Abstract—Verbal engagement of language learners is of vital
importance in L2 class. However, Chinese L2 learners tend to
remain reticent in class, since they want to show respect to their
teachers and avoid making mistakes. Therefore, investigations
into L2 learners’ willingness to communicate in group settings
has received much attention in recent years. On this basis, this
study focuses on the willingness to communicate of non-English
major juniors, and aims to investigate Chinese English learners’
WTC level in L2 group work, explore the relationship between
language proficiency of L2 learners and their WTC in group
work settings, and find out several situational variables that
influence L2 learners’ WTC in L2 group work. The results show
that: 1) student participants generally show relatively high level
of willingness to communicate (Mean=32.835) in group work; 2)
the higher the L2 proficiency of the L2 learners, the higher their
WTC level in the process of communicating in group work; 3)
as for situational variables, students report higher WTC level
when familiar or self-related topics are used and when they
work in groups. And if students work in groups, they would
prefer having some wait and prepare time before starting
discussing with group members.
Index Terms—Second language communication, situational
Willingness to Communicate (WTC), situational variables,
group work
The authors are with Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an,
China.
*Correspondence: 9935811@qq.com (L.J.)
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Cite:Liao Jiayi and Dong Junhong, "Effects of Situational Factors on L2 Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in Group Work Settings," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 460-463, 2023.