Abstract:This study investigates pupils' anxiety and enjoyment in the classroom when learning a second or foreign language. The particularity of this study lies in the comparison of two target languages (English and Dutch) in two educational contexts (CLIL and non-CLIL) at different instruction levels (primary and secondary education). While most research on content and language integrated learning (CLIL) focuses on English as a target language, the Belgian context calls for a comparison with the language of the "other… Show more
“…Additionally, in the present study, in a negative CE, the impact of grit on FLE was not significant. Previous studies have found that students’ academic emotion is largely influenced by the CE; for instance, in a negative CE, even students with a high level of grit cannot enjoy their studies (De Smet et al, 2018).…”
Objective
This study aims to examine the effect of grit on foreign language performance (FLP) among middle school students. A mediated moderation model was constructed to assess the mediating role of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and the moderating role of classroom environment (CE) in the relationship between grit and FLP.
Methods
The study adopted the Grit Scale-Short Version, the Chinese Version of the FLE Scale, and the English CE Inventory to investigate 832 middle school students, and recorded the students’ FLP in their final exam after 1 month. Correlation and regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationships between grit, FLE, CE, and FLP.
Results
The results indicated that grit positively affected FLP. In addition, FLE mediated the relationship between grit and FLP, and CE moderated the relationship between grit and FLE, and between grit and FLP.
Conclusion
Grit not only directly promotes the FLP of middle school students but also indirectly improves FLP by promoting FLE. In addition, the impact of grit on FLE and FLP increases in a positive CE.
“…Additionally, in the present study, in a negative CE, the impact of grit on FLE was not significant. Previous studies have found that students’ academic emotion is largely influenced by the CE; for instance, in a negative CE, even students with a high level of grit cannot enjoy their studies (De Smet et al, 2018).…”
Objective
This study aims to examine the effect of grit on foreign language performance (FLP) among middle school students. A mediated moderation model was constructed to assess the mediating role of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and the moderating role of classroom environment (CE) in the relationship between grit and FLP.
Methods
The study adopted the Grit Scale-Short Version, the Chinese Version of the FLE Scale, and the English CE Inventory to investigate 832 middle school students, and recorded the students’ FLP in their final exam after 1 month. Correlation and regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationships between grit, FLE, CE, and FLP.
Results
The results indicated that grit positively affected FLP. In addition, FLE mediated the relationship between grit and FLP, and CE moderated the relationship between grit and FLE, and between grit and FLP.
Conclusion
Grit not only directly promotes the FLP of middle school students but also indirectly improves FLP by promoting FLE. In addition, the impact of grit on FLE and FLP increases in a positive CE.
“…The influence of political and historical context and the effect of the target language were at the heart of the investigation of De Smet et al (2018) on the FLE and FLCA of 896 Belgian francophone primary and secondary school pupils. They compared two target languages (English and Dutch) in two different types of school in francophone parts of Belgium.…”
Section: Positive Psychology In Applied Linguisticsmentioning
The present contribution offers an overview of a new area of research in the field of foreign language acquisition, which was triggered by the introduction of Positive Psychology (PP) (MacIntyre and Gregersen, 2012). For many years, a cognitive perspective had dominated research in applied linguistics. Around the turn of the millennium researchers became increasingly interested in the role of emotions in foreign language learning and teaching, beyond established concepts like foreign language anxiety and constructs like motivation and attitudes toward the foreign language. As a result, a more nuanced understanding of the role of positive and negative learner and teacher emotions emerged, underpinned by solid empirical research using a wide range of epistemological and methodological approaches. PP interventions have been carried out in schools and universities to strengthen learners and teachers’ experiences of flow, hope, courage, well-being, optimism, creativity, happiness, grit, resilience, strengths, and laughter with the aim of enhancing learners’ linguistic progress. This paper distinguishes the early period in the field that started with MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012), like a snowdrop after winter, and that was followed by a number of early studies in relatively peripheral journals. We argue that 2016 is the starting point of the current period, characterized by gradual recognition in applied linguistics, growing popularity of PP, and an exponential increase in publications in more mainstream journals. This second period could be compared to a luxuriant English garden in full bloom.
“…It depends on interactions with peers, teachers, classroom activities and is influenced by a more general societal, historical and political context (Dewaele and MacIntyre 2014). Learners have been found to experience more negative emotions and less enjoyment in classes where the FL was associated with a community with which political relations were strained (De Smet al 2018). Enjoyment is also a strong predictor of willingness to communicate (WTC) in the FL class (Dewaele 2019b;Khajavy et al 2018).…”
Section: Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) have been found to have complex dynamic relationships with both learner-internal and contextual variables (Dewaele and Dewaele 2017; Dewaele and MacIntyre 2014, 2016Karci, Özdemir and Balta 2018) and play an important part in learners' Willingness to Communicate in the Foreign Language (FL) and in their performance in the FL . Relationships have been found to be broadly similar in FL classes in different parts of the world, including Belgium (De Smet et al 2018), China (Jin and Zhang 2018, Li 2018Li, Jiang and Dewaele 2018;Li, Dewaele and Jiang, 2019); Iran (Shirvan and Taherian 2018; Shirvan and Talebzadeh 2018); Japan (Saito et al 2018); Poland (Piechurska-Kuciel 2017), Saudi Arabia (Dewaele and Alfawzan 2018), Spain (Dewaele, Magdalena Franco and Saito 2019) and the United Kingdom (Dewaele and Dewaele 2017;Dewaele, Witney, Saito and Dewaele 2018). Most of these studies focused on English as a FL.…”
The present study focuses on foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) of 592 learners of Turkish as a foreign language (FL) in Kazakhstan. Mean levels of FLE and FLCA were found to be similar to previous studies in different settings with different target languages. In contrast with previous literature, a weak positive correlation was found between FLE and FLCA and the gender effect went in the opposite direction, with male participants reporting more FLCA than female participants. Multiple regression analyses revealed that FLE and FLCA were more strongly predicted by learners’ attitude toward Turkish and teacher-related variables than by learner-internal variables, confirming previous research outside Kazakhstan. Attitude toward the FL, teacher’s friendliness, strictness and frequency of use of the FL, attitude toward the teacher, participant’s age and FL exam result explained a total of 25% of variance in FLE. Differing slightly from previous studies, FLCA was found to be only weakly predicted (6% of variance) by some learner-internal variables (FL exam result, attitude toward the FL) as well as teacher-centred variables (friendliness, strictness). The findings suggest that variation in FLE and FLCA among Kazakh learners of Turkish is quite similar to that established in other contexts.
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