Willingness to communicate (WTC) was originally conceptualised for first language acquisition, and seeks to demonstrate the probability that a speaker will choose to participate in a conversation of their own volition (McCroskey & Baer 1985, cited in MacIntyre et al., 1998).
That is, the speaker indicates they have intention to speak, for example raising their hand in a class, even if they don’t physically produce language at that time, because the conditions have been met for them to believe they have the ability to communicate.
Therefore, "the ultimate goal of the learning process should be to engender in language education students the willingness to communicate.”(MacIntyre, Clément, Dörnyei & Noels:1998).
In addition to this, according to Syeda Farzana Bukhari et al. (2015), students are hesitant to start a communication with an interlocutor who they haven’t seen speaking the target language.
The more formal and the more people in the audience, the more anxious the speaker becomes, because he or she could be afraid of making mistakes and losing face in front of others (Syeda Farzana Bukhari et al., 2015).
This has an inevitable effect on WtC, as "it seems likely that Chinese students would be even more sensitive to the judgment of the public upon their language behaviors and, therefore, lesses likely to get involved in classroom communication."
The second major factor detailed in this study is submission in learning: To perhaps oversimplify, rigid adherence to infallible ancient teachings was believed to result in virtuous behavior and wisdom.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan) or MEXT, as Yashima (2002) noted, has, for a number of years, begun to place a greater emphasis on communication in the second language.
Yashima (2002) concluded with a call that "EFL lessons should be designed to enhance students' interest in different cultures and international affairs and activities, as well as to reduce anxiety and build confidence in communication" (p. 63).