Ambiguity Tolerance

It is suggested that tolerance of ambiguity should be regarded as an important factor for the low proficient learners, and that clear-cut instructions should be given to decline the uncertainty in an EFL writing class. In another study focusing on the relationship between the level of ambiguity tolerance and cloze test performance (Atef-Vahid et al., 2011), it was reported that EFL learners with high AT are expected to attain higher scores on the cloze test while those with lower AT tend to get lower scores on the same test. To date, much of research focused on the relationship between ambiguity tolerance, and foreign language learning achievement in general, and reported on the important role of AT in foreign language learning achievement.

Moving to the last of the layers of enduring influences, we find highly specific motives and self-related cognition. Intergroup motives stem directly from membership in a particular social group and interpersonal motives stem from the social roles one plays within the group. Both intergroup and interpersonal motives arise from two classic sources: affiliation and control. Harmonious intergroup relations are a fundamental, explicit objective of supporters of intercultural communication (Kim, 1988) and a firmly established motive in the research literature. Control motives encompass L2 communicative behaviour aimed at limiting the freedom of the interlocutor. Taken broadly, this includes events such as directives from a supervisor, instruction from a teacher, and requests for assistance in the L2. Control motives capture occasions where power imbalance is more relevant than a continuing relationship between the interlocutors. The final set of influences at this level includes L2 self-confidence; perceptions of communicative competence coupled with a lack of anxiety define the self-confident L2 speaker. This concept is somewhat more specific than the linguistic competencies described at the lower level to capture the idea that

The study showed that motivation and WTC affect reported L2 communication frequency in classrooms as hypothesized. Variables underlying WTC were also examined. Perceived competence and L2 anxiety were found to be causes of WTC, which led to more L2 use, and L2 anxiety was found to negatively influence perceived competence, supporting the results of the Macintyre and Charos (1996) study. Although a path from WTC to motivation was not found to be significant in the original study, it was found to be significant in the present replication. In addition, a path from perceived competence was found to exert a strong and direct influence on motivation from a data-driven