Book Description

Abstract: The conundrum many foreign and second language educators face is how to create a climate in which students are not willing to communicate (WTC) in the target language (MacIntyre, 2007). One of the hypothesized antecedents of willingness-to-communicate is self-perceived communication competence---a construct similar, but conceptually distinct, from self-efficacy. While few studies have offered direction to teachers on how to promote self-reported communication competence, self-efficacy has received the focus of much research in educational settings. Furthermore, four known sources of self-efficacy have been described (Bandura, 1997), paving the way for researchers to suggest practical application. There were three overarching purposes of the present study: (a) to examine the relationship between self-efficacy for the target language and select outcomes such as willingness-to-communicate and course grade, (b) to examine key contextual factors that may promote self-efficacy and willingness-to-communicate such as perceptions of teacher and classroom characteristics, and (c) to examine actual teacher practices that may lead to the promotion of self-efficacy beliefs. In total, 577 university students and 33 teachers participated in this study. Participants were drawn from three programs: ESL, Spanish, and Chinese. Student participants completed surveys at the beginning and end of the term, while teachers completed them at the beginning. Surveys included measures to tap into self-efficacy for the target language, willingness-to-communicate, communication apprehension, expectancy and values for the course, as well as perceptions of teachers' sense of efficacy and classroom climate. Three teachers were then selected to collect observational and interview data. Results from the quantitative analysis indicated that students' self-efficacy for speaking the target language increased during the term, and that this increase predicted both their willingness to communicate as well as their course grade. Additionally, WTC was predicted by the utility value that students assign study of the target language, as well as their perceptions of an aspect of their classroom climate, such as their teacher's sense of efficacy. Also, the more competitive a class was perceived to be, the less likely students were to communicate. Communication apprehension also negatively predicted students' willingness to communicate. In addition to change in self-efficacy, grades were predicted by students' expectancy. And whereas climates perceived as competitive negatively predicted students' willingness to communicate, they positively predicted their course grade. Qualitative findings revealed that the sources of self-efficacy in these classrooms often occurred together---bound by back-to-back events, or as one event that served as multiple sources. Teachers also used physical, temporal, and interpersonal space in ways that likely promoted self-efficacy of the target language. Findings also reveal that many of the teacher practices were an extension of their beliefs about student motivation in language-learning contexts. And finally, the findings indicated that mastery, vicarious experiences, and affective/physiological states were all bountiful sources of self-efficacy while social persuasion---though occurring frequently---was not likely a significant source as the simple verbal and physical affirmations that were present lacked rich performance feedback.