Though willingness to communicate (WTC) and communication strategy (CS) are both heavily researched fields, the relationship between them has rarely been explored. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a CS instruction program on WTC in a group of Chinese students. Results show that the WTC of students who took part in CS instruction program significantly improved, whereas there was no such difference in the control group, a finding supporting the hypothesis that CS instruction is conducive to the improvement of learners’ WTC, and agreeing with results of previous empirical study. Based on the finding, a heuristic model is proposed to show the relationship between CS and WTC, in which communication apprehension and self-perceived communicative competence are seen as the most immediate factors bridging them.
KeywordsCommunication StrategyWillingness to CommunicateEffectChinese EFL LearnersModel
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