An Empirical Study on the Relationship of CLT Practices, Students' Learning Motivation in Business English Correspondence Class—OBE Principle Based

Business English Correspondence (BEC) courses in Chinese higher education have traditionally emphasized linguistic accuracy over authentic communication, often resulting in low student motivation and limited professional preparedness. To address this gap, this study investigates how Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) practices, aligned with Outcome-Based Education (OBE) principles, influence students’ motivation through the lens of Dörnyei’s (2005, 2007) L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS). Specifically, it examines the role of the L2 Learning Experience—a classroom-embedded dimension encompassing task relevance, peer interaction, and emotional climate—in mediating the relationship between CLT and motivated learning behaviors. Using a single-group post-intervention survey design, data were collected from 110 undergraduate students enrolled in an eight-week OBE-aligned BEC course featuring simulated trade tasks, collaborative drafting, and role-play activities. Results from correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived CLT practices significantly predicted both willingness to communicate (WTC) and intended effort (IE), with SLLE being the strongest predictor of intended effort, and CLT the strongest predictor of willingness to communicate. Notably, the Ideal L2 Self contributed modestly to WTC but not to IE, while the Ought-to L2 Self showed no significant predictive power. These findings underscore that in ESP contexts, immediate classroom experiences, which are shaped by authentic, interactive CLT tasks, are crucial for sustaining motivation. The study thus affirms CLT not only as a pedagogical approach but as a motivational architecture within OBE-driven curricula.