Willingness to Communicate in the

Second Language: Understanding

the Decision to Speak as a Volitional
Process
PETER D. MACINTYRE
Department of Psychology
Cape Breton University, PO Box 5300
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Canada B1P 6L2
Email: peter_macintyre@cbu.ca
Previous research has devoted a great deal of attention to describing the long-term patterns
and relationships among trait-level or situation-specific variables. The present discussion extracts kernels of wisdom, based on the literatures on language anxiety and language learning
motivation, that are used to frame the argument that choosing to initiate communication at
a particular moment in time can be conceptualized as a volitional (freely chosen) process.
The result is a degree of willingness to communicate (WTC) with the potential to rise and
fall rapidly as the situation changes. Previous research based on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies is described that demonstrates the complexity of the processes involved
in creating WTC. It is argued that methodologies must be adapted to focus upon the dynamic
process of choosing to initiate or avoid second language communication when the opportunity
arises.

WHEN PRESENTED WITH AN OPPORTUNITY

to use their second language (L2), some people
choose to speak up and others remain silent. Why
is it that, even after studying a language for many
years, some L2 learners will not turn into L2 speakers? It is not a simple question when one takes into
consideration the various relevant individual, social, linguistic, situational, and other factors. This
article examines the phenomenon of reluctant
speakers as an example of a volitional process, using Willingness to Communicate (WTC) as a central
concept. Previous research in second language
acquisition (SLA) has not examined the convergence of psychological processes underlying communication at a specific moment. For example,
an experienced learner who is unwilling to communicate might show both high motivation for
learning and high anxiety about communicating.
The Modern Language Journal, 91, iv, (2007)
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C 2007 The Modern Language Journal

Is such a person willing to communicate? If not,

can we find the conditions under which he or
she would be willing to speak up? The concept of
WTC, defined as the probability of speaking when
free to do so, helps to orient our focus toward a
concern for micro-level processes and the sometimes rapid changes that promote or inhibit L2
communication.
The origins of the WTC construct lie in the
first language (L1) communication literature
(McCroskey & Baer, 1985; see also Burgoon,
1976, on unwillingness to communicate). WTC
offers the opportunity to integrate psychological,
linguistic, educational, and communicative approaches to L2 research that typically have been
independent of each other. WTC may be seen as
both an individual difference factor facilitating
L2 acquisition, especially in a pedagogical system
that emphasizes communication, and as a nonlinguistic outcome of the language learning process.
Given that WTC might not be as familiar
as other individual difference factors, let us

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Peter D. MacIntyre
approach the concept from two more familiar
points of departure, research on language anxiety and on motivation. In briefly reviewing each
concept, I will both anchor the conceptualization
of WTC and extract kernels of wisdom for use
in conceptualizing the processes underlying communication.
LANGUAGE ANXIETY
Language anxiety captures the worry and usually negative emotional reaction aroused when
learning or using an L2. After a period of some
conceptual difficulties and ambiguous empirical
results (see reviews by MacIntyre, 1999; Scovel,
1978; Young, 1991), it would appear that SLA researchers have settled on the idea that language
anxiety is an emotional experience uniquely provoked by L2 situations (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope,
1986). A key to the conceptual clarification in
this area lies in the distinctions among trait,
situation-specific, and state levels of conceptualization, each of which provides a valuable, but
somewhat different perspective on the processes
under study. At the trait level, the concern is for
concepts that endure over long periods of time
and across situations; at the trait level the concern
is for finding and establishing broad, typical patterns of behaviour. At the situation-specific level
of conceptualization, the concern is for concepts
that are defined over time within a situation; at
the situation-specific level, the concern is for establishing specific, typical patterns of behaviour.
At the state level, the concern is for experiences
rooted in a specific moment in time without much
concern for how frequently those experiences occurred in the past or whether they might occur
again in the future. We might know a neurotic
person who seems anxious at all times, or a person bothered by speaking in the L2 but not in
the L1, or a person feeling nervous right now.
Respectively, these are examples of trait, situationspecific, and state anxiety. All three levels of conceptualization appear in the literature, and each
has an important role to play in understanding
the language learning process.
Early research appeared to show an inconsistent relationship between anxiety and language
learning (Scovel, 1978). The problem appears to
have been the level of conceptualization of anxiety. Several studies have been conducted with
trait, state, and situation-specific measures of anxiety. It is clear that, on the one hand, measures
of trait-level anxiety (for example, Spielbergers,
1983, Trait Anxiety Scale) and measures of anxiety that are not specifically related to language

