Empirical Studies of WTC

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Empirical Studies of WTC
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STUDY 1The Role of Gender and Immersion in
Communication and Second Language
Orientations(Published in Language Learning)

• Susan C. Baker and Peter D. MacIntyre (2000)

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Purpose of the Study

• To examine the nonlinguistic outcomes of an
  immersion versus a nonimmersion program.
• Linguistic outcomes skills that involve
  language material. Not the focus here.
• Nonlinguistic outcomes involves satisfaction
  with the experience, attitudes, motivation,
  anxiety, and WTC.

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Key Variables

• Dependent variables
• Willingness to communicate (WTC)
• Attitudes toward learning French
• Orientations for learning
• Communication anxiety
• Perceived communicative competence
• Self-reported frequency of communication in both
  English (L1) and French (L2)
• Qualitative data
• describe a high and a low WTC situation.

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Method

• Participants
• 71 immersion students (31 males, 39 females, 1
  unknown)
• 124 nonimmersion students (54 males, 70 females)
• Ranged in age from 14 to 18 years
• All had English as L1 and were studying French
  (L2)

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Results WTC Model

• Correlations
• WTC in French with frequency of communication in
  French
• immersion students (r .45, plt.01)
• nonimmersion students (r .68, plt.01).
• As WTC in French increases, frequency of
  communication in French increases.
• WTC in French with anxiety in French
• immersion students (r -.44, plt.01)
• nonimmersion students (r -.29, plt.01).
• As anxiety in French increases, WTC in French
  decreases.

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Results

• WTC in French with WTC in English
• immersion students (r .51, plt.01)
• nonimmersion students (r .42, plt.01).
• As WTC in French increases so does WTC in English
• This does not happen in all studies.
• Perceived competence in French with WTC in French
  
• immersion students (r .17, pgt.01).
• nonimmersion students (r .72, pgt.01).
• Indicates relationships among variables likely
  change with experience

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Results - Pedagogy

• Effects of Immersion on Communication Variables
• 2 x 2 x 2 split plot multivariate analysis of
  variance (MANOVA)
• Compared to nonimmersion students, immersion
  students
• showed lower communication apprehension,
• higher WTC,
• greater perceived competence,
• more frequent communication in French.

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Mean Scores for Communication Variables by
Language and Immersion Program
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Results - Qualitative

• Nonimmersion
• Report an experience where WTC was high
• Most frequently cited positive experiences
  speaking French included
• Meeting new friends
• Traveling
• Giving class presentations
• Report an experience where WTC was low
• Most frequently described negative experience for
  the nonimmersion students involved
• speaking French to a Francophone and getting a
  reply in English.

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Results

• Immersion, positive experience
• Immersion students felt most calm when speaking
  French to a close friend.
• Most common positive experience
  among female students concerned giving
  presentations in class.
• Among the males, it was speaking to Francophones.

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Results

• Immersion, negative experience
• Negative experiences elicited stronger emotion
  from the immersion group.
• The most frequent negative experience concerned
  speaking to a Francophone in French and getting a
  reply in English.
• Males reported other in class
  situations.
• Females reported feeling
  embarrassed.

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An interesting comment from the students

• Both immersion and nonimmersion students said
  they felt more determined to learn the language
  after a negative experience, especially immersion
  students.
• Emotion is a strong source of motivation
• Immersion students have invested more time and
  effort in learning the language and therefore
  their emotional reaction may be more intense as a
  result.

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Conclusions

• Substantial differences in nonlinguistic outcomes
  between immersion nonimmersion.
• Variables underlying WTC might change over time
  as students gain greater experience in the second
  language.
• We did not anticipate this when developing the
  model

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Study 2Talking in Order to Learn Willingness
to Communicate and Intensive Language
Programs.(in press, Canadian Modern Language
Review)

• Peter D. MacIntyre
• Susan C. Baker
• Richard Clément
• Leslie A. Donovan

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Purpose of the Study

• To test for differences among those with
  immersion and other intensive learning, and
  traditional French-as-a-second-language (FSL)
  experience on non-linguistic outcome variables
• WTC
• Preceived competence
• Anxiety
• Integrative motivation
• To examine correlations among the variables.

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Method

• Participants
• 59 university student volunteers (44 females, 15
  males, mean age 20.5 yrs.).
• Enrolled in a first-year conversational French
  course at an undergraduate university
  in a unilingual Anglophone
  community.

