1. WTC, Native-Speakerism, and TOEIC Scores
Masaya Kanzaki
Kanda University of International Studies
JALT2015, 22 November, 5:50 PM-6:15 PM
Shizuoka Convention & Arts Center, Hikae 1

2. WTC
It stands for “willingness to communicate”. In layman’s terms: How willing you are to communicate with other people Expert definition: Readiness to initiate communication at a particular time and with a specific reason or person, using an L2 (MacIntyer et al., 1998)

3. Native-speakerism (1)
Usual definition: A pervasive ideology within ELT, characterized by the belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a ‘Western culture’ from which spring the ideals both of the English language and of English language teaching methodology (Holliday, 2005)

4. Native-speakerism (2)
My definition: A language learner’s desire to become able to use the language like a native speaker of the target language

5. Purposes
To compare the scores of the listening, reading and speaking tests of the TOEIC
To examine what impact the level of WTC has on the speaking scores relative to the listening and reading scores
To examine what impact the level of native-speakerism has on the speaking scores relative to the listening and reading scores

6. Participants
141 university students attending a private university specializing in foreign languages (90 participants in 2014, and 51 in 2015) Year: 9 in 1st year 70 in 2nd year 33 in 3rd year 29 in 4th year Sex: 24 male, 117 female

7. Participants
Major: 76 International Communication 40 English 17 International Business Career 3 Portuguese 2 Indonesian 1 Chinese, 1 Vietnamese, 1 Spanish First language: 136 Japanese, 3 Chinese, 2 Korean

8. Materials TOEIC Listening and Reading Test TOEIC Speaking Test
A WTC questionnaire
A native-speakerism questionnaire

9. TOEIC LR: 200 multiple questions, 2 hours, 10-990 points
Listening
Part
Task # 1
For each question with a photo, listen to four sentences and choose the one that best describes the image. 10 2
Listen to a question or statement followed by three responses and choose the most appropriate response. 30 3
Listen to a conversation and answer comprehension questions. 4
Listen to a short talk and answer comprehension questions.

10. Reading
Part
Task # 5
Choose a word or phrase to fill in a blank in a sentence. 40 6
Choose words or phrases to fill in three blanks in a passage. 12 7
Read a passage or a set of two passages and answer comprehension questions. 48

11. TOEIC Speaking: Computer-based

12. TOEIC S: 11 questions, 0-200 points, 20 minutes#
Task
1–2
Read aloud the text that appears on the screen. 3
Describe the picture on the screen.
4–6
Answer three questions about a single topic as though you are participating in a telephone interview.
7–9
Read the information on the screen and answer three questions about it as if responding to a telephone inquiry. 10
Listen to a recorded message about a problem and propose a solution for it. 11
Express an opinion about a specific topic.

13. Please refer to the handout.
Two questionnaires
Please refer to the handout.

14. Results Descriptive Statics (N = 141) Mean SD Minimum Maximum
Mean SD
Minimum
Maximum
L (5-495)
374.47
58.75
170
495
R (5-495)
273.62
74.77
100
475
LR (10-990)
648.09
122.22
310
945
S (0-200)
117.94
21.33 60
180

15. Correlations (N = 141)
All ps < .001 L R S 1
.67
.47
.49

16. TOEIC vs. WTC & NS
rs between TOEIC and WTC/NS scores (N = 141) ** = p < .001, * = p < .01 L R LR S
S/LR
WTC
.09
.06
.08
.35**
.25* NS
-.06
-.03
-.07

17. TOEIC vs. WTC & NS
Top third (TOEIC 715 and above) rs between TOEIC and WTC/NS scores (n = 47) * = p < .01 L R LR S
S/LR
WTC
.10
-.10
.03
.38*
.44* NS
-.01
.17
.13
.02
-.04

18. TOEIC vs. WTC & NS
Middle third (TOEIC ) rs between TOEIC and WTC/NS scores (n = 48) * = p < .05 L R LR S
S/LR
WTC
.01
-.07
.29*
.32* NS
.06
-.20
-.19
-.16
-.04

19. TOEIC vs. WTC & NS
Bottom third (TOEIC 600 and below) rs between TOEIC and WTC/NS scores (n = 46) * = p < .05 L R LR S
S/LR
WTC
.03
.12
.08
.35*
.29 NS
-.19
.05
-.10
-.07
.09

20. Conclusion (1)
The WTC score correlated with the TOEIC speaking test score and the TOEIC speaking test score divided by the combined listening and reading test score to a certain degree, whereas it did not correlates with the TOEIC listening and reading scores.  WTC affects learner’s speaking ability but not listening and reading abilities.

21. Conclusion (2)
When the participants were divided into three group according to their TOEIC LR scores, the correlations between WTC and S and between WTC and S/LR increased in the top third, whereas the figures did not change much in the middle and bottom groups.  WTC has more impact on learner’s speaking ability when they reach at a certain point of their language development.

22. Conclusion (3)
The Native-speakerism score did not correlate with L, R, LR, and S scores and S/LR. When the participants were divided into three groups according to their LR scores, it still did not correlate with any of the TOEIC scores.  Native-speakerism does not have a impact on learners’ English ability.

23. Q&A
Thank you. Acknowledgement This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number