learning or usage (such as test anxiety) do not

show a consistent correlation with measures of
L2 performance (see MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989;
1994a). On the other hand, situation-specific measures of language anxiety (e.g., the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, Horwitz et al.,
1986) are quite reliably, negatively related to a
wide variety of measures of L2 performance (Aida,
1994; Frantzen & Magnan, 2005; Gregersen, 2003;
Horwitz, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994a; Onwuegbuzie, Bailey, & Daley, 2000; Vogley, 1998).
Finally, state anxiety has not been widely studied
in SLA, but the available results appear to show
that if anxiety is aroused, L2 performance suffers
(Allen & Herron, 2003; Gregersen, 2003; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994b). The study of state anxiety
is made more complex by learners active attempts
to cope with and compensate for the effects of
anxiety, and by the relatively automatic process of
habituation that lessens the emotional arousal as
time goes by.
The process of adapting to anxiety, through active coping or simple habituation, suggests that
descriptions of language anxiety and the processes by which it affects language learning should
be sensitive to fluctuation over short periods of
time. These fluctuations are lost when anxiety is
defined only at the level of a personality trait.
A focus on its fluctuations presents an opportunity to examine both the felt experience of
language anxiety (see Price, 1991) and the physiological processes that underlie it (see Schumann,
1997; Schumann et al., 2004).
This observation leads to the first kernel of wisdom that we can extract from the literature: The
relationships among variables under study in SLA
may change substantially when concepts are defined
at different levels of abstraction (e.g., state, situationspecific, or trait levels).
MOTIVATION
The second conceptual point of departure for
this discussion is motivation. Gardners (1985)
socioeducational model, with its focus on integrative motivation, has been considered the dominant model in the field for many years. However,
Crookes and Schmidt (1991), Dornyei (1994),
Oxford and Shearin (1994), and others have been
critical of its influence and called for reopening
the research agenda on motivation over a decade
ago. At the moment, research into language
learning motivation is flourishing with developments, including Dornyeis (2005) process model
and L2 possible self model, Noelss (2005) work
on self-determination, Schumann et al.s (2004)

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The Modern Language Journal 91 (2007)

physiological approach, Ushiodas (2001) qualitative approach to learner autonomy and Yashima,
Zenuk-Nishide, and Shimizus (2004) concept of
international posture. We should not, however,
lose sight of the socioeducational model because
there are is still much to be learned from it.
The socioeducational model captures a set
of 11 interrelated concepts (Gardner, 2001).
Figure 1 shows the basic model. Integrativeness
refers to a complex set of attitudes that reflect a
genuine desire to meet, communicate with, and
possibly identify emotionally with another group
(Gardner & Lambert, 1972). Attitudes toward the
learning situation reflect the attitudes that language students have toward their teacher and the
course. Finally, motivation is the engine that drives
the system, reflecting the notion that a truly motivated student shows a desire to learn the language, expends effort in learning, and enjoys the
task (Gardner, 1985). Therefore, integrative motivation is a complex set of attitudes, goal-directed
behaviours, and motivations. The focus on establishing a relationship with members of another
language group, that is, creating real bonds of
communication with another people (Gardner,
2001) is what separates the integrative motive
from other motivational processes that also have
an impact on language learning.
In the original article leading to the socioeducational model, Gardner and Lambert (1959)
hypothesized that a strong motivation to learn
a second language follows from a desire to
be accepted as a member of the new linguistic community (p. 272). After almost 50
years of research, and over 75 studies published by Gardner and associates, it is clear
that the intergroup features of language provide
significant support for the motivation to learn

(Masgoret & Gardner, 2003). Intergroup attraction, in some form, develops in diverse language
learning contexts and has been captured by concepts such as international posture (Yashima,
2002), xenophilic and sociocultural orientations
(Clement, Dornyei, & Noels, 1994), acculturation processes (Schumann, 1986), and interest in
the target language and people (Ushioda, 2001).
The importance of the target language group in
SLA has been repeatedly confirmed (Allard &
Landry, 1994; Clement, 1986; Giles & Byrne, 1982;
Noels, 2001; Spada, 1986). Given findings consistent with prior research that show strong student
interest in the communicative and instrumental
aspects of language learning, Alalou (2001) reported an overwhelming demand for communication skills (p. 465) among students in Spanish,
French, and German language programs at a large
U.S. university.
In highlighting the motivational supports that
are relatively unique to the language learning process, we may extract a second kernel of wisdom:
The major motivation to learn another language is to
develop a communicative relationship with people from
another cultural group.
THE ISSUE OF TIME
Whereas the literature on the role of the intergroup context in SLA is well developed (see
Clement & Gardner, 2001; Masgoret & Gardner,
2003), the literature on other L2 motivational perspectives is newer and more sporadic in its empirical support. Space does not permit a review of
these developments here (but see Dornyei, 2005),
though it is clear that motivation is being examined from a number of exciting, and at times incompatible, perspectives. In examining the issues

