The Influence of Contextual and Motivational Variables on Willingness to Communicate in Fully Online EFL Programmes

This quantitative study takes an ecological perspective by examining classroom environmental variables, student motivational factors and their relationship with form-focused and meaning-focused in-class willingness to communicate (WtC) during a fully online English as a Foreign Language programme at a Macau university. Statistically significant multiple regression results identified a moderate and strong overall relationship between these environmental and student motivational factors with in-class meaning-focused (adjusted R2 = 0.47, p < .01) and form-focused (adjusted R2 = 0.53, p < .01) WtC. In addition, regression results indicated task orientation, student group cohesiveness, and desire to learn English as the most important predictor variables for both types of in-class WtC. Weak relationships were evident between WtC with teacher support and motivation intensity. The results suggest that well-developed tasks and strong student group cohesiveness are fundamental considerations for fully online programme design for encouraging WtC.