The Effects of Taiwan University Students’ Self-efficacy, Motivation and Their Teachers’ Behaviors on Their Willingness to Communicate in the English Classroom

• Main Authors: CHOU, YI-WEN, 周羿妏
• Other Authors: PAN, YI-CHING
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5nf5f7

碩士 === 國立屏東大學 === 應用英語學系碩士班 === 105 === 　　Taiwan university students do not tend to be willing to communicate (WTC) in the English classroom probably due to a combination of a lack of confidence in their English ability and a low motivation to learn English. The behaviors of their teachers are also considered to be a salient variable that may affect learners’ willingness to communicate. To address these issues, this study explored the effects of Taiwan university students’ self-efficacy and motivation in addition to their teachers’ behaviors on their willingness to communicate in the English classroom. 134 participants were recruited from one university in southern Taiwan to answer questionnaires based on MacIntyre’s model (2002), which contains three variables in a layered pyramid: willingness to communicate, interpersonal motivation, and inter-group climate. Eight of them volunteered for the post-survey interviews. One-way ANOVA was utilized to analyze the high, mid, and low English proficiency levels of the participants based on their TOEIC test scores. Three major findings were discovered: 1) students’ self-efficacy and their teachers’ positive or negative behaviors affect the students’ willingness to communicate in English in class, 2) students possessing high proficiency levels are more willingly to communicate in English than their mid- and low-proficiency counterparts, and 3) the stronger the students’ motivation is, the more willing they are to communicate in English, 4)there were no significant differences among high-mid-low proficiency students on their WTC, and 5)there were significant differences with different majors on their WTC. Pedagogical implications were further provided from the findings.