FIGURE 1
Gardners Socioeducational Model
other

Integrative Motivation:
other

Integrativeness
Attitudes toward
the learning
situation

Motivation

Language
Achievement

Language Aptitude

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Peter D. MacIntyre
raised in the debate on reopening the research
agenda for motivation, and subsequent lessons
learned, Dornyei (2003) commented:
I have now come to believe that many of the controversies and disagreements in L2 motivation research go
back to an insufficient temporal awareness . . . that different or even contradictory theories do not exclude
one another, but may simply be related to different
phases of the motivated behavioral process. (p. 18)

In discussing the process model, Dornyei (2001,

2005) made an important distinction between motivation to enter a situation and motivation to engage in effortful, task-related behaviour within the

situation (see also Julkunen,

1989, 2001). Dornyei
(2005) highlighted the different motivational processes that occur before, during, and after a
specific event. Motivational processes also can
be grouped at various levels (Dornyei, 1990), including those that emphasize the enduring social
context (e.g., the integrative motive) or those that
emphasize localized events (e.g., task motives).
These points lead to a third kernel of wisdom: The manner in which motivation affects language learning changes as the time frame under study
changes.
CROSSING THE RUBICON
The issue of time, which is so important for future theory development, arises in an interesting
way within Dornyeis (2005) process model. The
model proposes that individuals reach a decision
point that Dornyei calls crossing the Rubicon where
a language learner commits to taking action. For
those readers unfamiliar with the phrase, the Rubicon was an ancient river separating the Roman
Province of Cisalpine Gaul from the heartland
of Rome. By law, no Roman general could lead
his army across that river toward Rometo do
so was considered an act of war against Rome itself. In 49 BC, after some hesitation, Julius Caesar
crossed the Rubicon, initiating an irrevocable and
dangerous course of action that led to civil war
and eventually the installation of Caesar as the
ruler of Rome. Crossing the Rubicon is a powerful metaphor for passing the point of no return,
one that captures the essence of the sometimes
conflicted decisions that language learners must
make on a regular basis: (a) Do I raise my hand
to answer a question in the classroom? (b) Do I
offer assistance to an L2 speaker I just met at the
airport? (c) Do I try to use the L2 in an actual
conversation, not knowing exactly what course it
might take or what embarrassment awaits?

The motivational tendencies that are captured

by various theories, such as interest in communicating with another language group, deciding to
study an L2, and engagement with language tasks,
are played out daily in specific actions we take
the decisions we make about what we are willing
to do. Application of this focus to language learning implies a potential new direction for research
concentrating on the interaction of various processes at a specific moment in time. For example,
we might focus on the conflicted moment when
high motivation for language learning propels a
learner toward communication but high anxiety
arousal restrains his or her action.
If we consider the interaction of motivation
(approach) and anxiety (avoidance), we arrive
at what might be the critical decision for language learning success: Does a learner choose to
communicate when the opportunity arises? This
question bridges the social processes of interpersonal and intergroup contact, the educational
process of language learning, as well as interpersonal communicative processes. The question has a clear temporal focus on a specific
moment. Defined as the probability of initiating communication, given choice and opportunity, WTC integrates motivational processes with
communication competencies and perceived selfconfidence.
WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE
The kernels of wisdom described previously, including the level of conceptualization, intergroup
communication processes, and the issue of time,
have been integrated into the pyramid model
of WTC (MacIntyre, Clement, Dornyei, & Noels,
1998). Constructs commonly employed in the L2
literature are layered according to a proximal
distal continuum (see Figure 2) that captures the
dimensions of time and concept specificity, with a
distinctly intergroup flavour. Significant elements
of the most distal factors in the model (Layer
VI), intergroup climate and personality, exist even
before the individual is born because they capture enduring intergroup and genetic influences
handed down from one generation to the next.
The individual has little influence over these factors, and generally he or she plays a somewhat indirect role in language behaviour. The next layer
(V) of the pyramid captures the individuals typical affective and cognitive context. Setting the
tone for motivation to learn the L2 is the tension between a desire to approach the target language group and a sense of hesitation or fear
of the implications of doing so. The last of the