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Method

• Prior experience with immersion
• 27 participants had experience with intensive
  programs
• 14 intensive summer immersion
• 11 participants had full late immersion
• 2 had partial immersion, extended core
• No prior immersion experience
• 32 participants studied in core FSL programs

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Method

• Materials
• WTC in French and English
• Communication Apprehension in French and English
• Perceived Competence in French and English
• Frequency of Communication in French and English
• Integrativeness
• Attitude toward the learning situation
• Motivation

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Results

• Intensive language program experience
• higher L2 WTC
• higher L2 perceived competence
• higher L2 frequency of communication
• similar levels of L2 communication apprehension
  
• compared with FSL experience.
• No differences were found between programs on
  communication variables
• L1 WTC
• L1 perceived competence
• L1 communication apprehension
• frequency of L1 communication
• L2 integrative motivation

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Results

• Correlations Among Attitude and Communication
  Variables
• Motivation correlated with
• L2 WTC (r .72)
• L2 communication apprehension (r -.46)
• among those with intensive experience, but not
  among FSL students.
• Integrativeness correlated with
• L2 WTC (r .42)
• among those with intensive experience, but not
  among FSL students.

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Results

• Correlation between L1 and L2 WTC
• Non-significant
• intensive group (r .213, plt.05)
• FSL group (r .280, plt.05)
• Research results have been mixed on this
• The correlation can be
• negative (MacIntyre Charos (1996) r -.25),
• near zero (as in this study)
• And positive (Baker and MacIntyre, 2000)

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Discussion

• Previous immersion experience seems to promote an
  increased WTC and frequency of communication in
  French.
• Immersion students seem to have adopted the
  immersion philosophy of talking in order to
  learn.
• Immersion had no discernable negative impact on
  the L1 communication variables here.

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Discussion

• Surprising that the immersion group felt as
  apprehensive about communicating.
• Classroom demands placed on these students
  may help to explain this.
• Future research could focus on whether
  communication anxiety may be heightened by a
  talking to learn orientation.

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STUDY 3Willingness to Communicate, Social
Support, and Language-Learning Orientations of
Immersion Students(Published in SSLA)

• Peter D. MacIntyre
• Susan C. Baker
• Richard Clément
• Sarah Conrod
• (2001)

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Purpose of the Study

• To assess the correlations among
  language-learning orientations and WTC both
  inside and outside the classroom.
• To examine the effects of social support on WTC
  inside and outside the classroom.
• To investigate the effects of social support on
  orientations.

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Method

• Participants
• Grade 9 late immersion students (n79)
• Predominantly English-Canadian sociolinguistic
  context
• Materials
• Willingness to Communicate in the Classroom
• 4 skill areas (speaking, reading, writing,
  comprehension)
• Willingness to Communicate Outside the Classroom
• 4 skill areas
• Orientations for Language Learning
• 5 orientations (job, travel, friendship,
  knowledge, school)
• Social Support
• Mother, father, teacher, best friend, other
  friends, sibling

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Results

• WTC and Orientations
• Correlations between WTC inside and outside the
  classroom in all 4 skill areas are significant
  (plt.001)
• vary from .55 to .85 (median r.63).
• Intercorrelations among orientation scales are
  significant (plt.001)
• except job related and friendship (r.26),
• vary from .35 to .77 (median r.46) .

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Correlations Among Orientations and WTC Inside
and Outside the Classroom Orientations
Skills Job Travel Friendship
Knowledge School WTC Inside Speaking .39
.33 .39 .36
.42 Reading .28 .44
.36 .32 .31
Writing .28 .29 .36
.36 .36
Comprehension .29 .23 .36
.31 .28 WTC Outside
Speaking .48 .36
.41 .44 .44
Reading .42 .28
.31 .34
.38 Writing .36
.30 .28 .36
.42
Comprehension .52
.34 .41 .37
.38 plt.01 plt.001
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Results

• Friendship, knowledge and school achievement
  orientations are consistently correlated with WTC
  both inside and outside the classroom.
• Job-related orientation correlated
  more highly with WTC
  comprehension outside than
  inside the classroom.

