Motivation, anxiety, and willingness to communicate: Self-guides and affective pathways among CFL learners in multilingual Central Asia

Understanding how motivation and emotion interact to shape learners' willingness to communicate is essential for creative and effective second language learning. However, these relationships remain underexplored in multilingual contexts, particularly among learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Central Asia. This study examined the interrelationships among elements of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), anxiety, and willingness to communicate (WTC) among 230 CFL learners in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Data were gathered through standardized questionnaires and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that L2 learning experience was the strongest predictor of L2 WTC in the SEM and was associated with lower anxiety indirectly via a stronger Ideal L2 Self. In contrast, the Ought-to L2 Self, reflecting external expectations, was associated with greater anxiety and showed no direct link to WTC. Overall, self-guides (Ideal/Ought-to) were more closely related to anxiety, whereas L2 learning experience showed the clearest association with L2 WTC. Notably, L2 anxiety did not exhibit a significant unique effect on WTC once L2 learning experience and self-guides were modeled concurrently. They underscore the pedagogical importance of creating classroom climates that promote emotional safety, encourage autonomous goal-setting, and foster adaptive self-reflection in language learning. By situating motivation and emotion within a multilingual learning ecology and an integrated motivational-affective SEM framework, this study extends understanding of how affective and motivational mechanisms jointly foster confident and flexible communication in multilingual learning environments.