Relationships of self‐perceived communication competence and communication apprehension with willingness to communicate: A comparison with first and second languages in Micronesia

Abstract

Research involving communication apprehension (CA) and related constructs such as self‐perceived communication competence (SPCC) and willingness to communicate (WTC) has been conducted in a wide variety of cultures. In general, relationships among these variables have been found to be quite similar across cultures, even when substantial mean differences have been observed. An exception to this pattern was an extremely high (r = .80) correlation between SPCC and WTC observed, in a study conducted in Micronesia (Burroughs & Marie, 1990). Other relationships observed in the study were generally consistent with those found in other cultures. Since this study involved individuals in a context where they were forced to communicate in a second language much of the time, and the data were collected in that second language, it was suspected this anomaly was what produced the aberrant finding. The present study obtained data from the same population but referenced the participants' first languages and was administered in their first language. Results indicated a relationship between SPCC and WTC consistent with that found in other cultures. It was also observed that, while there was substantially lower perceived communication competence for the second language than for the first language, there was no such differential for communication apprehension.