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The Modern Language Journal 91 (2007)

FIGURE 2
The Pyramid Model of Willingness to Communicate
1

Layer I

L2 Use

Communication
Behaviour

Layer II

Behavioural Intention

Willingness to
Communicate
3 4

Layer III

Desire to
communicate
with a specific
person
5

Layer IV

Interpersonal
Motivation
8

Layer V

Layer
VI

Intergroup
Attitudes

State
Communicative
Self-Confidence
6

Intergroup
Motivation
9
Social
Situation

Situated Antecedents

7
L2
Self-Confidence
10
Communicative
Competence

11 12
Intergroup Climate

Motivational Propensities

Personality

Affective-Cognitive Context

Social and Individual

Context

Note. From Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and
Affiliation, by P. D. MacIntyre, R. Clement, Z. Dornyei, and K. Noels, 1998, Modern Language Journal, 82,
p. 547. Reprinted with permission.

layers of enduring influences (Layer IV) contains

highly specific motives and self-related cognition.
Intergroup motives stem directly from membership in a particular social group, and interpersonal motives stem from the social roles one plays
within the group. Issues of affiliation and control
(broadly defined) are the most basic of motives,
exerting their effects throughout the system. This
layer shows that roles and motives combine with
L2 self-confidence that represents perceptions of
communicative competence coupled with a lack
of anxiety.
When we move to Layer III of the pyramid, a
transition is made from enduring influences to situational ones. The sense of time is coming to focus
on the here and now. At this level of the pyramid
model is the desire to communicate with a specific
person as well as a state of self-confidence. The
culmination of the processes described thus far
is variation in the WTC, to initiate L2 discourse
on a specific occasion with a specific person,
remembering that the person represents a different social group. This level of the model represents the level of behavioural intention (Ajzen &
Fishbein, 1980) to speak, if one has the opportunity, or to remain quiet. This moment is akin
to crossing the Rubicon, the point where one

commits definitively to act in the L2. At times, one

crosses such a threshold in the flow of conversation mindlessly without hesitation or concern; at
other times, L2 communication is initiated with
reluctance, hesitation, even trepidation. The most
proximal factor, WTC (Layer II), represents the final psychological step in preparation for L2 communication. In effect, the time has come to take
actionAm I willing to initiate communication,
or am I choosing to remain silent? This is a moment that we must better understand.
The issue of time raised by Dornyei (2003) is
addressed here in two ways. First, the original
WTC construct (McCroskey & Richmond, 1991)
was a trait-level variable, representing a stable tendency to approach or avoid communication. Such
a concept does not necessarily require the availability of any specific opportunity it requires simply a predisposition to communicate should the
opportunity arise (MacIntyre & Charos, 1996).
For McCroskey and associates, and in several studies done on L2 learners (e.g., MacIntyre, Baker,
Clement, & Donovan, 2002), WTC is a trait-like
characteristic carried from one situation to another. However, in the pyramid model, L2 WTC
is not conceptualized at the trait level, but rather
as a state. WTC is a state of readiness occurring in

Peter D. MacIntyre
the present moment. Its immediate influences are
a state of self-confidence (defined by low anxiety
and a perception of L2 competence) and a desire to communicate with a specific person. This
conceptualization suggests that the initiation of
communication is a matter of choice, a decision
to be made at a particular moment. Choosing to
communicate in the L2 is an act of volition.
VOLITION
The great American psychologist and philosopher James (1890) had a brilliant passage on volition in which he wrote:
We know what it is to get out of bed on a freezing
morning in a room without a fire, and how the very
vital principle within us protests against the ordeal.
Probably most persons have lain on certain mornings
for an hour at a time unable to brace themselves to
the resolve. We think how late we shall be, how the
duties of the day will suffer; we say, I must get up, this
is ignominious, etc; but still the warm couch feels too
delicious, the cold outside too cruel, and resolution
faints away and postpones itself again and again just
as it seemed on the verge of bursting the resistance
and passing over into the decisive act . . . .
Now how do we ever get up under such circumstances? If I may generalize from my own experience,
we more often than not get up without any struggle
at all. We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs; we forget both
the warmth and the cold; we fall into some revery
connected with the days life, in the course of which
the idea flashes across us, Hollo, I must lie here no
longeran idea which at that lucky instant awakens
no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor
effects . . . .
It was our acute consciousness of both the warmth
and the cold during the period of struggle, which paralyzed our activity then and kept our idea of rising in
the condition of wish and not will. The moment these
inhibitory ideas ceased, the original idea exerted its
effects.
This case seems to me to contain in miniature form
the data for an entire psychology of volition. (pp. 524
525)

