探討中國留學生用英語交流的意愿和動機

馬文娟

【摘要】教學和外語學習一直都在很多研究領域都是一個熱門話題，例如教育領域，語言學領域以及心理學領域。很多學生都會同意開口講外語是一個學習第二語言的絕佳機會，但是同時他們又會害怕在特定情況下犯錯誤。所以我們總是能發現有些學生很愿意交流，而有些學生則非常抵觸開口講話。但是如果這種行為成為習慣，他們會慢慢拒絕用第二外語交流，而這種拒絕溝通的后果在學習語言中非常嚴重。因此本文以英國一知名高校的留學生為研究目標，探討他們用二語溝通的意愿，以試圖找到更好的方法來改進課堂教學，并且幫助學生在課堂外自主學習語言。

【關鍵詞】二語學習 留學生 動機 溝通

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 students 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 Gardners motivation theory （1985）， Gardners 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.

Its 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 dont 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 couldnt understand what his interlocutors are saying， he cant 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 & culture.

However， this paper is far from being conclusive. First， the data was collected in a very small scale. Therefore the study may not be overall and scientific enough and large amount of data should be collected for future examination. Secondly， in China， teaching is regarded as a serious thing and teachers are often viewed as the authority in class who should be respected. So when doing the interviews， people are not willing to give harsh comments even if they dont like the teacher or the English class. So this might cause some bias in this study.

References：

[1]D?rnyei，Z.（1990）.Conceptualizing motivation in foreign-language learning.Language Learning，40（1），46-78.

[2]Gardner，R.C.&Smythe，P.C.（1975）.Motivation and second language acquisition.Canadian Modern Language Review，31，218-230.

[3]Gardner，R.C.（1985）.Social Psychology and Second Language Learning：The Role of Attitudes and Motivation.London：Edward Arnold.

[4]MacIntyre，P.D.，Clément，R.，D?rnyei，Z.，& Noels，K.A.（1998）.Conceptualizating willingness to communicate in a L2：A situated model of confidence and affiliation.Modern Language Journal，82，545-562.

[5]MacIntyre，P.D.，Doucette，J.（2010）.Willingness to communicate and action control.System，38（2），161-171.