Modern Language Journal

Why do some students seek, while others avoid, second language (L2) communication? Many language teachers have encountered students high in linguistic competence who are unwilling to use their L2 for communication whereas other students, with only minimal linguistic knowledge, seem to communicate in the L2 whenever possible. Despite excellent communicative competence, spontaneous and sustained use of the L2 is not ensured. A colleague, who teaches a L2 and whose L2 competence is excellent, is well known to avoid “like the plague” L2 communication in social settings. A related observation is that many learners have noticed that their willingness to communicate (WTC) varies considerably over time and across situations. Our aim in this article is twofold. First we wish to provide an account of the linguistic, communicative, and social psychological variables that might affect one's “willingness to communicate.” As demonstrated in the text below, and examination of WTC offers the opportunity to integrate psychological, linguistic, and communicative approaches to L2 research that typically have been independent of each other. We view the WTC model as having the potential to provide a useful interface between these disparate lines of inquiry. Our second goal is to suggest potential relations among these variables by outlining a comprehensive conceptual model that may be useful in describing, explaining, and predicting L2 communication. In an effort to move beyond linguistic or communicative competence as the primary goal of language instruction, this article represents an overt attempt to combine these disparate approaches in a common theme, that is, proposing WTC as the primary goal of language instruction.

Previous research has devoted a great deal of attention to describing the long‐term patterns and relationships among trait‐level or situation‐specific variables. The present discussion extracts kernels of wisdom, based on the literatures on language anxiety and language learning motivation, that are used to frame the argument that choosing to initiate communication at a particular moment in time can be conceptualized as a volitional (freely chosen) process. The result is a degree of willingness to communicate (WTC) with the potential to rise and fall rapidly as the situation changes. Previous research based on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies is described that demonstrates the complexity of the processes involved in creating WTC. It is argued that methodologies must be adapted to focus upon the dynamic process of choosing to initiate or avoid second language communication when the opportunity arises.

Recent reviews by Crookes & Schmidt (1991), Dörnyei (1994), and Oxford and Shearin (1994) have suggested that research concerned with motivation in second language acquisition would benefit from a consideration of motivational constructs from other research areas. The present study addresses this issue by investigating the relation of a number of new measures of motivation such as persistence, attention, goal specificity, and causal attributions to each other, to existing measures of attitudes and motivation, and to indices of achievement in French courses. A sample of 75 students in a francophone secondary school completed various motivational and attitudinal measures, and subsequently wrote a French essay. Their final grades in the French course were later obtained from the school records. Support was found for a LISREL structural equation model linking different aspects of motivation with language attitudes, French language dominance, and French achievement. It was concluded that the new motivational measures add to our understanding of motivation in language learning.

This meta‐analysis investigated the relationship between foreign language (FL) anxiety and FL performance. Fifty‐five independent samples with more than 10,000 participants were surveyed. It was found that the overall correlation between FL anxiety and FL performance was −.34 (p < .01). FL listening anxiety had the strongest correlation with FL listening performance. Both FL reading anxiety and test anxiety had a weaker correlation with FL performance as compared to other types of anxiety. The anxiety–performance correlation remained stable across groups with different FL proficiency levels, suggesting that the role of FL anxiety should not be ignored regardless of the FL learners’ proficiency level. As compared to language family, lexical similarity was found to have a more decisive modulating effect on the anxiety–performance correlation. However, language family and lexical similarity may interact to affect the anxiety–performance correlation. Finally, a metaregression analysis showed that age could affect the correlation between FL anxiety and performance.

The scores obtained by female students on the national foreign language examinations in the Netherlands have been slightly but consistently lower than those of male students. The present research among 2980 high school students tested the hypothesis that, owing to sex differences in prior knowledge and interests, the topic of a text is an important factor explaining these sex‐based differences. To measure prior knowledge, the students' reading and TV habits, academic subject choice, self‐reported knowledge, and interest concerning the text topics were assessed. A total of 11 different English reading passages—including 5 texts with a “male” topic, and 6 texts with a “female” topic—were selected. On all the male reading comprehension measures, and on five of the six female tests, significant differences were found in the expected direction. Moreover, these sex‐based differences appeared to be largely due to sex differences in reading habits. Although there was only an indirect relation between the students' reading preference and the text comprehension score on related topics, this study suggests that differences between the sexes in prior knowledge contribute to sex differences in foreign language reading comprehension.

This study investigates developmental trends in acquiring knowledge of radicals, radical perception skills, and skills in applying knowledge of radicals among nonnative learners of Chinese across learning levels. It also examines the relationship between the acquisition of radical knowledge and the development of radical perception and radical knowledge application skills, as well as how the development of radical knowledge application skills is associated with Chinese word acquisition. The results of this study suggest that radical knowledge, radical perception skills, and radical knowledge application skills do not develop synchronously across learning levels, but rather that each of them shows a unique developmental trend. A linear trend exists between the development of radical knowledge and the application of this knowledge; a moderate positive association is observed between the development of radical knowledge application skills and Chinese word acquisition. The pedagogical implications of these findings are suggested.

In this study we explore a student's affective responses to classroom foreign language learning. In 2 meetings each week throughout an 8‐week Portuguese course for beginners, the first author described her language learning experiences to the second author. Sessions were transcribed and then coded and analyzed. A theoretical model grounded in the learner's experiences was developed to understand the learner's affective responses to the language learning process, the events from which her affect sprang, and her affective trajectory over the 8 weeks. This study is a response to the need for methodological and epistemological diversity in second language acquisition research and contributes to studies that focus on the affective responses of the learner to the language learning experience. Implications for the role played by emotion in learners' classroom foreign language learning and the development of sociocultural competence in a second language are discussed.