In the first in a new, short series of posts, Prof. Hayo Reinders explores the concept of ‘Willingness to Communicate’.
Producing the target language is an important factor contributing to success in language acquisition (Swain and Lapkin 1995). Many language teachers around the world, however, have experienced the challenges of encouraging learners to produce the target language, to feel at ease, and not to worry about making mistakes. Many have also experienced the genuine anxiety that students feel about speaking in front of others. As a result, classrooms often do not offer students as much in the way of communicative practice as is desirable.
Willingness to Communicate (WTC) is a concept that has recently started to receive considerable attention in second-language acquisition research and language teaching practice, as it brings together different factors that explain why learners do—or do not—engage in target language communication. In this short series of posts, I will describe WTC and its meaning for understanding classroom processes, look at how to gauge levels of WTC in your learners, and look at ways of encouraging WTC in your classroom.
Willingness to Communicate
Second language (L2) pedagogy has emphasized authentic use of the L2 as an essential part of language learning and teaching, with the aim of developing L2 students’ communicative competence. Many teachers make efforts to encourage their students to communicate, using a wide range of methods and activities.
Many students, however, do not naturally engage in much target-language production, either inside or (especially) outside the classroom. As the final step before L2 production, WTC emerged in the 1980s and 90s as a useful concept in describing, explaining, and predicting L2 communication (MacIntyre et al. 1998). It has recently started to receive increasing interest, because research has found that the level of WTC in learners influences the frequency and amount of L2 communication (Clement, Baker, and MacIntyre 2003; Yashima 2002), which can, in turn, facilitate successful L2 acquisition.
Perhaps not surprisingly then, the development of WTC has been proposed as an important goal in English-language teaching, both to encourage L2 interaction in the classroom and to enable students to continue to communicate beyond the classroom (MacIntyre et al. 2003). WTC studies have shown that language learners with high WTC are more likely to use the L2 in authentic communication (Kang 2005), have more potential to practice in L2 (MacIntyre et al. 2001), acquire higher levels of language fluency (Derwing, Munro, and Thomson 2008), generally achieve greater language proficiency (Yashima 2002), and, as a result, show more improvement in their communication skills (Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, and Shimizu 2004). Clearly, a language program that increases WTC among its students can be considered successful.
Prof. Reinders has written the second post in this series, exploring how we can gauge levels of WTC.
Reference List
Cao, Y., and J. Philp. 2006. Interactional context and willingness to communicate: A comparison of behavior in whole class, group and dyadic interaction. System 34(4):480–93.
Derwing, T. M., M. J. Munro, and R.I. Thomson. 2008. A longitudinal study of ESL learners’ fluency and comprehensibility development. Applied Linguistics 29(3):359–80.
Kang, S.-J. 2005. Dynamic emergence of situational willingness to communicate in a second language. System 33(2):277–92.
MacIntyre, P. D., Z. Dörnyei, R. Clément, and K.A. Noels. 1998. Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal 82(4):545–62.
Swain, M., and S. Lapkin. 1995. Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: A step towards second language learning. Applied Linguistics 16:371–91.
Yashima, T. 2002. Willingness to communicate in a second language: The Japanese EFL context. The Modern Language Journal 86(1):54–66.
Yashima, T., L. Zenuk-Nishide, and K. Shimizu. 2004. The influence of attitudes and affect on willingness to communicate and second language communication. Language Learning 54(1):119–52.