Exploring the influence of community volunteerism on adult L2 learners’ willingness to communicate

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges for second language (L2) learners is finding the confidence to communicate with native speakers, and the construct of willingness to communicate (WTC) is often at the center of this challenge. The goal of this longitudinal case study was to examine the impact of a supportive communicative environment on adult L2 learners' WTC. Participants included four Chinese university students studying in the US, two of whom volunteered in a kindergarten classroom for five weeks (30 h) while all four continued university ESL instruction. All students were pre- and posttested using a WTC scale, and their language use tracked through weekly logs. Quantitative analyses of the WTC scales, logs, and adapted COLT observations as well as analysis of the target participants' coded exit journal excerpts revealed an improvement in the students’ WTC extending to their L2 use outside kindergarten (3.3–20.0% increase in overall WTC), and substantial growth in social language use, with the kindergarten environment cited as the primary catalyst for change. Results support the importance of nonthreatening volunteer opportunities as vehicles for increasing WTC as a supplement to traditional instruction.