Pragmatic Competence and Willingness to Communicate Among L2 Learners of Chinese

Frontiers in Psychology

Xiaoxuan Lv¹  Wei Ren¹  Lin Li² 

[1]School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University, Beijing, China

[2]School of International Studies, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China

关键词: pragmatic awareness;    pragmatic comprehension;    willingness to communicate;    self-perceived communication competence;    Chinese as second language;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.797419

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Research in second language (L2) pragmatics has paid increasing attention to learners’ individual differences, but few studies have examined the relationship between learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2 and their pragmatic competence. To this end, this study investigates the association between WTC and pragmatic awareness and comprehension of Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. A total of 80 CSL learners studying abroad in three universities in China participated in this study. Data were collected through a WTC questionnaire, a self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) questionnaire, a pragmatic awareness judgment task, and a multiple-choice test for pragmatic comprehension. Statistical analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between the learners’ pragmatic awareness and pragmatic comprehension on the one hand and their WTC and SPCC in L2 on the other. The findings indicated that SPCC correlated positively with the learners’ L2 pragmatic comprehension, but not with their L2 pragmatic awareness. No correlation was found between WTC and pragmatic awareness and comprehension. The results suggest that SPCC may contribute to learners’ L2 pragmatic comprehension; some implications for teaching and future research directions are also discussed.

【 授权许可】

Unknown