Willingness to Communicate of Foreign Language Learners

As an English language learner and teacher,I have§witnessed a common phenomenon of a mismatch between§learners'' willingness to communicate in English and§their actual English proficiency. It was not unusual§that individuals who could obtain high scores in§standardized English proficiency tests, such as§TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT, could barely carry out§pragmatic conversation in English. The lack of§practice opportunities in the environment, in which§English was primarily studied as a school subject and§used exclusively inside the classroom, seemed to be§the principal reason for students'' low capability in§English communication. However, not until I became a§teacher of an Oral English class a couple of years§ago did I realize that most of the students in the§class were reluctant to participate in English§communication even when they were given sufficient§communication opportunities.§This book is expected to answer the following§questions: What are the causes of students''§unwillingness to communicate in English? What factors§could be influential toward students'' English§communication willingness? How could the factors, if§any, affect students'' willingness to communicate in§English?