VietTESOL International Convention 2026

Willingness to communicate (WTC) is widely regarded as central to second language acquisition, yet its dynamic nature remains theoretically under-explained. Although recent research documents moment-to-moment fluctuation in WTC, most approaches continue to rely on variable-based, linear models, treating WTC as the outcome of discrete predictors. Even within Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), dynamicity is often described rather than mechanistically specified. This paper challenges this limitation by reconceptualizing WTC as a time-indexed emergent system state, WTC(t). Instead of viewing WTC as a trait or situational state, it is modeled as the product of recursive, non-linear interactions among task-related, individual-internal, and interactional subsystems. Core CDST principles are operationalized as generative mechanisms, with particular emphasis on feedback-driven system reconfiguration during communication. This shift reframes WTC from a variable to a dynamic process, explaining how fluctuations emerge rather than merely describing them. In doing so, the paper challenges variable-based explanations of L2 communication and advances a process-oriented view in which communicative willingness is understood as continuously emerging rather than statically determined.