Language learning grit, achievement, and anxiety among L2 and L3 learners in Russia

Abstract

Abstract Although most research into grit – an individual difference that encompasses perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals – has taken a domain-general perspective (e.g., Duckworth et al., 2007), emerging interest in a domain-specific approach to grit (e.g., Clark & Malecki, 2019) provides the groundwork for research into language learning grit. Expanding upon this nascent line of research (e.g., Teimouri, Plonsky, & Tabandeh, in press), this exploratory study supports a two-dimensional factor structure of language learning grit and, given the superior criterion validity of the perseverance of effort (PE) grit subscale comparable to foreign language anxiety with regard to second (L2) and third (L3) language achievement and self-rated proficiency among 153 Russian undergraduates, a reconceptualization of – and further research into – grit as a language-domain-specific construct in second language acquisition (SLA).