ABSTRACT
Willingness to communicate in a second language (L2 WTC), defined as L2 learners’ readiness to enter into discourse with specific persons at a specific time, is considered an important construct that influences L2 communication behavior. Engendering in learners the willingness to seize communication opportunities and to communicate in these opportunities has been argued to be the ultimate goal of the L2 learning process. MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément, and Noels proposed a seminal heuristic model which integrates an array of psychological, linguistic, educational, and communicative factors conceptualized to exert enduring or transient influences on L2 WTC and L2 use. This seminal model has, over the past several decades, inspired a large number of L2 WTC studies framed from macro and/or micro perspectives utilizing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches. This chapter provides a historical account of research on L2 WTC, reviews major findings and data elicitation approaches in this area, discusses practical applications, and finally identifies future directions.