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Social Support Results

• WTC and Social Support
• does Person X want you to learn French?
• 92.1 - mother support
• 85.3 - father support
• 94.8 - teacher support
• 48.6 - best friend support
• 44.3 - other friend support
• 44.3 - favorite sibling support

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Results

• Students are more willing to speak and write
  French inside the classroom than outside the
  classroom.
• Students with a supportive friend (best friend,
  other friends) have higher WTC outside the
  classroom than students with a non-supportive
  best friend.
• No difference in WTC inside the classroom

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Point-Biserial Correlations Between Orientations
and Sources of Support

• Orientations
• __________________________________________
• Support Job Travel Friendship Knowledge
  School
• Sibling .00 .19 .12
  .13 .19
• Best friend .15 .23
  .24 .14 .09
• Other friend .13 .20
  .26 .18 .07
• plt.05
• Best friend and other friends support was
  associated with increased orientations for travel
  and for friendships with Francophones.

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Discussion

• WTC and Orientations
• Support for traitlike quality of WTC obtained
• methodology lends itself to this finding.
• Strong correlations among orientation scales not
  surprising.
• Different orientations can be highly correlated.

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Discussion

• Students have higher L2 WTC in the immersion
  classroom than in social settings outside the
  immersion classroom.
• could be attributed to additional effort to find
  those settings.
• Future research (qualitative) could look at the
  extent to which students communicate with their
  friends and the topics that they discuss.
• Social Support and Orientations
• Best friends and other friends are attractive
  interlocuters, self-confidence seems to be
  highest and anxiety lowest when speaking with
  them.

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Conclusions

• Orientations are a key component of motivation
  underlying L2 learning and L2 use.
• Social support for language learning is an
  important consideration in developing WTC.
• Fostering a WTC in the L2 outside of the
  classroom helps to focus teaching towards a
  learner-needs approach.

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Study 4Second Language Usage The Effects of
Context, Norms, and Vitality (in press, Journal
of Language and Social Psychology)

• Richard Clément
• Susan C. Baker
• Peter D. MacIntyre

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Purpose of the study

• To merge the WTC and Cléments social context
  models into one model that encompasses contextual
  and linguistic influences on L2 communication.
• To examine the differences in L2 contact,
  normative pressures, self-confidence, WTC,
  identity, and frequency of L2 use between the two
  groups.
• Normative pressure comes from the expectations
  for L2 use held by significant others.
• To test the interaction between L2
  self-confidence and L2 norms in predicting L2
  identity.

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Method

• Participants
• 248 Francophone (65 males, 178 females, 5
  unspecified) and
• 130 Anglophone (42 males, 86 females, 2
  unspecified)
• University of Ottawa students
• 80 of total participants were 20 years or older.

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Method

• Materials
• Willingness to communicate
• Situated ethnic identity
• Frequency and quality of contact with the second
  language group
• Subjective norms
• Frequency of L2 communication
• L2 self-confidence

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Results

• Effects of Ethnolinguistic Vitality
• Francophones indicated higher
• frequency and quality of L2 contact,
• L2 self-confidence,
• L2 identity,
• L2 WTC and
• L2 frequency of communication,
• but lower normative pressure to use the L2 than
  the Anglophones

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Key Result - Francophones

• Under low normative pressure to use English,
  Anglophone identification is similar regardless
  of English self-confidence levels.
• BUT
• Under high normative pressure, those with high
  self-confidence indicated higher identification
  with Anglophones than those with low
  self-confidence.

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Discussion

• The hybrid models were, for the most part,
  consistent with the original models of L2 use.
• Frequency and quality of contact with the L2
  group both predicted L2 self-confidence.
• L2 self-confidence was related to WTC and
  identity
• both predicted frequency of L2 use.
• Explained by two context variables
• Next page

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• Ethnolinguistic Vitality
• Francophones indicated higher frequency and
  quality of L2 contact, self-confidence, WTC and
  identity.
• The context provides them with greater
  opportunities for L2 group contact.
• Previous contact with the L2 group that is
  perceived as pleasant appears sufficient to
  initiate communication.
• Linguistic self-confidence mediates the
  relationship between L2 contact and identity.

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• The Absence of Volitional Control
• WTC may not always be a factor in L2 use.
• Self-confidence appears to have a direct
  influence on L2 use.
• Normative pressures indirectly impacted L2 use
  through identity, and not WTC, among both
  Anglophones and Francophones.
• Could be attributed to institutional expectations
  at University of Ottawa
• its a matter of choice within the context.

