Investigating the Relationship between Emotional Well-being and Grit as Predictors of Saudi EFL Female Students’ Foreign Language Achievement

Abstract

Research into language learning psychology has shown that personality and psychological traits have influenced learners’ academic outcomes. Nevertheless, the literature contains very little research into the positive psychology of language learners and positive constructs such as grit and well-being. Consequently, this study aimed to examine how the psychological factors of well-being and grit impact the academic achievement of foreign language Saudi female learners concerning their age. Thus, this study attempted to determine the possible statistical relationships between grit, emotional well-being, and foreign language achievement for Saudi female EFL learners. To answer this central research question, the data were obtained via an online survey of 84 Saudi EFL female college-level students. Pearson correlational tests and hierarchical regression tests were used for statistical analyses. The findings revealed that: (1) grit had a positive and significant correlation with well-being levels; 2) grit (perseverance of effort-POE) had a significant and positive relationship with well-being; (3) well-being and grit were significant predictors of participants’ academic achievement, and (4) older EFL learners had higher grit levels than their younger peers. The results imply that understanding the positive psychology of language learners contributes to helping them to achieve academic success. Based on these findings, several pedagogical implications were suggested

Psychological wellbeing in Chinese university students: insights into the influences of academic self-concept, teacher support, and student engagement

“…According to Renshaw et al (2015) , student wellbeing is embedded in four main facets, including sense of connectedness, sense of efficacy, educational goal, and preference of studying. There is a general consensus among researchers that student wellbeing can be significantly conducive to learners’ academic outcomes in the classroom ( Soutter et al, 2014 ; Siddiqui, 2015 ; Yang, 2021 ; Alqarni, 2022 ). Granted that prior studies have attached much importance to the critical role of student wellbeing in academic achievement, a number of sources of cognitive and psychological sources as antecedents of psychological wellbeing have been identified.…”