The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of second language (L2) motivation, willingness to communicate (WTC), and international posture on the relationship between L2 Self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) and L2 frequency of communication (L2 FC) in online informal English learning contexts among tertiary students in Malaysia. The predictor variables were drawn from Gardner’s (1985) socio-educational model of language learning and MacIntyre and Charos’ (1996) WTC model and adapted to examine the frequency of communication in online contexts. A total of 296 valid responses were collected from university students in Malaysia. The data were collected using online survey and were analysed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings suggested that higher level of L2 SPCC would lead to more frequent L2 use in online contexts. Furthermore, the mediating roles of L2 WTC and international posture were found to be statistically significant. However, the mediating effect of L2 motivation on the relationship between L2 SPCC and communication frequency was not supported in this study. Implications of the research findings for understanding the relationship among the study’s variables are also discussed.

这项研究的主要目的是研究第二语言动机，交流意愿和国际态度对第二语言自我感知能力（SPCC）和第二语言交流频率（L2）之间关系的中介作用。 FC）在马来西亚大专生之间的在线非正式英语学习环境中。预测变量来自Gardner（1985）的语言学习社会教育模型以及MacIntyre and Charos（1996）的WTC模型，并适用于检查在线情境中的交流频率。总共从马来西亚的大学生中收集了296个有效回复。使用在线调查收集数据，并通过偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）技术进行分析。研究结果表明，较高级别的L2 SPCC将导致在线环境中更频繁地使用L2。此外，L2 WTC和国际态势的调解作用在统计学上也很重要。但是，本研究不支持L2动机对L2 SPCC与沟通频率之间关系的中介作用。还讨论了研究结果对理解研究变量之间的关系的影响。