A significant number of L2 learners around the

world brace themselves to the resolve, they learn
another language, and they choose to speak in
that language. For such people, a state is reached
in which L2 communication is approached willingly; but as James (1890) suggested, others seem
destined to remain in the condition of wish and
not will.
Perhaps the most interesting behaviours are
those that are freely chosen, that is, volitional.
The study of volition in psychology dates back to

569
the very beginning of the discipline. However, the
concept was all but abandoned as motivation research moved in the direction of what seemed
to be more philosophically solid concepts such
as drives and instincts because volition, free will,
and similar concepts have been extraordinarily
elusive. Such concepts beg difficult questions, including Where does free will come from? This
sort of question can lead into an intellectual quagmire that might be better left undisturbed for
this article in favor of extracting the theoretical
value contained in the idea of volitional action.
Jamess (1890) passage just quoted eloquently describes the convergence of past and future influences on the present moment. The concept of
volition has the potential to organize multiple,
competing motivational, cognitive, and affective
influences on specific observable actions by the
learner.
Models of motivation in psychology, and models of L2 learning motives, often employ concepts rooted in the learners past (e.g., attained
proficiency, prior intergroup conflict, and existing personality traits) or in the learners future
(e.g., plans and goals, possible selves, and language learning orientations). Yet, to understand
how motivational processes have an effect on actions such as communicative behaviour, one must
study the moment in which they are applied. The
process of exercising volition provides a way to
specify how motivational tendencies are enacted
in the moment-to-moment choices we make, such
as choosing to speak up or to remain quiet.
Whereas most research on WTC has taken the
trait perspective, a few studies have examined the
choice to speak. Four such studies will be highlighted, including experimental and qualitative
methodologies, as well as a combination of L1
and L2 communication.
MacIntyre, Babin, and Clement (1999) studied
the WTC of people as they were communicating
in their L1s, but the basic psychological processes
apply to L2 communication as well. The study
was based on research by Zakahi and McCroskey
(1989), who found that 92% of the respondents
who scored high on the WTC scale were willing to
participate in a communication laboratory study,
but only 24% of those who scored low on the
scale were willing to participate. In this case, the
dependent variable was simply whether or not the
participant showed up, no speaking was required.
MacIntyre et al. (1999) replicated and extended
Zakahi and McCroskeys study by pretesting a
group of participants during a regularly scheduled psychology class, with the invitation to everyone who was willing to come to a communication

570
laboratory for the second part of the study. Once
the research participants were in the lab, they
were asked to decide whether or not to engage
in specific oral and written communication tasks
(similar to the well-known Can Do tasks, see Clark,
1981) that were either easy or difficult. The results showed that the participants who attended
the laboratory portion of the study had significantly higher WTC than those who chose not to attend. Among those who visited the laboratory, the
WTC scores predicted the initiation of both oral
and written communication tasks; neither anxiety nor perceived competence was related to the
initiation of oral communication. This finding is
evidence for the conceptual differentiations
among the concepts, as well as strong empirical
support for the key defining characteristic of
WTC, choosing to initiate communication when
there is a choice.
A more recent study (MacIntyre, Clement, &
Noels, 2007) was conducted among L2 learners
at the high school level. The research examined
the role of personality traits, specifically extraversion, in vocabulary learning and in the decision to
initiate communication using the new vocabulary
words. Approximately half of the learners studied
the new vocabulary items alone, and the other half
studied in small groups. The situation in which
students were studying had a significant impact,
but it was not as straightforward as might be anticipated. It is known from prior research that introverts learn better in familiar situations than
extraverts (Wilson & Lynn, 1990) because, generally, introverts seem to prefer routine (Eysenck
& Zuckerman, 1978; Wilson, 1978). The reverse
is true for novel situationsextraverts like a little change (Ahmed, 1990). When the data were
reexamined using the familiarity of the study situation, an interesting pattern of results was found.
As expected, the extraverts showed higher WTC
than the introverts when studying new L2 vocabulary words in a moderately unfamiliar situation.
However, the pattern was reversed when the study
conditions were highly familiar. Under that condition, the introverts actually showed higher WTC
than the extraverts did. Results such as these attest to the complexity of studying the volitional
choices of the moment.
Two studies based on qualitative data, one published and one unpublished, in which the focused essay technique (MacIntyre & Gardner,
1991) was employed, have given insight into the
thought process behind initiating L2 communication. For a focused essay, a respondent is asked to
write a few lines about a specific event in some detail. In this case, the respondents were asked for a

