Neural pathways of attitudes toward foreign languages predict academic performance

Abstract

Learning attitude is thought to impact students’ academic achievement and success, but the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of learning attitudes remain unclear. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the neural markers linked to attitudes toward foreign languages and how they contribute to foreign-language performance. Forty-one Chinese speakers who hold differentiated foreign language (English) attitudes were asked to complete an English semantic judgment task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Multimethod brain imaging analyses showed that, compared with the positive attitude group (PAG), the negative attitude group (NAG) showed increased brain activation in the left STG and functional connectivity between the left STG and the right precentral gyrus (PCG), as well as changed functional segregation and integration of brain networks under the English reading task, after controlling for English reading scores. Mediation analysis further revealed that left STG activity and STG-PCG connectivity mediated the relationships between English attitudes and English reading performance. Taken together, these findings suggest that objective neural markers related to subjective foreign language attitudes (FLAs) exist and that attitude-related neural pathways play important roles in determining students’ academic performance. Our findings provide new insights into the neurobiological mechanisms by which attitudes regulate academic performance.