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potential for using the WTC and other constructs to accountfor L2 communication.Baker, S., Clement, R., Donavan, L., & MacIntyre, P.(2003). Sex and age effects on willingness to communicate,anxiety perceived competence, and L2motivation among junior high school French immersionstudents. Language Learning, 53, 137-166.The students who participate in immersion educationare an impressive group. In the present study we looked atstudents in a junior high school in Nova Scotia. In the localarea, English is far and away the dominant language,though there are French-speaking communities withina two-hour drive and Canada is an officially bilingualcountry. Therefore, the students are not in a “foreign”language-learning environment, but in all probability,they are not likely to encounter spoken French in theirdaily lives. The students have all the challenges of adolescenceto contend with: moving from an elementary toa junior high school in grade 7, the wonders of puberty,growing academic expectations from teachers, demandsfrom school administration to speak only French while atschool, and the burgeoning social life of a newly mintedteenager. On top of all this, participants in this researchare required to give up their well-developed native language,English, and undertake to be educated in a secondlanguage, French. Impressive. The present study reportsa cross-sectional investigation of second language communicationamong students in a junior high French lateimmersion program. The effects of language, sex, andgrade on willingness to communicate (WTC), anxiety,perceived communication competence, and frequencyof communication in French and on attitude/motivationvariables are examined globally and at each grade level.Most of these variables have been widely studied amongadult learners, most often at the university level. Thepresent study attempted to look at a much younger groupto examine the patterns earlier in the language learningprocess. We found that students’ second language WTC,perceived competence, and frequency of communicationin French increased from grades 7 to 8 and that these increaseswere maintained between grades 8 and 9, despitea drop in motivation between grades 7 and 8 and a steadylevel of anxiety across the three grades. Gender differencesin language anxiety in grade 9. However, the differencesbetween WTC across the first and second languagenarrowed as students progressed through the program.Martin, M., Mottet T., & Myers, S. (2003). Relationshipsamong perceived instructor verbal approachand avoidance relational strategies and students’ motivesfor communicating with their instructors. CommunicationEducation, 53(1), 116-122.In light of a new “student engagement” benchmarkfor teaching and institutional effectiveness in highereducation, this study focused on the relationships betweenperceived instructor use of verbal approach andavoidance relational strategies and students’ motivesfor communicating with their instructors. The data suggestthat perceived instructor use of verbal approachrelational strategies positively influences students’ motivationto engage with their instructors for relational,participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic reasons.Perceived instructor use of verbal avoidance relationalstrategies, however, was uncorrelated with students’ motivesto communicate. The results also failed to confirmprevious findings that the functional motive to communicateis more related to task purposes than to relationalpurposes. Findings of this study do imply that studentengagement can be enhanced by instructors more emphaticallyexpressing messages of inclusion, appreciation,willingness to communicate, and the like.Rancer, A., Sunhee L., & Yang, L. (2003). Ethnocentrismand intercultural willingness to communicate:A cross-cultural comparison between Korean andAmerican college students. Journal of InterculturalCommunication Research, 32(2), 117-129.This study is a cross-cultural comparison of ethnocentrismand intercultural willingness to communicatebetween Korean and American college students.Two hundred and eighty-two Korean students and 319American students completed a measure of ethnocentrismand intercultural willingness to communicate. Theresults revealed that Korean students had significantlylower scores on both ethnocentrism and interculturalwillingness to communicate than American students.In addition, male students reported being more ethnocentricthan female students across both cultures, andmale students reported being less willing to communicateinterculturally than female students in Americanculture. Implications of these finding are discussed.Kazuaki Shimuzu, L., Tomoko Yashima, S., & Zenuk-Nishide, L. (2004). The influence of attitudes and affecton willingness to communicate and second languagecommunication. Language Learning, 54(1),119-152.This article investigates results and antecedents ofwillingness to communicate (WTC) in a second lan-Assessing Motivation to Communicate 21
