Identity, motivation and willingness to communicate

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the structural relationships among variables that affect Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and frequency of communication in the L2 in Japanese university EFL classrooms: anxiety, motivation, integrativeness, international posture, ought-to L2 self, ideal L2 self, L2 linguistic self-confidence, and valuing of? global English. This purpose includes investigating Dörnyei’s (2005) hypothesis that the interplay of linguistic self-confidence and the ideal L2 self positively influence L2 WTC. A sample of 178 Japanese university students participated in the study. Questionnaires were administered at the beginning of the semester and a hypothesized structural equation model based on the WTC model (MacIntyre, 1994), the socioeducational model (Gardner, 1985), and the concept of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005), was tested. The structural relationships yielded new perspectives on learners’ WTC, particularly the finding that the ideal L2 self was a significant predictor of L2 WTC.