Examining the Relationship Between Grit and Foreign Language Performance: Enjoyment and Anxiety as Mediators

Abstract

The relationship between grit and success has been investigated extensively in various contexts. However, the association between grit and language performance, especially in a Chinese high school context, remains underexplored. This study investigates grit, the positive emotion of enjoyment, the negative emotion of anxiety, foreign language performance, and how enjoyment and anxiety mediate the relationship between grit and foreign language performance. A questionnaire was administered to 697 Chinese high school students, followed by a language test after 2 weeks. The results showed that more than half of the students had a moderate-high level of grit and foreign language enjoyment and that nearly half of them experienced a low-moderate level of foreign language anxiety. It was also found that grit, foreign language enjoyment, and foreign language performance were positively correlated with each other, and all three variables were negatively correlated with anxiety. Both foreign language enjoyment and foreign language anxiety mediated the relationship between grit and foreign language performance to a significant degree, and the mediating effect of foreign language anxiety was stronger than that of foreign language enjoyment.

Exploring a Structural Model of Teaching Enjoyment, Teacher Self-Efficacy, and Work Engagement

“…Since the focus was mostly on negative factors in the past, there was a lack of investigation into the positive side. Stimulated by the positive psychology development during recent years, FL scholars have currently begun to maintain a balance between the assessments of both negative and positive emotions (e.g., Liu and Wang, 2021 ). From a holistic perspective, positive and negative emotions integrated together as fuel would drive language learning forward ( MacIntyre and Vincze, 2017 ); Fredrickson (1998 , 2001) ) Broaden and Build Theory has advanced our knowledge of positive emotions, suggesting that positive emotions result in both well-being and prosperity in life.…”

How Classroom Environment and General Grit Predict Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of Chinese EFL Students

“…Grit has started to attract attention from SLA researchers very recently for its potential predictive effects on L2 achievement (e.g., Alamer, 2021;Elahi Shirvan, 2021;Feng & Papi, 2020;Keegan, 2017;Liu & Wang, 2021;Wei et al, 2020;Yamashita, 2018). Current grit research in SLA has mainly been focused on the following four aspects: (1) The factor structure of grit, (2) measurements of grit and their psychometric properties, (3) the predictive effect of grit on L2 achievement, and (4) the correlates of grit including sociobiological variables and psychological variables.…”

Relationship Between Growth Mindset and English Language Performance Among Chinese EFL University Students: The Mediating Roles of Grit and Foreign Language Enjoyment

“…Today in China, English as Foreign Language (EFL) is taught as a core subject at almost all levels of schools, including primary schools, high schools, and institutions of higher learning. Furthermore, English language performance (ELP) is viewed as one of the most important considerations in university admissions and job applications in China (Liu and Wang, 2021 ). Set against this significant prominence of English language acquisition, it has become a subject of much interest among researchers in China seeking to explore various influencing factors that have an impact on the EFL university students' ELP.…”