The ability to communicate the intended meaning clearly and fluently in a second or foreign language (L2 or FL, respectively) has become a skill that is highly valued by a growing number of societies facing the challenges of the globalised world. It seems that today the language whose command is held in particular esteem is English as it has assumed the status of a lingua franca of our times (e.g. Widdowson, 1997). The importance attributed to second language communicative abilities by individuals and educational systems has brought to the fore those pedagogical approaches and techniques that promote and enhance learners' communicative proficiency. Hence, special demands have been placed on language teachers whose expertise is nowadays largely evaluated on the basis of their ability to engage students in tasks and activities that necessitate spontaneous production of the target language (TL), expression of opinions and ideas, as well as authentic meaning and message conveyance. Moreover, in communicative language classes, learners' success may rely on their eagerness to participate in L2 communication. In order to accommodate such expectations, educational authorities in many countries, such as China and Japan (cf. Munezane, 2013; Peng, 2014), have developed special schemes or strategic plans whose aim is to improve learners' communicative skills to meet the societal demands resulting from globalisation. The weight given to fostering communication in the language classroom has inspired a number of empirical investigations aimed at the exploration of factors that either lead to or hinder language learners' readiness to initiate or contribute to communication, both within the confines of the language classroom as well as outside.

Learning to communicate in an additional language poses a serious challenge, the outcomes of which depend both on the context in which the process takes place and the individual characteristics of the learner. Unlike first language (L1) acquisition, which, with very few exceptions, proceeds successfully for all interacting within a social group, mastering an FL to the degree enabling unproblematic communication is relatively rare, despite various demands and social pressure.