A Model of Situational Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in the Study Abroad Context


  •  Graham Robson    

Abstract

The use of structural modeling has helped to explain constructs leading to Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in L1 and L2 contexts. When WTC was conceptualized as a trait in the L1, more personality variables were used in models. When WTC moved into the realm of second language, researchers still used trait measurements to explain the construct, along with motivation and other communication-related variables. More recently, researchers recognize that WTC is also a situational variable and some researchers have created measurement tools accordingly. This study focuses on 67 students studying on a pre-university academic course in English and tests a structural model using classroom constructs as they are deemed the most important for communication in the classroom to predict WTC. Also, the model uses a teacher score to measure the relationship between self-report WTC and actual classroom communication. The model was found to have reasonable levels of fit, showing the importance of classroom variables in situational WTC in the second language context.



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