Mindsets Matter for Linguistic Minority Students: Growth Mindsets Foster Greater Perceived Proficiency, Especially for Newcomers

Abstract

Growth language mindsets (i.e., beliefs that language ability can be improved) are found to sustain learners' motivation and resilience in challenging situations. Considering that migrants who are speakers of languages other than the dominant ones often face challenging daily communications, we examined important but understudied questions of 'how' and 'when' growth language mindsets predict migrants' language experiences, including language anxiety, language use, and perceived English proficiency. In 3 studies, we surveyed 2,163 foreign-born university students in Canada who indicated English as their second language. We found that growth language mindsets positively predicted self-assessed English proficiency, even 4 months after the initial assessment of mindsets. Answering 'how,' we found that migrants with stronger growth mindsets were less anxious, were more likely to use English, and reported higher proficiency, even after accounting for baseline proficiency. Concerning 'when,' we found that mindsets have significant and moderate association with language use, anxiety, and perceived proficiency for only more recently arrived students (who lived in the receiving country for less than 7 years). Although newly arrived migrants are more anxious about using English and less likely to use English, they are resilient when they envision growth in their new language. Growth mindsets may help English as a second language (ESL) students thrive in intercultural communication and succeed in language development.

From Demotivation to Remotivation: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

“…Contributing to the recent developing interest among language learning researchers in LLM (e.g., Lou & Noels, 2017, 2019, 2020), our findings suggest that LLM plays a significant role within demotivation and remotivation. Possessing a fixed LLM leads to avoiding challenges and setting lower goals, thus risking becoming demotivated over time (Mercer, 2011).…”

“…Our results may also help explain why learners with a growth LLM in Lou and Noels (2020) reported less anxiety, more language use, and higher perceived proficiency, even after controlling baseline proficiency. Low oral proficiency, on its own, is not necessarily viewed as a demotivating factor.…”

“…Within language learning, Mercer (2011) similarly argued that possessing a fixed language learning mindset (LLM) leads the learner to avoid challenges and to set lower goals, thus risking becoming demotivated over time (see also Lou & Noels, 2017. Along the same lines, research by Lou and Noels (2020) additionally showed that migrants with a growth LLM reported less anxiety, more language use, and higher proficiency, even after controlling baseline proficiency.…”

The Relationship Between Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Enjoyment, and Expectancy-Value Motivation and Their Predictive Effects on Chinese High School Students’ Self-Rated Foreign Language Proficiency

“…Despite such inconsistency, with FLCAS and other later developed skill-specific FLA measurements, a large volume of studies has replicated the result that FLA overall is negatively correlated with language learners’ FL learning outcomes and that FLA may negatively predict FL proficiency (e.g., Aida, 1994 ; Horwitz, 2001 ; Liu and Jackson, 2008 ; Zhang, 2019 ). In addition to this, FLA was also found to be associated with an array of learner inter/external variables in FL learning, such as learners’ age, gender, mindset, motivation, self-efficacy, learning strategy use, and teacher characteristics (e.g., Ewald, 2007 ; Dewaele et al, 2017 , 2019b ; Jiang and Dewaele, 2019 ; Lou and Noels, 2020 ). Examination of the interaction between FLA and these variables has sent the FLA research into a Dynamic Approach period ( MacIntyre, 2017 ).…”

“…Foreign language (FL) learning is a demanding task requiring sustained dedication, resilience, and perseverance ( Lou and Noels, 2020 ). Crucial to behavioral maintenance in FL learning, motivation has been long considered an indispensable contributor to FL learning success irrespective of learners’ aptitude, L1s (first languages), and FLs being learned ( Dörnyei, 2008 ; Loh, 2019 ).…”