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The important aspect of speaking in an L2 classroom is well-known for language acquisition to occur. But what happens when students, for whatever reason, are unwilling to communicate. In that case, teachers must apply different pedagogical practices to support them. With this in mind, this degree project essay aims to investigate the English syllabus in upper-secondary school in Sweden to explore what recommendations teachers are given to increase learners’ willingness to communicate orally. The analysis of the English syllabus is done using a constructed framework based on previous research on the best pedagogical practices to increase students’ willingness to communicate and explore if there is an alignment between the two. The findings show that the most often-included suggestions aligned with international best practices are: connecting the teaching to students’ knowledge and experiences, providing students with linguistic competence, and providing students with different interactional activities with different purposes. The essay will further give some pedagogical recommendations and future research directions.

Critical thinking is an educational ideal with an accumulating canon of scholarship, but conceptualizing it has nevertheless remained contentious. One important issue concerns how critical thinking involves an interplay between cognitive abilities and associated character traits, dispositions, and motivations. I call these and other aspects of the critical thinker “critical thinking virtues”, taking them to be intellectual excellences of character, cultivated by people who tend to aim towards making reasoned judgments about what to do or believe. The central virtue that motivates any critical thinker to engage her skills in critical thinking I call “willingness to inquire”, connecting the character of the person to the skills she must use consistently to be a critical thinker. Willingness to inquire is the virtue that ranges over the application of all critical thinking skills, a basic motivational drive guiding a person towards the educational ideal. Other critical thinking virtues, such as open-mindedness, fairness, and respect for dialectical partners, also facilitate the appropriate application of critical thinking skills in a process of inquiry. Pedagogues should therefore seek not only to instruct for skills, but also to explicitly mention and instruct for the virtues as well. I conclude by offering curricular recommendations in this regard. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2) is crucial to the development of communicative speaking skills. This study is a cross-sectional investigation of the role in models of second language (L2) willingness to communicate of three personality variables hitherto underresearched in the L2 field: extroversion, ego permeability (one's capacity to tolerate ambiguity), and perceived distance from one's core persona. A sample of 252 Japanese university students responded to a set of instruments used to measure individual difference variables and personality variables; the instruments were drawn from the fields of L2 acquisition and psychology as well as a 5-item instrument designed to measure perceived distance in a series of participatory L2 speaking activities. Confirmatory factor analysis, Rasch analysis, and structural equation modeling were utilized to validate the respective instruments. The International Posture instrument was best represented by a two-factor configuration consisting of Intergroup Approach-Avoidance Tendency and Intercultural Friendship Orientation, while the L2 Communicative Confidence was altered to consist of three factors (L2 Anxiety, Perceived L2 Communicative Competence, and Extroversion). The hypothesized additions of Ego Permeability and Perceived Distance failed to improve the measurement models, and the original Ego Permeability variable functioned poorly in this context. The MacIntyre and Charos (1996) model had marginal fit to the data even after undergoing considerable respecification. The models of Yashima (2002) and Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, and Shimizu (2004) were found to have good fit as originally conceptualized, but the addition of Extroversion and paths from International Posture and L2 Communicative Anxiety improved the fit of both models. Collectively, the results indicate that extroversion plays an important role in models of L2 WTC and that the basic models of Yashima and colleagues are robust. These findings provide crucial insights into the process of L2 WTC, an important factor in the students' acquisition of communicative competence. / CITE/Language Arts

In the context of language instruction and learning, L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) is a relevant factor in learners’ language use. It is viewed as a volitional process influenced by individual, social, linguistic, and situationally dependent factors. Foundational research focuses on either trait or state WTC-influencing factors as separate entities. Current research considers the dynamic relationship that occurs between the two though less research exists on how WTC manifests in classroom interaction. This study investigates such differences by examining learners’ self-reported, perceived trait WTC and situational state WTC. It treats WTC as a dynamic entity which is shaped by learners’ investment in language learning and the identity they take on as language learners. It considers the relationship of WTC to its three most influential trait variables: motivation, L2 perceived competence, and L2 anxiety. It presents findings of additional variables influencing state WTC. Data were comprised of questionnaire surveys, focal participant interviews, and classroom observations. Quantitative data consisted of 39 participants, and qualitative data consisted of 12 focal participants. The importance of the present study lies in its investigation of WTC in relation to trait and state factors, and its stance that investment in L2 learning is a key factor in fostering classroom WTC. Finally, it explores how WTC can be positively fostered to optimize the learner’s language experience. / Spanish

This study was an investigation of students' Readiness for L2 Group Work and its relationship to Willingness to Communicate in L2 Group Work in a Japanese university. Readiness for L2 Group Work is defined as learners' self-perception of the degree to which they are prepared cognitively and affectively for L2 group work. It consists of Communication Confidence in L2 Group Work and Beliefs about L2 Group Work. Two versions of the same questionnaire were administered to approximately 750 students with two English proficiency levels in the Communication and the Language and Culture courses at the beginning and end of the 2005 spring semester. A factor analysis identified six factors: Communication Apprehension in L2 Group Work, Self-perceived Communicative Confidence in L2 Group Work, Positive Beliefs about the Value of Group Work, Negative Traditional Instruction Orientation, Beliefs of Group Work Usefulness, and Willingness to Communicate in L2 Group Work. First, the descriptive statistics and the 2 × 2 ANOVA results for both questionnaires showed that the Communication course students had significantly higher Readiness for L2 Group Work than the Language and Culture students. However, there was also a statistically significant Level and Course interaction, which was caused by the lower proficiency Communication course students who displayed higher Radiness for L2 Group Work than their higher proficiency counterparts, and the higher proficiency Language and Culture students who showed higher Readiness for L2 Group Work than their lower proficiency counterparts. Second, the mixed between-within-subjects ANOVA results showed that the participants had significantly higher Readiness for L2 Group Work at the end than at the beginning of the course. The Level and Course interaction was statistically significant for the same reason as mentioned above. Finally, structural equation modeling showed that Willingness to Communicate in L2 Group Work was influenced by Beliefs about L2 Group Work via Communication Confidence in L2 Group Work. This study contributes a new concept, Readiness for L2 Group Work, to the group work literature. Further, the structural model specifies the relationship between Readiness for L2 Group Work and Willingness to Communicate in L2 Group Work. / CITE/Language Arts