The Modern Language Journal 91 (2007)

description of a time when they felt most willing
and another time when they felt least willing to
speak in their L2s.
The first study (Baker & MacIntyre, 2000) examined over 200 English-speaking students learning French as an L2 in an English-speaking
community in Canada. Some students were from
standard French classes and others from a Frenchimmersion program in which all courses are
taught in French (except their English course). In
describing a situation in which they were highly
willing to communicate in French, the nonimmersion students seemed very pleased with small,
specific successes (e.g., giving directions, meeting
a Francophone, traveling). For example, one student said:
My father has a tailoring and bridal shop . . . and one
day a French-speaking lady came in and my Dads wife
can speak French but she was off that day, so I was able
to help her [the lady] out enough so that she would
come back. (p. 331)

The immersion students seemed to have

less strong emotion behind their high WTC,
having used the language with Francophones,
their friends, and in giving classroom presentations. The immersion students seemed impressively nonchalant about situations of high
WTC.
When describing an event associated with low
WTC, the immersion students described much
stronger emotions than the nonimmersion students. In both groups of students, the type of event
that led to low WTC was an interaction in which,
after the respondent initiated communication in
French, the interlocutor switched to English. This
is an embarrassing rejection of the volition of
the speaker initiating communication in the L2;
to quote James (1890), it is ignominious! (p.
524). In the students minds, the rejection of their
self-presentation negatively affected communication, reducing their WTC. The students reported
strong emotion in this situation. It is interesting
to note that the students who described such an
event indicated that it provided increased motivation for future language learning.
A second set of qualitative data (MacDonald,
Clement, & MacIntyre, 2003) was collected in
Ottawa, Ontario. Ottawa is a bilingual city, and
the University of Ottawa where the research was
conducted functions as a bilingual institution. We
requested focused essays from over 100 Anglophone and Francophone university students. It
is usually the case in Ottawa that Francophones
have more experience speaking in English than
Anglophones have speaking in French.

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Peter D. MacIntyre
Our data showed that the Anglophones were
most willing to use French in situations where the
only other choice was to refuse to speak at all.
The most frequently cited situation was when a
Francophone person requested assistance (more
than one in four responses fit this category), yet
the person seeking help was expected to speak
English if possible. The Anglophones also mentioned error correction quite often (about 20% of
the responses), both as something that increased
and as something that decreased their WTC, depending on whether it was expected and how it
was offered.
Id be most willing if I had friends around me. I always
felt comfortable in a classroom giving a speech. When
you are out of the classroom I feel like people are
analyzing me. I dont mind when a teacher does it,
but not an acquaintance. (p. 10)

Among the Francophones, over one third of

the respondents were highly willing to communicate in English with friends and in peer groups
where other people felt more comfortable in
English, and a similar number described situations where another person needed assistance in
English.
For low-WTC situations, we saw a sharp contrast between Anglophone and Francophone responses. The Anglophones were least willing to
speak when they felt a lack of self-confidence or
when speaking with strangers (over 20% each).
Several Anglophones felt they were being analyzed and critiqued by interlocutors, especially for
accent and grammatical errors. Self-consciousness
seemed to play a major role for the Anglophones.
This is the sort of mindset James (1890) described
as lying in bed on the freezing morning, where
contemplating attributes of the situation interfere
with acting in that situation.
For the Francophones, a different type of situation typically was mentioned. Almost half the respondents said that they were least willing to speak
English with Francophone family and friends. For
many, it simply made sense to use French with
Francophones. However, the Canadian political
context was apparent in some of their answers,
given that some Francophones felt the need to
preserve the French language and to enhance its
vitality. The Francophones also indicated an unwillingness to communicate on topics that were
unfamiliar or that required specialized vocabulary, a much more specific type of situation than
we observed among the Anglophones.
Quand je dois parler de sujets tr`es precis ou` je ne suis
pas certain de lexactitude des termes. (When I must talk

about precise things and I am not certain of the exact

terminology.) (p. 26)

