| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 101 === Non-English Major Freshmen’s Willingness to Communicate in English, Foreign Language Anxiety, and Language Use
Graduate Student: Sheng-wen Lee
Advisor: Dr. Shan-mao Chang
ABSTRACT
The present study investigated the interrelationships between EFL students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in English, language anxiety, and language use in Taiwan. The study further testified the predictive power of language anxiety and language use on second language learners’ WTC in the classroom settings.
A total number of 439 non-English major freshmen from a university in central Taiwan participated in the present study. A forty-seven item questionnaire, consisting of three scales—WTC scale, foreign language anxiety scale, and language use scale—was used for data collection. To analyze the data, descriptive analysis was conducted to measure levels of the participants’ WTC, language anxiety, and language use. The Pearson correlation was employed to unveil the relationships between the variables, and stepwise multiple regression was performed to reveal how much WTC could be predicted by language use and anxiety.
The results showed that the participants demonstrated a moderately high level of willingness to communicate, infrequent English use in their daily lives, and relatively low degree of foreign language anxiety. In addition, a significantly positive relationship was found between language use and WTC while a significantly negative relationship was discovered to exist between language anxiety and WTC. In line with previous studies, one anxiety factor, communication apprehension (CA), was found to significantly correlate with learners’ WTC. Although some previous studies have shown that CA serves as the best predictor of one’s WTC, the results of the present study suggested that language use is a better predictor.
Keywords: willingness to communicate in English, foreign language anxiety, language use
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