This study aimed to investigate whether and how willingness to communicate, communication in English anxiety, behavioural inhibition and action predict perceived second language (L2) fluency. The study also looked at whether L2 proficiency moderates the strength of relationships between these affective factors and L2 perceived fluency. One hundred learners of English were recorded while doing the Suitcase task (a monologic task) and were asked to complete a series of questionnaires and proficiency tests. Speech samples were then prepared for presentation to 26 experienced language teachers (and highly proficient users of English) as raters. Their task was to rate the speech samples in terms of perceived fluency. Results revealed that while willingness to communicate is a strong and positive predictor of perceived fluency, communication in English anxiety negatively predicts perceived L2 fluency. We also found that L2 proficiency does not seem to moderate the relationship between perceived fluency and willingness to communicate (WTC), but it does change the partial correlation figure for communication in English anxiety from r = −0.24 (p = .013) to r = −0.38 (p < .001). This variation suggests that less proficient L2 speakers’ perceived fluency could be more severely affected by communication in English anxiety.

本研究旨在调查交流意愿、英语交流中的焦虑、行为抑制和行动是否以及如何预测感知的第二语言 (L2) 流利程度。该研究还研究了 L2 熟练程度是否会调节这些情感因素与 L2 感知流利程度之间的关系强度。一百名英语学习者在做手提箱任务（一个单一任务）时被记录下来，并被要求完成一系列问卷和能力测试。然后准备语音样本，以作为评估者呈现给 26 位经验丰富的语言教师（以及非常熟练的英语使用者）。他们的任务是根据感知的流畅度对语音样本进行评级。结果显示，虽然交流意愿是感知流利程度的有力且积极的预测因素，英语焦虑中的交流消极地预测了感知的 L2 流利程度。我们还发现，L2 熟练程度似乎并没有调节感知流利度和交流意愿 (WTC) 之间的关系，但它确实改变了英语焦虑中交流的偏相关系数r = -0.24 ( p = .013) 到r = -0.38 ( p < .001)。这种变化表明，不太熟练的 L2 说话者的感知流利程度可能会更严重地受到英语焦虑交流的影响。