Universal Journal of Educational Research 8(10): 4853-4862, 2020 http://www.hrpub.org
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.081057
Relationship between Willingness to Communicate in
English and Foreign Language Enjoyment
Yin Kun
*
, Fatiha Senom, Chew Fong Peng
Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Received March 15, 2019; Revised July 15, 2020; Accepted July 29, 2020
Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles
(a): [1] Yin Kun, Fatiha Senom, Chew Fong Peng , "Relationship Between Willingness to Communicate in English and
Foreign Language Enjoyment," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 8, No. 10, pp. 4853 - 4862, 2020. DOI:
10.13189/ujer.2020.081057.
(b): Yin Kun, Fatiha Senom, Chew Fong Peng (2020). Relationship Between Willingness to Communicate in English and
Foreign Language Enjoyment. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(10), 4853 - 4862. DOI:
10.13189/ujer.2020.081057.
Copyright©2020 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License
Abstract This research sets out to investigate the
relationship between WTC (willingness to communicate)
in English and FLE (Foreign Language Enjoyment) among
Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners in
normal universities in Shandong Province, China. This is a
quantitative research through survey technique via a
questionnaire on students’ demographic variables, WTC,
and FLE. The data collected from 128 recruited students
have been addressed by SPSS (Statistical Package for
Social Science) and AMOS (Analysis of Moment
Structures). The outcomes of this research show that the
tertiary EFL students in Shandong normal universities
evaluated themselves as taking a high level of FLE and L2
WTC. Besides, data exhibited there was a significant
positive relationship that is moderately strong between
FLE and L2 WTC. Furthermore, the multiple regression
analysis showed that FLE-teacher is the FLE dimension
that significantly impacts on L2 WTC. Through the
achievement of the fitness indexes required for GFI
(Goodness of Fit Index), Ratio Chisq/df (Chi-square/
Degrees of Freedom), and RMR (Root Mean Square) at an
acceptable level, the proposed structural model does fit
with the data gathered. Thereby, the structural model
proposed based on the conceptual framework was
established for this study.
Keywords Willingness to Communicate in English,
EFL, Foreign Language Enjoyment, Education, Positive
Psychology
1. Introduction
1.1. Background of L2 WTC in English
TEFOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other
Languages) has taken on a wide range of reform and
alteration during the last century. Previously, TEFOL
highlighted on the proficiency of linguistic structure,
nonetheless, more recently, it has attached much more
importance to the language learners’ pragmatic language
use competence and the actual communicative ability for
the goal of realistic communication (Cetinkaya, 2005).
CLT (Communicative language teaching) underlines the
actual language use for significantly interactive
communication in the process of FL (foreign language)
acquisition.
Greater care to underscore the communicative uses of
foreign or second language have been given by many
researchers, such as MacIntyre and Charos (1996). They
explicitly proclaimed that one must talk to learn and
suggestions for improving linguistic proficiency through
using the language were also provided to the language
learners. That is to say, L2 learners are not enabled to get
proficient unless they communicatively use the target
language (Khajavy, Ghonsooly, Hosseini Fatemi, & Choi,
2016).
Furthermore, aligned with the recent tendency for using
the conversational method in foreign language education,
the major role of creating a language through the process of
interactive communication and language usage has also