learning strategies. Furthermore, the comparative studies of English and non-English major students'willingness to communicate have not been found yet both at home and abroad. Considering this, the present study randomly selected 180 sophomores learning English at the Shandong Agricultural University to examine three related questions on willingness to communicate in the Chinese EFL context: (1) Are there differences of WTC between English and non-English major students in Chinese EFL context? (2)Are there gender differences of WTC between English and non-English major students? (3) How does social support influence WTC in the Chinese EFL context?The research instrument was a questionnaire that included four parts. Part One was mainly used to investigate the demographic information of the participants and their experiences of English learning. Part Two included two scales: WTC inside the Classroom Scale and WTC outside the Classroom Scale. Part Three was the Social Support Scale, and Part Four consisted of Chinese WTC Scale and English WTC Scale.The major findings are summarized as follows: (1) Significant differences do exist between English major and non-English major students'willingness to communicate (WTC). Compared with non-English major students, English major students show higher WTC both inside and outside the classroom. In the skill areas of writing and listening, English major students also demonstrate higher level of WTC both inside and out side the classroom. However, contrary to the hypothesis of this study, both groups have significant differences in Chinese WTC, but show non-significant differences in English WTC. (2) Male English major students show significant higher level of WTC in English than male non-English major students both inside and outside the classroom. However, there do not find any major differences of WTC among female students. (3) Independent sample T-tests indicate that support from parents, teachers, and other friends exert no significant effects on WTC both inside and outside the classroom. However, social support from best friends has significant effects on WTC both inside and outside the classroom for English major students and outside the classroom for non-English major students. Support from siblings show significant influences on WTC of non-English major students outside the classroom, and support from classmates display significant influences on WTC of English major students both inside and outside the classroom.The present study enriched the research findings of willingness to communicate and had important implications for English language teaching to both English and non-English majors.