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Classroom Versus Societal Willingness to Communicate: Investigating French as a Second Language in Flanders
Author(s) -
DENIES KATRIJN,
YASHIMA TOMOKO,
JANSSEN RIANNE
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/modl.12276
Subject(s) - willingness to communicate , structural equation modeling , context (archaeology) , psychology , language proficiency , active listening , anxiety , language assessment , social psychology , pedagogy , history , archaeology , communication , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics
This study investigates willingness to communicate (WTC) and its determinants through structural equation modelling (SEM). Building on models by MacIntyre and Charos (1996) and Yashima (2002), it addresses 3 apparent gaps in the current knowledge base: It is the first SEM‐based WTC study in a Western European context, investigating French as a second language in a representative sample of over 1,000 grade 12 students in Flanders, the Dutch‐speaking part of Belgium; it is among the few studies that compare classroom WTC with WTC outside the classroom; and it investigates the underexplored relationship between WTC and language proficiency through extensive standardized listening tests. Among the study's findings are that classroom WTC is a strong predictor of WTC outside the classroom; however, in naturalistic settings the role of integrativeness decreases while anxiety levels play a larger role. The study provides new support for several existing suggestions for L2 pedagogy.