A Cross-cultural Study Of The Relationship Between Motivation And Willingness To Communicate

Willingness to communicate refers to the use of the second language in the preparation of the dialogue.It is the last mental process before the start of the second language communication.Taking the linguistics perspective,most researchers examined Chinese students’ English learning experience and relatively less attention was paid to foreigners’ willingness to communicate in Chinese.This study used the cross-cultural comparison method and surveyed students with either the western cultural backgrounds(the United States,Canada,UK and Australia)or the eastern cultural backgrounds(Japan,South Korea,the Philippines and Arab).The relationships among foreign language learning motivation,foreign language anxiety,and willingness to communicate were examined.Reliability and validity of questionnaires were tested.The correlation and regression analyses were conducted on the three variables,and results indicated that,(1)Willingness to communicate in Chinese is positively related to integrative motivation.For both cultural groups,the higher the integrative motivation level was,the stronger the willingness to communicate.(2)Willingness to communicate in Chinese is negatively related to the level of foreign language anxiety.For both cultural groups,the higher the level foreign language anxiety was,the stronger the willingness to communicate.(3)Integrative motivation and foreign language anxiety are negatively related.The higher integrated motivation level was,the less foreign language anxiety that individuals had.There is no significant correlation between instrumental motivation and foreign language anxiety.(4)Foreign language anxiety partially mediated the relationship between willingness to communication and integrative motivation.(5)Compared to Chinese learners with collectivist culture backgrounds,Chinese learners’ with individualism culture background had higher level of willingness to communicate.(6)Regarding learning motivation,Chinese learners with individualism culture backgrounds had higher level of the integrative motivation,compared to those Chinese learners with collectivist cultural backgrounds.(7)Compared to Chinese learners with collectivist culture backgrounds,Chinese learners with individualism culture backgrounds had a higher level foreign language anxiety.