Susan C. Baker

Sex and Age Effects on Willingness to Communicate, Anxiety, PerCeived Competence, and L2 Motivation Among Junior High School French Immersion Students

The students who participate in immersion education are an impressive group. In the present study we looked at students in a junior high school in Nova Scotia. In the local area, English is far and away the dominant language, though there are French-speaking communities within a 2-hr drive and Canada is an officially bilingual country. Therefore, the students are not in a “foreign” language-learning environment, but in all probability, they are not likely to encounter spoken French in their daily lives. The students have all the challenges of adolescence to contend with: moving from an elementary to a junior high school in grade 7, the wonders of puberty, growing academic expectations from teachers, demands from school administration to speak only French while at school, and the burgeoning social life of a newly minted teenager. On top of all this, participants in this research are required to give up their well-developed native language, English, and undertake to be educated in a second language, French. Impressive. The present study reports a cross-sectional investigation of second language communication among students in a junior high French late immersion program. The effects of language, sex, and grade on willingness to communicate (WTC), anxiety, perceived communication competence, and frequency of communication in French and on attitude/motivation variables are examined globally and at each grade level. Most of these variables have been widely studied among adult learners, most often at the university level. The present study attempted to look at a much younger group to examine the patterns earlier in the language learning process. We found that students’ second language WTC, perceived competence, and frequency of communication in French increased from grades 7 to 8 and that these increases were maintained between grades 8 and 9, despite a drop in motivation between grades 7 and 8 and a steady level of anxiety across the three grades. Gender differences in language anxiety were observed across the three grades. Contrary to our expectations, compared to girls, boys reported more anxiety in grade 9. However, the differences between WTC across the first and second language narrowed as students progressed through the program. [The present article first appeared in Language Learning, 52(3), 2002, 537–564]

Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language The Effects of Context, Norms, and Vitality

Past research has focused primarily on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication. The social context model, for example, stresses the importance of contact, L2 confidence, and identity in acquiring a L2. The willingness to communicate (WTC) model, however, emerged from a concern with the functions of L2 use. This study combines these two models to consider both contextual and individual difference variables in L2 use. Participants were 130 Anglophone (majority) and 248 Francophone (minority) students attending a Canadian bilingual university. Path analyses supported a model in which context, individual, and social factors were all important determinants of L2 use, although patterns of relations differed depending on the ethnolinguistic vitality of the group. The importance of subjective norms was further confirmed as moderators of the relationship between L2 confidence and identity among Francophones. Results are discussed within the context of current models of intergroup communication.

How Patients Perceive Their Doctors’ Communication Implications for Patient Willingness to Communicate

By emphasizing the value of health professionals’ communication skills in creating positive health care experiences, researchers have tended to study health communication as an interpersonal encounter. Interactions in the health context, though, are inherently intergroup. Using the language and social psychology approach, this study emphasizes those intergroup features of health communication. We used mixed methods and applied communication accommodation theory and the willingness to communicate construct to the health context. Participants in Canada and Australia (N = 371) were asked about their perceptions of their health consultations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that health communication competence was the best predictor of patient willingness to communicate. Differences between patients’ accounts of positive and negative health care experiences were clearly differentiated by their perceptions of the health professionals’ communication strategies. The potential effects of these strategies on patient participation are discussed.

22. Exploring intercultural communication problems in health care with a communication accommodation competence approach

In this chapter, we explore intercultural health communication in doctor-patient and interprofessional interactions. Traditionally, intercultural health communication research has focused on interpersonal issues. We argue here that, although interpersonal aspects are present, intergroup issues are often likely more salient and have a greater impact on communicative behavior. Consequently, we propose that intercultural communication competence (ICC) training programs must consider both interpersonal and intergroup characteristics of intercultural health communication. We invoke Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), which takes into account how interpersonal and intergroup aspects of the health context influence motivations and subsequent communicative behavior. CAT is ideally suited to inform ICC training programs.

Understanding the Health Communication Process Advancing the Research Agenda to Improve Health Care Interactions and Patient Care

The articles presented in this special issue bring attention to important sociocultural variables and language strategies present in the ever-changing and complex health care system. These articles were selected from the health communication symposium of the 14th International Conference of Language and Social Psychology held in Hawaii in 2014. The articles each concentrate on different aspects of health communication and employ different theoretical and analytical approaches, but they all call for more education and better interventions to improve relations in the health context and patient care.