guage (L2) through 2 separate investigations conductedwith Japanese adolescent learners of English. In the firstinvestigation, involving 160 students, a model was createdbased on the hypothesis that WTC results in morefrequent communication in the L2 and that the attitudinalconstruct international posture leads to WTC andcommunication behavior. This model was tested withstructural equation modeling and was found to fit thedata well. The second investigation with 60 studentswho participated in a study-abroad program in theUnited States confirmed the results of the first. Finally,frequency of communication was shown to correlatewith satisfaction in interpersonal relationships duringthe sojourn.Kopfman, J., Lindsey, L., Smith, S., & Yoo, J. (2004).Encouraging family discussion on the decision to donateorgans: The role of the willingness to communicatescale. Health Communication, 16(3), 333-346.Family discussion of organ donation has been foundto double rates of family consent regarding organ donation.Therefore, family discussion is an important communicationprocess to study in the effort to get morepeople to become organ donors. This investigation concernsthe willingness to communicate about organ donationand its relationship to other variables and processesrelated to family discussion of organ donation. Previousresearch on willingness to communicate examined theantecedent variables of knowledge, attitude toward organdonation, and altruism. This research found that beingwilling to communicate about organ donation withone’s family is related to prior thought and intent to signan organ donor card, to perceiving organ donation messagesas credible, and to feeling relatively low anxietyafter reading organ donation messages. One week afterbeing presented with the messages, willingness to communicatewas found to be positively associated withworrying about the lack of donors, engaging in familydiscussion about organ donation, and having an organdonor card witnessed. It was negatively related to feelingpersonally uneasy about organ donation during thepast week.Miczo, N. (2004). Humor ability, unwillingness to communicate,loneliness, and perceived stress: Testing asecurity theory. Communication Studies, 55(2), 209-226.The purpose of this study was to develop and test atheory of the laughter-humor link in interpersonal communication.The basic premise of the theory is that asense of security underlies the ability to encode humorin everyday conversation. It was hypothesized that communication-relatedsecurity (i.e., willingness to communicate)predicts humor ability, which in turn negativelypredicts loneliness and perceived stress. Undergraduatescompleted a survey including the following scales: Unwillingness-to-Communicate,Humor Orientation, CopingHumor, revised UCLA Loneliness, and PerceivedStress. Regression analyses confirm that willingness tocommunicate predicted humor orientation, while humororientation mediated the relationship between willingnessto communicate and coping humor. Humor orientationnegatively predicted loneliness and perceived stress,although in both cases, willingness to communicate mediatedthe relationships. The discussion highlights methodologicallimitations (e.g., use of self-report) and reiteratesthe need for interaction- and context-based studies ofthe laughter-humor relationship.Rancer, A., Trimbitas, O., & Yang, L.(2005). Ethnocentrismand intercultural-willingness-to-communicate:A cross-cultural comparison between Romanian andUS American collage students. Journal of InterculturalCommunication Research, 34(1/2), 138-151.Differences on communication traits and predispositionscan influence an individual’s behavior especiallywhen engaged in intercultural interaction. Thisstudy is a cross cultural comparison of ethnocentrismand intercultural-willingness-to-communicate betweenRomanian and American college students. Onehundred and ten Romanian students and 151 Americanstudents completed a measure of ethnocentrism andintercultural-willingness-to-communicate. The resultsrevealed that Romanian students had significantlyhigher scores on ethnocentrism and had significantlylower scores on intercultural-willingness-to-communicatethan US American students. Implications ofthese findings are discussed Discussions of the differenceson these two communication predispositionsprovide information for individuals of the respectivecultures to develop more effective strategies to communicatewith each other.Personal Report of Communication Apprehension(PRCA) and Willingness to Communicate(WTC)Burroughs, N., Marie, V., & McCroskey, J. (2003). Relationshipsof self-perceived communication competenciesand communication apprehension with will-22 Assessing Motivation to Communicate
Page 1 and 2: Assessing Motivation toCommunicate
Page 3 and 4: All NCA Publication Program materia
Page 6: Table of ContentsI. BACKGROUND . .
Page 9 and 10: Sources:Beatty, M.J., McCroskey, J.
Page 11 and 12: Personal Report of Communication Ap
Page 13 and 14: Willingness to Communicate (WTC)Dir
Page 15 and 16: IV. LOGISTICS AND ADMINISTRATION OF
Page 17 and 18: large-lecture/break-out sections) v
Page 19 and 20: This study investigated whether cro
Page 21: The nature and assumptions underlyi
Page 25 and 26: THE NATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIAT
Page 27 and 28: the criteria governing oral communi
Page 29 and 30: About the Author of the Instruments

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