This qualitative research was carried out to investigate a group of pre-service ESL teachers’ perceptions of their participation in a virtual community to facilitate their willingness to communicate. Positive Psychology was employed as the theoretical framework. Using the hybrid approach to analyse the findings, preliminary analysis revealed that the participants repeatedly mentioned the emergence of positive emotions. To understand better, a codebook based on Fredrickson’s framework of positive emotion was developed to further analyse the data. Findings indicated that participation in a virtual community led to the emergence of four types of positive emotions: interest, hope, pride, and aspiration. This article provided some suggestions for teacher educators on the use of a virtual community to facilitate willingness to communicate...

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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.....

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Due to the pivotal role that interaction plays in SLA, the issue of willingness to communicate has drawn considerable attention among researchers in the field. Nonetheless, literature on WTC has been primarily theoretical; little has been done to find practical solutions to the problem that could actually help ESL practitioners in their daily classroom practice. In light of this, the current article is a review of past studies on how to foster WTC. It begins with providing some insights on how to facilitate L2 WTC gained from the identified studies. Next, based on the review, it is highlighted that the current research trend tends to focus on facilitating in-class WTC, with less attention given on out-of-class WTC. This might lead to a separation between in-class and out-of-class learning. To address this issue, the article ends with a series of suggested activities which employs a multi-systematic approach to learning (Akkerman and Eijck, 2011) and a critical conception of in-class le.....

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This study observed that many teacher professional development programmes are designed without considering teacher’s voice. The present study addresses this gap by designing an online speaking skills upskilling programme that is based on a group of ESL teachers’ needs. The study employed the mixed methods research approach. Using the convenience sampling, 104 ESL teachers answered an online needs analysis survey. In the qualitative phase, an online interview was carried out with seven teachers who took part in the upskilling programme. Based on the findings, two conclusions can be made. First, for an upskilling programme that focuses on the enhancement of the speaking skills to be successful, psychological constructs such as self-esteem and anxiety need to be considered at the design stage. Second, as the programme was conducted fully online, having synchronous sessions is an important design feature. There are two implications. Firstly, it underscores the importance of integrating.....

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