The Predictability of Chinese English as a Foreign Language Students' Willingness to Communicate Through Teachers' Immediacy and Teacher-Student Rapport.

Manyuan Cai

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769424

Abstract

The teacher–learner relationship is not just a simple action and reaction on both sides of the relationship but a complete exchange that takes shape in the context of the factors that affect it. To understand the factors affecting this relationship, the present study investigated the predictability of Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) through teachers’ immediacy and teacher–student rapport. To conduct the study, 858 EFL students from Xinyang Normal University in Henan province of China were invited to participate in the study. To collect the required data, the researcher employed the Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire, Verbal and Nonverbal Immediacy Questionnaire, and Professor–Student Rapport Scale. Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that there was a strong positive relationship between teacher immediacy and teacher–student rapport and learners’ willingness to communicate. The findings also demonstrated that teachers’ immediacy and teacher–student rapport were positive predictors of learners’ willingness to communicate. The paper argues that teachers need to enhance their interpersonal relations with their students to make them willing to communicate in their classes.

Highlights

Language learners are social human beings, and making connections among them is one of the obvious needs (Al-Murtadha, 2019; Chen et al, 2019)
The findings show that there is a stronger correlation between teachers’ immediacy and Willingness to Communicate (WTC) compared to the teacher–student rapport
These findings are consistent with some studies, in relation to the significance of the dimension of teacher support and guidance and academic vitality, this finding can be justified in terms of intercultural differences

Summary

Introduction

Language learners are social human beings, and making connections among them is one of the obvious needs (Al-Murtadha, 2019; Chen et al, 2019). When learners speak, they do not take words out of their mouths for any purpose. Their purpose is communication (Zhang et al, 2018; Dewaele, 2019) They enter the learning environment with different and sometimes conflicting cultures and subcultures (Lee and Lee, 2020). They do not just try to express themselves, but their goal is to influence their audience (Nkrumah, 2021). Learners’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC), both in the educational environment and outside it, follows this framework; that is, the purpose of learners’ relationship with each other whether through verbal or non-verbal

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion