Impact of College Students’ Perception of English Teachers’ Charisma on Their Willingness to Communicate in English-Mediator of Learning Attitude

Abstract

In the context of university students in Weifang, China, this study explored the relationship between perceived English teachers’ charisma, learning attitude, and willingness to communicate in English. College students from three representative colleges in Weifang, Shandong Province, were selected through intentional sampling, and an electronic questionnaire was distributed to them. The Willingness to Communicate Scale, Perceived Teacher Charisma Scale, and English Learning Attitudes Scale were employed for measurement, with all scales being scored on a 5-point Likert scale. In total, 654 valid responses were collected for analysis (61.5% freshmen and 64.1% women). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and mediating effects between the variables. The college students’ perception of the degree to which their teacher was charismatic was discovered to have a positive effect on the students’ willingness to communicate in English. Learning attitude was found to positively affect willingness to communicate in English. Moreover, learning attitude fully mediated the relationship between perceived teacher charisma and willingness to communicate. This paper makes recommendations for teachers, educational institutions, and future research.