A Comparative Study Of Classroom Willingness To Communicate In English Between Urban And Rural Junior High School Students

Willingness to communicate(WTC)is widely recognized as one of the ultimate objectives for second language learners,and its importance in second language acquisition has made it a prominent research topic in second language acquisition in the past.Though a huge body of research has been conducted on WTC from different perspectives,most extant research has predominantly focused on the WTC of university students,leaving the WTC of rural junior high school students relatively underexplored.Moreover,comparative research investigating the WTC of junior high school students in urban and rural areas is conspicuously scanty.Thus,this study aimed to investigate the overall profiles and differences in WTC in English among urban and rural junior high school students as well as the factors that influence their WTC.This study employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.A total of 1,015 students from eight urban and rural junior high schools in Hubei and Yunnan province participated in a questionnaire survey,with 10 students involved in subsequent semi-structured interviews.An adapted questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were utilized to collect the quantitative data and qualitative data,which were analyzed with the aid of SPSS 22.0 and meaning unit respectively.The major findings showed that:(1)Generally speaking,both urban and rural junior high school students reported high rating for WTC in English inside the classroom and both of them preferred meaning-focused activities than form-focused activities.Compared to rural junior high school students,urban junior high school students had a higher degree of WTC in English class.Furthermore,the WTC of the two groups were significantly different(p=0.000<0.01;d=0.865>0.8),indicating that students’ WTC was greatly influenced by the urban-rural disparity.(2)Both the rural and urban junior high school students held that self-perceived English proficiency and classroom atmosphere were the two most significant factors that had affected their WTC inside the classroom.Meanwhile,both types of learners viewed class size as the least important variable.In brief,both groups almost had the same opinion on the factors that had exerted influence on their WTC in English classroom.Besides,both urban and rural junior high school students were most willing to take part in pair work and group discussion.However,compared to rural students,urban students were more willing to answer teachers’ questions.(3)Both groups’ WTC were significantly and negatively correlated with communication anxiety and learner beliefs but were significantly and positively correlated with self-perceived communication competence and classroom environment.As for the learners’ opinions on the factors,the urban school students viewed all the factors significantly different from the rural school students(p<0.05).(4)Self-perceived communication competence was the strongest predictor for both groups’ WTC in English.This study contributes to a better understanding of WTC in English among urban and rural junior high school students.In addition,this study provides some insights into enhancing the WTC of junior high school students and narrowing the gaps between urban and rural students.This study closes with the limitations and recommendations for future research.