Understanding willingness to communicate as embedded in classroom multimodal affordances: Evidence from interdisciplinary perspectives

Abstract

Abstract This study draws on linguistic and applied linguistic approaches to analyze how second language learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) is responsive to classroom multimodal affordances. The data reported in this paper includes three rounds of semi-structured interviews, each conducted after a classroom observation, with eight students from two intact English classes in a university in China, and Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) slides supplied by their teachers. The findings showed that WTC was subject to the joint influence of individuals’ linguistic and affective factors and classroom contextual factors. Nuanced associations of WTC and kinesthetic, auditory, and visual modalities were also identified. The interactive meanings construed in two visual images in PPT slides reported to stimulate high WTC were analyzed using visual grammar, which yielded complementary insights. This study accentuates the need to understand WTC as embedded in classroom multimodal affordances so as to reveal the totality of students’ meaning making of classroom interaction.