Factors influencing overseas learners' Willingness to Communicate (WTC) on a pre-sessional programme at a UK university

This paper investigates students' perceptions of factors influencing their Willingness to Communicate (WTC), the inclination to engage in spoken discourse with others, and the type of classroom activities which prompt oral output. The present study applied activities to the classroom context and evaluated them through observation, reflective journal and stimulated recall sessions in an attempt to comprehend the extent to which certain dynamics impact on the oral output of a group of Chinese learners. As with other research, the topic, interlocutors, task focus, learners' proficiency and task complexity influenced WTC significantly. While the observations generally corroborated findings, it appears that participants' identity, transferred from the first language (L1), may have impacted on self-reporting. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.