A Per-second Investigation of the Interconnectedness between Linguistic and Cognitive Factors Underlying L2 Willingness to Communicate

Abstract

Willingness to communicate (WTC) research has recently witnessed a paradigm shift with the more recent studies looking at the shifting and dynamic nature of the variable. A growing body of literature has interpreted such dynamicity from a complex dynamic systems (CDS) perspective. The theory of CDS has four basic properties, one of which, and the focus of this study, is the interconnectedness among subsystems. This property mainly involves the interplay amongst parts of a system, which interact and influence one another, determining the subsequent dynamics in the system. This qualitative, exploratory study employed an idiodynamic method to investigate the interconnectedness of the cognitive and linguistic factors underlying second language (L2) WTC. To this end, 20 participants completed four three-minute monologic speaking tasks while being video-recorded. Immediately after, they viewed their recordings, rated their WTC moment by moment, and explained the WTC changes in stimulated recall interviews. The interviews were coded, and instances where WTC was affected by cognitive and linguistic factors were identified and analysed. Three patterns of interconnectedness emerged: (1) WTC and linguistic factors; (2) WTC and cognitive factors; and (3) WTC, and linguistic and cognitive factors. Findings provide a clearer account of the interconnectedness property in the WTC system, lending support to viewing WTC as a CDS. The article highlights the importance of self-perception and availability of content message, in addition to the above factors, and concludes with a brief discussion of the pedagogical implications for L2 classroom.