These four studies implicate many of the concepts noted in the introductory pages of this article. The results indicate that the influences of
psychological, pedagogical, situational, linguistic,
sociopolitical, and other considerations wax and
wane in their impact at the specific moment when
one decides to communicate or not.
These points lead to a fourth kernel of wisdom:
Studying volitional choices demonstrates that opposing
processes (e.g., approach and avoidance) converge to
affect L2 communication.
DRIVING AND RESTRAINING FORCES
To help us better understand the processes, we
turn to the classic social psychology/Gestalt psychology theory of Lewin (1951) who specifically
addressed the issue of converging forces on social
interaction. Lewins field theory describes the energy and direction that may lead to action. In the
Gestalt tradition, action is based on the totality of
co-existing, mutually interdependent facts. Lewin
divided influences into the general life situation
(experiences, disposition) and the momentary situation, in a manner that we also used in our pyramid model (MacIntyre et al., 1998). Lewin also
commented that the momentary influences have
much greater significance for behaviour than the
general life situation, which serves as background,
and we also have adopted that perspective within
the pyramid model of WTC. For example, any
one of the elements of the pyramid that become
salient at a particular moment may have an impact on behaviour. We see this impact in the
qualitative data from Ottawa (MacDonald et al.,
2003), for example, where social roles were foregrounded for some (e.g., error correction from
teachers vs. acquaintances), and long-term goals
were emphasized for others (repeat customers
provide economic security for a small family business), whereas issues of self-confidence were most
salient for a number of persons (knowing terminology before speaking).
In outlining motivational issues in Field Theory, Lewin (1951) proposed two types of forces:
(a) driving forces (energy that is in the direction
of the intended goal); and (b) restraining forces
(energy that impedes the achievement of a goal
by working in the opposite direction towards a
different goal). Over 50 years ago, Lewin made
the valuable observation that it is easier to modify a persons actions by reducing the restraining
forces than it is by increasing the driving forces,

572
an observation supported by Agazarian and Gantt
(2003). This observation helps to explain why
the Anglophone speakers in Ottawa (MacDonald
et al., 2003) seemed to hold back from speaking French unless there was no other choice. The
Francophones tended to have had more contact
with Anglophones and higher competence in English, and therefore seemed to perceive fewer restraining forces.
Lewins (1951) observations, along with the
pyramid model for L2 communication, emphasize the moment-to-moment dynamics underlying
WTC, and help us to understand the nature of
the restraints placed on action in situ. At any moment a learner might feel both motivated to learn
and inhibited by anxiety because of the culmination of converging, conflicting processes. Such
processes lead to both approach and avoidance
tendencies, operating simultaneously, waxing and
waning in salience from moment to moment.
These moments of ambivalence, in essence, capture the difficulty that learners face in crossing their individual Rubicon described previously.
Much of the current SLA literature on language
anxiety and motivation reflects trait-level processes where generalizations are the goal, and exceptions to the rule are considered error variance
or noise (Allen & Herron, 2003). The literature
on the psychology of L2 communication would
benefit a great deal from studying specific, conflicted moments in time.
As an example of how such moments might
be captured, Wen and Clement (2003) recently
have extended the pyramid model to include explicitly this notion of situated restraints in a Chinese context. They argued that, after an individual
forms a WTC, Chinese culture demands an additional set of restraining forces based on the sense
of responsibility to the collectivity and on deference to authority. The strength of the restraining forces on the moment of communication
helps to explain the well-known Chinese reluctance to speak, and the value placed on thoughtful silence. People in other cultures, for example, in the United States, on average appear to
be far more willing to speak (Sallinen-Kuparinen,
McCroskey, & Richmond, 1991). Therefore, differences in intercultural communication lie partially in the culturally conditioned restraining
forces on communication. Such intergroup differences can become prominent features of social interaction when members from different cultures
communicate with each other.
Yashima (2002) studied WTC in such a situation with her work on Japanese student sojourners visiting the United States, although her work

The Modern Language Journal 91 (2007)

focused on a time frame of several months, rather
than changes in WTC from moment to moment.
The purpose of the sojourner students travel was
to live with host families and attend school in the
United States, enhancing their L2 skills in English.
Students who left Japan with higher WTC in the
L2 reported having more contact with the host
families and speaking more frequently in their
new schools. These interactions were associated
with more positive outcomes from the sojourn,
including better adjustment and satisfaction with
the experience. It should be noted that in examining the cumulative effects of WTC, we have
moved to a situation-specific level of conceptualization, and are considering a period spanning
several months.
These points lead to a final kernel of wisdom:
Future research in SLA should focus on the momentary
restraining forces that come into play when a speaker is
choosing whether or not to initiate communication.
A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY
A better understanding of the dynamics of the
moment-to-moment processes that both lead to
and prevent action will require a set of methodologies that are suited to the task. The methods
currently in use, based on correlation or analysis
of variance, offer a snapshot of the processes under study. This snapshot has value, but the action
necessarily is stopped when we take the picture. As
an analogy, imagine a photograph taken during
play of any sport: football, baseball, or tennis, for
example. The image tells us a great deal about that
sport: the number of players, their equipment,
the type of playing surface, the size and shape of
the ball being used, and so on. The action of the
game, however, is frozen in the photo. To understand how the game is played, we must set the
process in motion. Methods based on correlation
are analogous to the photograph, by taking variables measured at a particular moment in time
and examining their covariance. Analysis of variance takes a similar approach by setting defined
levels of an independent variable and observing
the effects on samples of a dependent variable,
at a particular time. In both cases, the methods
freeze the process at a moment for detailed study.
Methods using repeated measures allow us to begin to see the process in motion, but are limited
to the number and timing of the measurements.
Qualitative methodologies have the advantage of
providing rich descriptions of dynamic process in
participants own terms. However, qualitative processes are limited by both their idiosyncratic focus (where generalization is not a concern, see

