The Roles of Motivation, Affective Attitudes, and Willingness to Communicate Among Chinese Students in Early English Immersion Programs

Early English immersion in China has been studied from many angles, but no research to date has investigated affective variables, which may have a profound relevance to successful English acquisition. The present study examines the roles of motivation, attitudes towards learning English, willingness to communicate, perceived competence, language anxiety, and parental support among upper primary immersion and nonimmersion students. Results indicate that immersion students used in this study had significantly higher levels of willingness to communicate and perceived competence and exhibited less language anxiety than their nonimmersion peers. In addition, willingness to communicate and perceived competence were the strongest predictors of English reading and oral proficiency for the combined sample.