| The ultimate purpose of language learning is to communicate with the target language,that is,to improve learners’ willingness to communicate(WTC).The concept of WTC has been considerably investigated in recent years.MacIntyre’s(1998)WTC model was created to imply that WTC was a complex final-order factor which would be affected by both situated and trait variables.Accordingly,Wen and Clément(2003)developed a WTC model of Chinese version which emphasized the process from desire to communicate to actual communication.In the process,classroom where most of L2 learning happens matters a lot.Peng(2010,2012)believes that classroom environment is a dynamic system which interacts with other affective variables to affect L2 WTC.Many studies focus on the effects of affective factors on willingness to communicate but the effect of classroom environment including the role of teacher and classmates on willingness to communicate has seldom been investigated.The thesis aims to examine the relationship between Chinese students’ willingness to communicate and their evaluation of classroom environment,and how their willingness to communicate and evaluation are affected by foreign language anxiety,self-perceived competence and English proficiency.The participants in the current study consist of 104 students from a prestigious university in Shanghai.The instruments contain four scales and an Oxford Placement Test.The first scale examines the willingness to communicate using the scale adapted by Peng(2010)from Weaver’s(2005);the second examines their evaluation of the classroom environment using the scale adapted by Peng(2010);the third examines foreign language anxiety(Horwitz,1986);the fourth examines the perceived competence(Williams & Deci,1996).Descriptive statistics,correlational analysis and independent sample T-test have been applied to analyze the general tendency.The results of present study reveal:(a)Most students are willing to communicate in both the meaning-focused and form-focused activities in the English classroom;(b)Willingness to communicate is significantly affected by their relation with classmates and the more cohesive the students are,the more willing they are to communicate;(c)Most studentsshow little or no anxiety and feel confident in their own ability,and the appropriately increased anxiety(under average level)spurs their willingness;(d)Willingness to communicate and evaluation of classroom environment do not show difference in spite of students’ proficiency. |
