Exploring Willingness To Communicate And Its Relationship With Learning Goals: The Chinese EFL Context

As the emphasis in modern language education has been shifting to authentic communication, both as a necessary process and as a goal of learning a second/foreign language (L2), a way to account for individual differences in L2 communication is needed. Willingness to communicate (WTC) has been proposed as both an individual difference variable affecting L2 acquisition and as a fundamental goal of L2 instruction. Language learning goals are seen as a key component of L2 learning motivation, which has been established as one of the essential factors influencing the rate and success of L2 learning. Therefore, both WTC and language learning goals are essential for successful L2 learning. In China, research on Chinese EFL learners'WTC has emerged, but it is far from adequate,and no study has addressed the relationship between WTC and language learning goals.This study was conducted in order to investigate the degree of Chinese college students'WTC in English in major language skills, and to explore the relationship between WTC and language learning goals both adopted by English learners (goal orientations) and set by themselves (goal-setting behaviors). Specifically, the study addressed the following questions: 1) What are the features of Chinese college students'WTC in English? 2) Is there any relationship between WTC in English and achievement goal orientations? 3) Is there any relationship between WTC in English and goal setting? 4) To what extent can goal orientations and goal setting influence WTC in English?The subjects of the study were 156 undergraduate English majors at three different grade levels (freshmen, sophomores and juniors) from a top university in China, among whom a questionnaire survey was carried out.General features of WTC of Chinese college students were revealed by descriptive statistics, One-way ANOVA and t-test analyses. Chinese English learners do not have high intentions to engage in English communication, especially in speaking and writing. No significant differences were found among the three grades in terms of the overall WTC in English, but significant difference was revealed between sophomores and juniors in the skill area of comprehension. Girls were found to have significantly higher willingness to communicate in English than boys in terms of the overall WTC in English and the skill areas of reading and writing.Correlation analyses were conducted separately for goal orientation and goal setting scales to investigate the relationship between WTC in English and learning goals. Significantly positive correlations were revealed between the overall WTC in English on the one hand and Mastery Orientation, Performance-Approach Orientation, Goal Specificity and Goal Frequency on the other hand. Performance-Avoidance Orientation was found to be significantly and negatively correlated with the overall WTC in English.The relationship of WTC in English with goal orientations and goal setting was further clarified through a predicting model obtained by multiple regression analysis. All learning goal scales except Goal Specificity entered the model and different degrees of predictive powers of learning goal scales on WTC in English were also obtained.The present study investigated the general features of Chinese college students'WTC in English, the correlations of WTC in English with goal orientation and goal setting, and also the extent of the influence of learning goal scales on WTC in English. It is suggested that language teachers and learners should pay due attention to goal orientations and goal setting strategies in order to foster language learners'willingness to use the language, and thus further improve their language skills and learning outcomes. More quantitative and qualitative studies are needed to investigate psychological and cognitive factors underlying Chinese English learners'WTC in English.