Abstract
Due to the spread of COVID-19, colleges have quickly adopted online learning. The purpose of the study was to examine the causal relationship among factors influencing L2 learning motivation and willingness to communicate (WTC) of Korean EFL college freshmen in online classes. The relative contributions of the factors to L2 motivation and WTC were analyzed by the structural equation modeling. The results showed that students’ ought-to L2 self was the strongest direct predictor of their motivated behavior and followed by the effectiveness of technological mode (synchronous vs. asynchronous) of the online classes. On the other hand, in the L2 WTC structural model, it was found that perceived L2 competence and communication anxiety had a direct path with students’ WTC. Therefore, these two factors that directly affected WTC have proven to be the same in face-to-face and online classes, while the students’ feeling of alienation was indirectly related to their WTC through a mediating role of communication anxiety. Based on the research findings, pedagogical implications in relation to teaching EFL in the post-COVID-19 era are suggested.
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