The effects of expectancy and task values on Chinese doctoral students’ anxiety about using English for academic oral communication

Abstract

This chapter discusses expectancy-value theory (EVT) to measure two dimensions of such motivation among Chinese doctoral students, based on two waves of data. The first of these waves was collected in the middle of fall semester 2019, and the second, at the end of the same semester. EVT, developed by Eccles et al., is a widely used theory of achievement-motivation, primarily focused on two aspects of learning: expectancy and task value. Only a few studies have looked at the teaching of English for academic oral communication (AOC), despite high AOC ability being integral to academic-English ability in general and thus crucial to students’ prospects of successful research careers. In recent years, the teaching of English as a foreign language in higher-education settings has been shifting from a general-communication focus to English for academic purposes. The chapter understands how motivational factors could predict anxiety.