Abstract

This study explored the effectiveness of a Willingness to Communicate (WTC) scale with advanced foreign language (L2) learners. The WTC instrument included sections on communicating with native speakers of the L2 and peer language learners in various settings (at home, abroad, in-class and online). As most prior research had focused on beginning language learners, for this study, we recruited participants who began to learn their respective languages in informal, long-term immersion settings. Participants took the WTC survey as part of a larger self-assessment instrument with a subset of 600 intermediate and advanced level Spanish (n = 339), Portuguese (n = 155), and French (n = 106) L2 students taking an Oral Proficiency Interview (computerized). The instrument was found to be reliable (Cronbach Î± = .88), and there was a significant difference [t (5) = 2.97, p = .031] in WTC between sections for online and in-class settings. However, the WTC had no significant relationship (Pearson's r2 = .0005) with OPIc score. Thus, while WTC might help beginning learners reach advanced level language, it might not discriminate among learners who are already advanced.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Center for Language Studies

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