Abstract

The first part of the paper offers the characteristics of the affective variables of willingness to communicate, motivation, language anxiety and boredom as located within the framework of the complex dynamic systems. The second part aims to discuss the results of a study intended to examine the effect of Second Life on two English philology students’ changes in the levels of willingness to communicate, motivation, language anxiety and boredom. The data collected via session logs underwent both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The results indicated changes in the levels of the variables in question both during single visits and from one visit to another. These changes in the constructs in question were affected by a number of positive (e.g. interesting topics, the possibility to discuss common interests, comprehending the output produced by interlocutors) and negative (e.g. unpleasant SL users, monotony, no willing to talk SL users, previous negative experience) factors.

摘要

本文的第一部分提供了位于复杂动态系统框架内的沟通意愿、动机、语言焦虑和无聊等情感变量的特征。第二部分旨在讨论旨在检验第二人生的影响的研究结果关于两名英语语言学学生在交流意愿、动机、语言焦虑和无聊程度方面的变化。通过会话日志收集的数据经过定量和定性分析。结果表明，无论是在单次访问期间还是从一次访问到另一次访问期间，相关变量的水平都发生了变化。所讨论的结构中的这些变化受到许多积极的影响（例如有趣的话题，讨论共同兴趣的可能性，理解对话者产生的输出）和消极的（例如不愉快的 SL 用户，单调，不愿意谈论 SL 用户，以前的负面经验）因素。