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Conclusions

• Combining contextual and linguistic variables
  provides a more complete picture of the second
  language communication process.
• Two aspects of context that are important,
  ethnolinguistic vitality and volitional control,
  should be taken into consideration in future
  research.
• WTC operates when one has freedom to choose to
  communicate or not.

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Study 5The Effects of Extroversion and
Familiarity of Study Situation on French
Vocabulary Acquisition and State Willingness to
Communicate(to be submitted this summer)

• Peter D. MacIntyre
• Leslie A. Donovan
• Leanne Standing

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Purpose of the Present Study

• To examine the effects of study situation and
  extroversion on a linguistic (written vocabulary
  test) and a non-linguistic (state L2 WTC)
  language learning outcome.
• Studied a vocabulary list either alone or in
  groups.
• To examine the effects of familiarity of study
  situation and extroversion on a written
  vocabulary test and state WTC.
• To examine the correlations between state and
  trait WTC and between state WTC and performance
  on a vocabulary test.

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Method

• Participants
• 127 high school students enrolled in grade 10,
  11, and 12 core French-as-a-second-language
  courses.
• 36 males, 91 females, mean age 16.5 years
• Predominantly Anglophone community

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Method

• Materials
• Vocabulary Pretest
• Vocabulary Posttest
• State WTC
• Trait WTC
• Extroversion
• Demographics questionnaire

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Results

• Extroverts more willing to communicate using new
  words when in somewhat similar situation.
• Introverts more willing to to communicate
  using words when in a very similar
  situation.
• It was not anticipated that introverts would have
  higher WTC.
• In situations not at all similar, no difference
  between introverts and extroverts.

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Discussion

• It could be that introverts are at their optimal
  level of arousal in very familiar study
  situations, however, extroverts need some novelty
  for arousal.
• A particular pedagogy might favour introvert or
  extravert.
• Experience trumps personality.
• Familiarity with the situation has a stronger
  effect on learning than did the basic personality
  trait.

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Study 6Willingness to Communicate in a Foreign
Language A Preliminary Study

• Tomoko Yashima
• 1998

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Summary

• Purpose
• To investigate Japanese learners communication
  in a foreign language using the concept of WTC,
  and to apply the WTC model to a monolingual
  social context.
• Participants
• 117 Japanese university students (39 females and
  78 males)
• Materials
• WTC Scale
• Communication anxiety Scale
• Perceived Competence Scale

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Summary

• Results
• Japanese students WTC was substantially lower
  than that of American students
• Perceived communication competence in L2 was a
  fairly strong predictor of WTC in L2
• WTC in L2 was significantly lower than WTC in L1
• WTC in L1 can predict WTC in L2.

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Study 7Willingness to Communicate in a Second
Language The Japanese EFL Context

• Yashima Tomoko
• Published in Modern Language Journal (2002)

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Summary

• Purpose
• To examine relations among L2 learning and L2
  communication variables in the Japanese English
  as a foreign language context using the WTC model
  and the socioeducational as a framework.
• Participants
• 389 Japanese students who had selected English as
  primary foreign language to study.
• Results
• International posture
• influences motivation, which influences
  proficiency in English.
• Motivation affected self-confidence in L2
  communication which led to WTC in L2.
• Direct path from international posture to WTC in
  a L2 was significant.

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Study 8Influence of attitude and affect on L2
communication A study of Japanese high school
students

• Tomoko Yashima
• Lori Zenuk-Nishide
• Kazuaki Shimizu
• AILA 2002

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International Posture

• Interest in international affairs
• Willingness to go overseas
• Readiness to interact with intercultural partners
• Underlies both motivation for learning and WTC in
  English.

Motivation
Self Confid.
Int Posture
Com Freq
WTC
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Sojourners

• 60 Japanese students on year-long study abroad
  (USA)
• Initial 3-week period before going to host family
• Also collected data during the sojourn

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Results

• WTC correlated with time spent talking to host
  families
• WTC correlated with volunteering answers in class
  and voluntarily talking with host family
• Those with higher levels of communication had
  better adjustment (satisfaction, friendships).

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Conclusions

• WTC relates to anxiety and perceived competence
  in Japanese students
• WTC is based on intergroup relations, as captured
  by international posture.
• WTC predicted initiation of authentic
  communication
• Communication in L2 predicted levels of adjustment