An investigation into FL children’s classroom emotions and their concurrent and longitudinal relationships with grit and growth mindset

Abstract

Abstract The recent decade has seen an increase in attention and an upsurge in studies about emotions in the field of L2/FL teaching and learning. To expand our understanding, this study set out to investigate how young learners’ boredom and enjoyment were related, concurrently and longitudinally, to grit and growth mindsets through the lens of broaden-and-build theory. Ninety-eight primary-school EFL learners in Hong Kong participated in this longitudinal study. The findings show that all variables under investigation were intercorrelated moderately to strongly. Remarkably, the two emotions predicted around 30% to 50% of the variance in grit and growth mindsets. However, closer scrutiny via multiple regressions revealed that enjoyment was the only significant predictor of perseverance of effort (a component of grit) and growth mindsets while boredom was the only significant predictor of consistency of interest (another component of grit). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.