The role of English as a foreign language learners’ grit and foreign language anxiety in their willingness to communicate: Theoretical perspectives

Abstract

Learners’ willingness to communicate in a foreign language is regarded as a critical issue in educational contexts, so the role of emotional factors in learners’ willingness to communicate has drawn the attention of investigators. This review investigated the studies on the relationship between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ grit, foreign language anxiety, and willingness to communicate. This review showed a significant relationship between learners’ grit and willingness to communicate. The earlier studies showed that gritty learners with incessant inspiring efforts are more likely to communicate in a foreign language. This review also indicated that lower anxious learners tend to have more willingness to communicate. Earlier studies also indicated that the theories, such as broaden-and-build, positive psychology, dynamic system, affective filter, and attentional control can justify the relationships between these constructs. Moreover, the study has some pedagogical implications and suggestions for teachers, learners, syllabus designers, material developers, teacher educators, policy-makers, and advisors. The ideas can improve their awareness of teachers’ willingness to communicate, grit, and foreign language anxiety in educational environments.

L2 grit and pragmatic comprehension among Chinese postgraduate learners: Enjoyment and anxiety as mediators

“…The PE and CI of L2 grit were both positively related to enjoyment but negatively associated with anxiety, echoing previous studies (e.g., Teimouri et al, 2020;Wang, 2023;Wei et al, 2020). Enjoyment was also found to be significantly and negatively related to anxiety, which was in line with previous research (e.g., Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014;Liu & Wang, 2021).…”

“…Drawing upon the generalizations from previous studies and following the prior practice by Wang (2023), this study therefore proposed the complete hypothesized model and satisfied the special call for integrating L2 grit with positive and negative emotions, thereby advancing the field of positive psychology to the domain of L2 pragmatics, as indicated in Figure 1.…”

“…Some researchers have tended to apply the one-factor grit scale to L2 competence or communicative willingness (e.g., Lee & Hsieh 2019;Liu & Wang, 2021;Wei et al, 2019), while more recently, others have critically criticized this practice and instead examined the effects of its two subscales at the learner level (e.g., Lee, 2020;Li & Yang, 2023;Wang, 2023;Zhao & Wang 2023). Hence, the two-factor scale of L2 grit will be initially examined and then employed in the present study.…”

“…Furthermore, foreign language enjoyment and/or anxiety could mediate the interplay of grit and L2 achievement (Liu & Wang, 2021;Wei et al, 2019;Zhao & Wang, 2023) or the interaction between L2 grit and L2 willingness to communicate (Wang, 2023). To be specific, Zhao and Wang (2023) adopted the structural equation modeling (SEM)…”

“…Thus, these two emotional variables are concurrently examined in this study. The mediating roles of L2 positive and negative emotions have also been detected between grit and L2 acquisition (e.g., Liu & Wang, 2021;Wei et al, 2019;Zhou & Wang, 2023) among Chinese secondary, senior high school, and university learners and between L2 grit and willingness to communicate among Chinese English major bachelors (Wang, 2023). Again, the higher education level under the Chinese postgraduate context is less mentioned and thus much needed.…”