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Empirical Studies of WTC

Empirical Studies of WTC. STUDY 1: The Role of Gender and Immersion in Communication and Second Language Orientations (Published in Language Learning ). Susan C. Baker and Peter D. MacIntyre (2000). Purpose of the Study.

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Empirical Studies of WTC

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  1. Empirical Studies of WTC

  2. STUDY 1:The Role of Gender and Immersion in Communication and Second Language Orientations(Published in Language Learning) Susan C. Baker and Peter D. MacIntyre (2000)

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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)

  6. Results – WTC Model • Correlations: • WTC in French with frequency of communication in French • immersion students (r = .45, p<.01) • nonimmersion students (r = .68, p<.01). • As WTC in French increases, frequency of communication in French increases. • WTC in French with anxiety in French • immersion students (r = -.44, p<.01) • nonimmersion students (r = -.29, p<.01). • As anxiety in French increases, WTC in French decreases.

  7. Results • WTC in French with WTC in English • immersion students (r = .51, p<.01) • nonimmersion students (r = .42, p<.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, p>.01). • nonimmersion students (r = .72, p>.01). • Indicates relationships among variables likely change with experience

  8. 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.

  9. Mean Scores for Communication Variables by Language and Immersion Program

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. 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

  15. Study 2:Talking 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

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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

  21. 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.

  22. Results • Correlation between L1 and L2 WTC • Non-significant • intensive group (r = .213, p<.05) • FSL group (r = .280, p<.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)

  23. 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.

  24. 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”.

  25. STUDY 3:Willingness 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)

  26. 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.

  27. Method • Participants • Grade 9 late immersion students (n=79) • 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

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

  29. 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** *p<.01; **p<.001

  30. 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.

  31. 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

  32. 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

  33. 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 • p<.05 Best friend and other friends’ support was associated with increased orientations for travel and for friendships with Francophones.

  34. 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.

  35. 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.

  36. 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.

  37. Study 4:Second 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

  38. Purpose of the study • To merge the WTC and Clément’s 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.

  39. 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.

  40. 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 Method

  41. 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

  42. 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.

  43. 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

  44. 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.

  45. 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 • it’s a matter of choice within the context.

  46. 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.

  47. Study 5:The 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

  48. 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.

  49. 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

  50. Method • Materials • Vocabulary Pretest • Vocabulary Posttest • State WTC • Trait WTC • Extroversion • Demographics questionnaire

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