573

Peter D. MacIntyre
Maxwell, 2005) and the difficulties of biases in reporting memories (Loftus, 1980), especially from
autobiographical memory. These difficulties are
likely to become more acute as time elapses between the occurrence of an event and describing
that event to a researcher. Of particular relevance
to the present discussion is the fading affect bias
whereby negative emotions associated with events
fade from memory faster than positive emotions
associated with the same events (Ritchie et al.,
2006).
We need a methodology that is focused on
dynamic changes in the processes that underlie
communication at a particular moment. There
is obvious difficulty in asking communicators to
judge their anxiety, motivation, competence, and
so on, since they are deciding whether to initiate
communication. A solution to this methodological issue likely will require methods wherein the
measurements are taken immediately after the
communication event. One possibility is recording L2 conversations followed by a form of stimulated recall (Gass & Mackey, 2000) in which
the participants review the conversation and
report on the salient internal emotional and cognitive processes they experienced. This methodology could take advantage of the opportunities
to use either the computer, or audio- and videorecording equipment, all commonly found in
language laboratories to study conversations of
various types. For example, spontaneous conversations between peers, between more experienced
and less experienced learners, or between L1 and
L2 speakers in a language learning classroom
could be recorded and reviewed with the participants. As a second example, the procedure
might be applied to studying the process of cooperating in computer-mediated communication,
such as Internet chat conversations, where the
written record could be reviewed and the participants queried about their choices of when they
decided to write a comment. Finally, experimental
methodologies also could be developed to manipulate conditions systematically where the focus is
on the moments leading to the initiation of communication. A body of research developed in this
broadly defined area holds the potential to provide a more satisfactory answer to the question
of why some L2 learners choose not to speak. A
significant, added advantage of the volitional approach advocated in this article is the potential to
integrate more fully physiological and, in particular, neurobiological (see Porges, 2003; Porges,
2007; Schumann et al., 2004) processes into theories of L2 communication (see also Beatty &

McCroskey, 1998; Beatty, McCroskey & Valencic,

2001).
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The present discussion began by asking why
some people seek and others avoid L2 communication. There is no doubt that both language
anxiety and language learning motivation play
a role, and their effects can be observed over
time. Previous research has devoted a great deal
of attention to describing the long-term patterns
and relationships among trait-level or situationspecific variables that are observed all over the
world. But if we approach the question using a
very narrow time frame, that is, if we examine the
process of creating a WTC at a specific time with
a specific person, we see a fascinating, complex
process. The longer term patterns have a role to
play, but the interplay of the features of the situation with the psychology of the individual speaker
takes on a primary role in this paradigm. The
volitional act of speaking requires the coordination of a set of driving and restraining forces that
may operate with or without the speakers explicit
awareness.
Future research directions that investigate the
moment of decision are likely to produce some
very interesting results that complement existing
research. We have yet to develop a set of methodologies to study the affective changes at the moment communication begins. It seems clear that
those methods will be a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, as has been advocated in the literature on motivation (Ushioda,
2001). Ideally, this research can be done with sensitivity to the varieties of expectations for communication in various cultures (Wen & Clement,
2003). Perhaps the most important decision language learners face is whether or not to use their
incipient skills when the opportunity arises, inside
or outside the classroom. The forces that hold a
person back when the moments of decision come
along potentially hold the key to unlocking the
secrets of the language learners who are not necessarily language speakers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by a grant from the
Social Science and Humanities Research Council of
Canada. This manuscript is based on a presentation
given at EURO SLA 2005, Dubrovnik, Croatia. I extend
my sincere appreciation to Sean MacKinnon and R. C.

574
Gardner, as well as the MLJ editor and anonymous reviewers, for their comments on this manuscript.

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