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【摘要】教学和外语学习一直都在很多研究领域都是一个热门话题,例如教育领域,语言学领域以及心理学领域。很多学生都会同意开口讲外语是一个学习第二语言的绝佳机会,但是同时他们又会害怕在特定情况下犯错误。所以我们总是能发现有些学生很愿意交流,而有些学生则非常抵触开口讲话。但是如果这种行为成为习惯,他们会慢慢拒绝用第二外语交流,而这种拒绝沟通的后果在学习语言中非常严重。因此本文以英国一知名高校的留学生为研究目标,探讨他们用二语沟通的意愿,以试图找到更好的方法来改进课堂教学,并且帮助学生在课堂外自主学习语言。
【关键词】二语学习 留学生 动机 沟通
Introduction
Teaching and learning a foreign language is always a popular topic in many areas such as educational field, linguistics field and psychological field. And L2 Students frequently are faced with the opportunity to speak up in the classrooms and the opportunities to present themselves outside the classroom. There are a number of variables and factors that affect students’ learning behavior and their willingness to communicate in school and outside the school. These factors can be direct or indirect. So it is important to acquire enough knowledge on student’s motivation and willingness to communicate in order to teach students more effectively and efficiently in the future.
For that reason, this study was carried out to examine the Chinese students’ willingness to communicate and tries to find out ways to improve classroom teaching as well as help students learn English independently outside the classroom. As involves interviews with participants, it should be noted that as both the interviewer and interviewee are Chinese, so the collected data was also in Chinese. After asking for their consent, I translated their words into English when needed.
This paper will draw on sights from several research findings like Gardner’s motivation theory (1985), Gardner’s socio-educational model (1979) and the WTC pyramid of Macintyre et al.(1998), which will enhance understanding Chinese L2 learners’ motivation and willingness to communicate.
Results
English is a compulsory course in china and pupils start to learn English since junior middle school. In the first three years, they are taught the Basic English such as frequently used words and sentences, listening and simple writing. Then in their senior high school, they will be taught advanced English like reading, writing and especially grammar. When they go into college, they will still have one or two English classes every week for academic purpose. Theoretically, after 10 years of compulsory English learning, Chinese students should have a good grasp of English language.
It’s quite interesting that when asked the students their attitudes toward L2 learning, they all recalled the yeas when they just began to learn English in the junior middle school because they were surprised that after so many years of English studying, they were still not good enough to communicate in English. They said that they can still remember how excited when they learn the first English greeting “Good morning”. While asked why they get stuck in the slow process. They believed that there were two factors: the classroom design and the teachers. They expected the teachers to teach them something interesting like conversational English or the cultures and custom, but what they were asked to do was a lot of mechanical memorizing words and reciting the texts. All the participants don’t like their classroom design although they do like their textbooks.
Though they may feel disappointed about the English class, there still have ways to learn and practice English. And they all agreed that the English class is gradually improving so they are gradually having a new interest in English learning. Almost all the participants still agreed that most of their L2 communication happened inside the classroom. In other words, students speak more inside the classroom than outside the classroom.
In the interviews, they were asked to think about their preferred opportunity for speaking in English, the results showed that they all preferred to communicate inside the classroom and with the teacher because they feel more comfortable to use Chinese outside the classroom. Even if they are now in an environment where everyone speaks English, the preferred situation is always somewhere informal and comfortable. And they tend to communicate with familiar people or someone who share the same interests with them.
Obviously, when students have problems to communicate, their willingness to communicate will be affected and ultimately, students will not willing to use L2 and even refuse to communicate.
As is shown in table 1, these reasons can logically be related. Being able to understand what people are saying should be the basic skill in a conversation. So if a language learner couldn’t understand what his interlocutors are saying, he can’t even begin a conversation. However, even though he has no problems in listening, he might not know what to say in a certain situation. Besides that, they are facing the problem in vocabulary. One participant mentioned that every time she goes out for shopping, she needs to check the dictionary first and write down the English names of things she wants to buy or related words. Someone even made a DIY dictionary for answering academic questions in class.
And because Chinese and English are completely different languages in grammar, word formation, sentence structure or in meaning conveying. So for Chinese students, the influence of the first language on English is much greater than that of other languages like German, France or Italian. Therefore, Chinese students need more effort to make themselves understood. Finally, self-confidence is also an important factor in communication for Chinese L2 learners. For those who are not confident enough or are easy to be nervous, they may feel frustrated after several times of unsuccessful communication and ultimately they will lose the courage and refuse to communicate in L2 again.
Conclusion
The study aims at investigating Chinese students’ motivation to communicate inside and outside the classroom. It involved interviewing participants and data collecting and explored students’ attitudes towards L2 learning and communicating. With related framework, this paper has an in-depth study on the relationship between willingness to communicate and motivation, self-confidence, environment
【关键词】二语学习 留学生 动机 沟通
Introduction
Teaching and learning a foreign language is always a popular topic in many areas such as educational field, linguistics field and psychological field. And L2 Students frequently are faced with the opportunity to speak up in the classrooms and the opportunities to present themselves outside the classroom. There are a number of variables and factors that affect students’ learning behavior and their willingness to communicate in school and outside the school. These factors can be direct or indirect. So it is important to acquire enough knowledge on student’s motivation and willingness to communicate in order to teach students more effectively and efficiently in the future.
For that reason, this study was carried out to examine the Chinese students’ willingness to communicate and tries to find out ways to improve classroom teaching as well as help students learn English independently outside the classroom. As involves interviews with participants, it should be noted that as both the interviewer and interviewee are Chinese, so the collected data was also in Chinese. After asking for their consent, I translated their words into English when needed.
This paper will draw on sights from several research findings like Gardner’s motivation theory (1985), Gardner’s socio-educational model (1979) and the WTC pyramid of Macintyre et al.(1998), which will enhance understanding Chinese L2 learners’ motivation and willingness to communicate.
Results
English is a compulsory course in china and pupils start to learn English since junior middle school. In the first three years, they are taught the Basic English such as frequently used words and sentences, listening and simple writing. Then in their senior high school, they will be taught advanced English like reading, writing and especially grammar. When they go into college, they will still have one or two English classes every week for academic purpose. Theoretically, after 10 years of compulsory English learning, Chinese students should have a good grasp of English language.
It’s quite interesting that when asked the students their attitudes toward L2 learning, they all recalled the yeas when they just began to learn English in the junior middle school because they were surprised that after so many years of English studying, they were still not good enough to communicate in English. They said that they can still remember how excited when they learn the first English greeting “Good morning”. While asked why they get stuck in the slow process. They believed that there were two factors: the classroom design and the teachers. They expected the teachers to teach them something interesting like conversational English or the cultures and custom, but what they were asked to do was a lot of mechanical memorizing words and reciting the texts. All the participants don’t like their classroom design although they do like their textbooks.
Though they may feel disappointed about the English class, there still have ways to learn and practice English. And they all agreed that the English class is gradually improving so they are gradually having a new interest in English learning. Almost all the participants still agreed that most of their L2 communication happened inside the classroom. In other words, students speak more inside the classroom than outside the classroom.
In the interviews, they were asked to think about their preferred opportunity for speaking in English, the results showed that they all preferred to communicate inside the classroom and with the teacher because they feel more comfortable to use Chinese outside the classroom. Even if they are now in an environment where everyone speaks English, the preferred situation is always somewhere informal and comfortable. And they tend to communicate with familiar people or someone who share the same interests with them.
Obviously, when students have problems to communicate, their willingness to communicate will be affected and ultimately, students will not willing to use L2 and even refuse to communicate.

As is shown in table 1, these reasons can logically be related. Being able to understand what people are saying should be the basic skill in a conversation. So if a language learner couldn’t understand what his interlocutors are saying, he can’t even begin a conversation. However, even though he has no problems in listening, he might not know what to say in a certain situation. Besides that, they are facing the problem in vocabulary. One participant mentioned that every time she goes out for shopping, she needs to check the dictionary first and write down the English names of things she wants to buy or related words. Someone even made a DIY dictionary for answering academic questions in class.
And because Chinese and English are completely different languages in grammar, word formation, sentence structure or in meaning conveying. So for Chinese students, the influence of the first language on English is much greater than that of other languages like German, France or Italian. Therefore, Chinese students need more effort to make themselves understood. Finally, self-confidence is also an important factor in communication for Chinese L2 learners. For those who are not confident enough or are easy to be nervous, they may feel frustrated after several times of unsuccessful communication and ultimately they will lose the courage and refuse to communicate in L2 again.
Conclusion
The study aims at investigating Chinese students’ motivation to communicate inside and outside the classroom. It involved interviewing participants and data collecting and explored students’ attitudes towards L2 learning and communicating. With related framework, this paper has an in-depth study on the relationship between willingness to communicate and motivation, self-confidence, environment