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Willingness to Communicate

As a bilingual nation, Canadians deal with ‘language’ issues everyday, we spend an enormous amount of time, effort, and money on second language training and education.  So why is it that, even after studying a language for many years, a large number of second language learners will not turn into second language speakers?
“This is not as simple a question as it might appear” says Peter MacIntyre, a Psychology Professor at Cape Breton University.  Dr. MacIntyre has been studying second language communication for almost 20 years. His article, “Willingness to Communicate in the Second Language: Understanding the Decision to Speak as a Volitional Process,” sheds new light on the process of choosing to communicate using the second language. 
“For example, think about what typical English-speaking Canadian students are asked to do in French class. They come into class already having developed extensive competence in English, they fluidly use massive amounts of vocabulary, and they live their lives in English, almost without effort.  However, in French class they must give all that up, and struggle just to make themselves understood at a basic level.”
There has already been extensive research into the motivation behind second language learning, but MacIntyre’s research takes a different approach.  “To understand how motivational processes affect communication, we must study the moment in which they are applied, that is, when the decision is being made to either speak up or to remain silent.”
MacIntyre’s research, which has just been published in the most recent issue of the Modern Language Journal, examines the phenomenon of people who are reluctant to speak a second language when the opportunity presents itself. 
He compares this decision making process to getting out of bed on a cold morning. 
“If I stop to think about the warm bed and the cold floor, it’s very difficult to get my feet out from under the blankets. The more I think about it, the less willing I am to move.  Yet we Canadians do get up every winter’s day, usually without thinking too much about it.” 
Perhaps the most important decision anyone learning a new language faces is whether or not to use their skills when the opportunity arises.  It is widely accepted that communication not only helps the process of language learning but often is the reason for language learning in the first place.  Whether it is inside or outside the classroom, the forces that hold a person back when the moments of decision come along may be the key to unlocking the secrets of the language learners who never become language speakers.
MacIntyre’s advice to language students and their teachers is to focus on the communication message, using the second language to say something meaningful.  The idea is to shift the focus away from the factors that stop people from speaking the language, what he calls the restraining forces. 
“Language learners often feel nervous speaking: they worry about embarrassing themselves, not having a good accent, messing up on grammar, having a limited vocabulary, and so on. When we dwell on these things, we tend to hold ourselves back.” But there are hundreds of good reasons for a person to learn another language, including forming new friendships, traveling, employment, maintaining one’s heritage, and exploring other cultures, to name just a few.  The more we can break down the restraining forces that hold us back psychologically, the better we can reap the rewards of speaking another language. 
It is a good reason for getting out of bed, even on the coldest Canadian morning.