An investigation into willingness to communicate in English of junior middle school students : a case study on two middle schools of Kunming, China

Abstract

This study aimed to 1) explore the degree of junior middle school students’ willingness to communicate in English inside the classroom, and 2) investigate the factors that participants consider can affect their willingness to communicate. Participants included 105 Chinese junior middle school students from two general schools in southwestern China. The research instruments consisted of the Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire (WTCQ) and Student Interview Outline. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and content analysis. The results revealed that 1) the participants sometimes willing to communicate in English inside the classroom and 2) Motivation, emotions, the classroom atmosphere and teachers’ way of asking questions were the influencing factors of participants’ willingness to communicate. Junior middle school students’ perceptions towards willingness to communicate and pedagogical implications were presented and discussed.