A study on the effects of participation in a virtual community on willingness to communicate among Pre-Service ESL teachers

The present study seeks to investigate whether participation in a virtual community helps facilitate a group of ESL teachers’ willingness to communicate (henceforth WTC) in the target language. To understand this issue, a mixed-methods research was employed. The quantitative research was carried out to investigate the participants’ levels of WTC as well as the factors that influence their WTC. Using convenient sampling, an adapted questionnaire was distributed to 111 participants. Then, based on purposive sampling 21 participants were selected to take part in a virtual community named “We Care”. The quantitative findings show that even though proficient, the participants’ level of in and out-of-class WTC was moderate. Using the L2 Motivational Self System (ideal self and ought-to self) as the framework to investigate the factors that contribute to their WTC, findings reveal that in relation to their ideal L2 ideal-self, there was a moderate strength of relationship with their in-class WTC. However there was no significant relationship between this variable and their out-of-class WTC. The obtained results show that there was no significant relationship between WTC and the ought-to self in both contexts. Further analysis shows that the ideal L2 self was the stronger predictor of WTC in both contexts. The qualitative findings show that participation in the virtual community i.e. posting videos of them speaking in English, viewing videos posted by other members of the virtual community, and reading comments given by the lecturers and their peers have contributed to the emergence of positive emotions. Four types of positive emotions were found in the interview data: hope, interest, pride, and inspiration. These positive feelings help foster better sense of self-worth as the participants claim that their communication confidence increased and that they were more willing to communicate in English.